Vale Sam Backo

The rugby league world was saddened to learn of the recent passing of former Queensland  and Australian prop Sam Backo, at just 64 years of age.

Sam grew up in the small tropical North Qld town of Halifax, 235km south of Cairns and played junior football in the local Herbert River competition before moving to Cairns after leaving school.

While still in his early 20’s he moved to Canberra and played for the Woden Valley club in the local rugby league competition before signing with the Canberra Raiders for the 1983 season, the Club’s second year of existence in the expanded NSW league . The Canberra coach for those early years was none other than former Qld and Australian forward Don Furner , Father of David.

After signing up with the raiders Sam made his first-grade debut  in 1983 and played 7 first grade games that year  before becoming a regular first grader in 1984.

In those days Canberra was still finding their feet as a club and Sam was joined by a host of young players who would go on to become household names in the game, especially in the coaching ranks.

 The club signed Queensland and Australian centre Mal Meninga in 1986 from Brisbane Souths and by 1987 were in their first ever grand final, against Manly who were led by Paul “Fatty” Vautin (some years before he himself became well known as a media personality).

Among Sam’s Canberra team mates in 1987 were current NSW coach Laurie Daley,  former NSW and Australian and current Canberra coach Ricky Stuart, former NSW and Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy, former Qld and now Australian coach Kevin Walters and of course Mal Meninga.

Not to mention several more fellow Queenslanders who like Sam, would go on represent Qld and  Australia: Peter Jackson and Gary Belcher (both who also joined Canberra from Brisbane Souths in 1986 and 1987), Steve Walters, who, later in his career played 2 seasons with the Cowboys and Gary Coyne.

While well known as a club player, Sam became a household name as a representative player in 1988 after making his debut for Qld in the state of origin series,  joining fellow NQ junior Martin Bella in the front row.

A big, mobile prop, “Slammin Sam” and Martin Bella formed a wonderful front row combination for Qld and were a big part of back-to-back origin series wins in 1988-89 with Sam winning the man of the match awards in games 2 and 3 of the series.

On the back of Queensland’s success , he  was selected for Australia to play the 1988 series against Great Britain and again had a memorable debut in the green and gold.

By the end of season 1988 Sam had played 114 first grade games for Canberra and decided to return home to Qld, signing with the Brisbane Broncos who, ironically, were also in their second year of existence as a club in 1989.

Before joining the Broncos , he also played a season with Leeds in the UK,  1988-89, playing 18 games in the era when the English league was played in their winter.

During season 1989 Sam held his place in the Qld and Australian sides, including the Australian tour of NZ,  but at club level injuries  started  to catch up with him and by the end of the 1990 season he had retired from  top level rugby league.

By the time Sam retired he  had played 7 origin games for  Qld and 6 tests for Australia  and his performances for both Qld and Australia had become folklore.  

He was the first Australian forward to score a try in all tests of a series against Great Britian and was also named the Dally M prop of the year in 1988.

 He was also awarded the Australian sports medal in 2000 and named in the Indigenous team of the century in 2001.

A great character he was a proud indigenous Australian and family man.

What may not be widely known was Sam was also approached in 2010 to be the patron of the fledgling German Rugby League and his son Daniel, was a two-time Australian schoolboy rugby league representative.

Sam often lent his time to attend presentation nights for various country clubs and was always full of laughter and sincerity.  He will be greatly missed