Royalty in our midst: How Wally Lewis became the Emperor of Lang Park
- FOGS
- Oct 10
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 19
Wally Lewis had several titles of grandeur bestowed upon him in his pomp but none more fitting than “The Emperor of Lang Park”.
That enduring tag sums up his domination of a ground that became the rugby league Immortal’s own field of dreams. For his opponents, Lang Park was a graveyard in which Queensland’s greatest Origin player buried them.
Just ask NSW.
Lang Park was not just a footy field for the man universally known as “The King”. It was his home away from home.
It’s why a memorable advertisement for Queensland’s favourite beer, XXXX, was commissioned in the 1980s.
The ad’s jingle and lyrics could be recited by young and old across the state, particularly the opening lines:
Here’s to Wally Lewis, for lacing on a boot
Sometimes he plays it rugged, sometimes he plays it cute
He slices through a backline like a Stradbroke Island shark
There’s glue on all his fingers, he’s the Emperor of Lang Park
Home away from home
The King’s first game at the venue is still crystal clear in the memory.
“My first game at Lang Park was for Cannon Hill State School in the four-stone grand final against Stafford State School,” Lewis recalled.
“We beat them 3-2. I played second-row. I remember looking at the program one day and I was No.9. That was a second-rower in those days.
“As a little boy I used to come here every second weekend to see the grandparents. My dad (Jim) coached teams at Lang Park in first, reserve and third grade. He started off at Wynnum and then coached me at Valleys.”
The Senator comes good
Lewis looks back at the contract he signed to do the XXXX advertisement as a “reward” and a “safety payment” after years of staying loyal to the BRL competition, at the urging of QRL supremo Ron McAuliffe, and not moving to the NSWRL.
“That’s how the XXXX ad really started. I got to meet the guy who wrote it and he asked a lot of questions about footy,” Lewis said.
“When they showed me the finished ad I thought, ‘how good is that?’
“McAuliffe liked (The Emperor of Lang Park) reference. He’d also called me ‘The High Priest of the Spectacular’ in a press conference.
“It was around the same time he was looking to get a contract signed with me … again. I said I’ve had some wonderful times here in Queensland but it was just a pity I had to take up a contract with a Sydney club. Ron nearly fell over.”
Lewis was joking, but it wasn’t long before a move to Sydney was no joke.
The late former senator knew full well that Lewis had been underpaid at Valleys and Wynnum-Manly and pulled out all stops to keep Lewis in Brisbane and not “lose” him to Sydney. The most famous occasion was when the QRL “matched” a lucrative offer by Manly, but not the extra offer by Kerry Packer who was behind the attempted coup, to sign Lewis and his great mate Gene Miles ahead of the 1987 season.
“Ron basically said to me that we couldn’t afford to lose any more players to Sydney and there were a whole host of them,” Lewis recalled.
Emotion charged Lang Park finale
By the time the 1991 State of Origin series decider rolled around Lewis had established himself as the greatest Maroon of all time and one of the best in the game to ever to lace a boot. He said goodbye to the Origin arena after his 31st and last game as a Maroon, a narrow 14-12 win at Lang Park full of emotion.
“I didn’t want it to be my last game for Queensland but (former wife) Jacqui and I found out our daughter Jamie-Lee was profoundly deaf on the day of the game,” Lewis recalled.
“He said, ‘it is good you told me because I would have told you. Family is the most important thing in your life’.
“He told me to go and toss and take my time coming back. When I came back one of the managers, Keith Welsh, put his hand up and said, ‘Tosser is not finished yet’. I smiled at him and waited until he said I could come in. I did and there was total silence.
“All the blokes were looking at me and then they all said, ‘this one is for you’, ‘this one is for your daughter’.
“At the end of the game they put a message up on the scoreboard to say it was my last and the crowd went nuts. They were enormously supportive and we hung on to win. Then I got up to make up a speech, held the shield and said goodbye.”
One Immortal to another
There had been so many memories, enough to fill a book.
The inaugural Origin match in 1980 at Lang Park was memorable, not just for the 20-10 win but for the advice of the great Arthur Beetson.
“As we were about to run out Arthur said, ‘I haven’t seen a lot of you play but everything I’ve heard about you is what we want. You have obviously got the ability and you are with a group of blokes that won’t let you down. Just use the skill you have got’. I just nodded my head.”
Lewis took on board Beetson’s advice, and then some.
His kicking game at Lang Park was immaculate, almost like he had a remote control for the ball in his pocket.
“In those days people didn’t realise the centre of the ground was higher. To have a good kicking game there was pretty easy because you could kick and the ball would roll down to the corners. The dead centre of the halfway line was a few foot higher than the sideline.
“It was my home, Lang Park. I probably got to play on it more than anyone else. It was the place to be and the ground I could rely upon.
“It was easy to get to know it backwards. If we were doing it tough in an Origin game I would say to the guys, ‘we are going to kick the ball out and let it go in front of the can bar. It might be time to upset the locals there and get them behind us’. I used to tell Fatty (Paul Vautin) to bung on a brawl and they would start throwing cans at NSW left, right and centre.”
The Emperor reigns supreme
There is a photo of Lewis from his playing days when he was in the QRL office doing some work for them on the side in his office. Emblazoned across the front are the words ‘The Emperor strikes back’ and an image of him with a crown.
“I copped it from the players,” Lewis grinned.
“Ray Price gave me a bit of a spray once and said, ‘fair dinkum he thinks he’s the King’. After that all the boys would say, ‘King, what’s happening King?’ Then later on they would say things like ‘come on Emperor’.
As for Lang Park, it became the place Lewis had always imagined it might as a youth.
“Every second or third weekend when my father was coaching we’d watch his teams play at Lang Park,” he recalled.
“As well as that we used to go over there, my brothers and I, when we were visiting the grandparents.
“We’d jump the fence and kick the footy around. In those days you could just run around at will. I always had the dream of running around that great ground as an adult. I’m glad I got to fulfil that dream.”
