Arthur John Michael "Mackker" McCabe (23 June 1887 – 30 July 1924) was an Australian

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

and pioneer professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer. He represented for Australian in

at the

1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were originally schedu ...

Rugby union career

A brilliant fly-half, Mackker McCabe was a member of the Australian rugby union team, which won the gold medal, with McCabe scoring two tries in the gold medal victory. While he toured the US and England with the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

in the lead-up tour prior to the Olympics, his gold medal match was his sole Australian representative appearance.

Rugby league career

On his return to Australia, he joined the fledgling code of

along with 13 of his Olympic teammates. He played for five seasons with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, finishing his career with a premiership win in 1914. Despite representing for

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in rugby league in 1910 he was unsuccessful in his bid to become a dual-code rugby international. For the season

1910 Events January * January 6 – Abé people in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire rise against the colonial administration; the rebellion is brutally suppressed by the military. * January 8 – By the Treaty of Punakha, t ...

, he was the NSW Rugby Football League's top try scorer. He was so highly praised by the press that they dubbed him The Will-O'-The-Wisp, a phrase that became synonymous with McCabe.

Death

Arthur McCabe died suddenly of a heart attack at his home in Morehead Street, Redfern on 30 July 1924, age 37. A large funeral was held for 'Mackker' McCabe and was attended by many ex Wallaby players and South Sydney players. He was buried at

Rookwood Cemetery Rookwood Cemetery (officially named Rookwood Necropolis) is a heritage-listed cemetery in Rookwood, Sydney, Australia. It is the largest necropolis in the Southern Hemisphere and is the world's largest remaining operating cemetery from the ...

on 31 July 1924. The Arrow, Sydney 01/08/1924 "Arthur McCabe's Death" - "Brilliant Wallaby Five-Eighth" (page 10)

Footnotes

References

* Andrews, Malcolm (2006) ''The ABC of Rugby League'', Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney

External links