James Claude Stiff (7 June 1911 – 21 December 1937) was an Australian

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 ...

player. He was also notable as an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er and is a member of the NSW Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Biography

Stiff was born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and educated at Gardeners Road Public School. An all round sportsman, Stiff was a New South Wales Schoolboys representative in cricket and during his immediate post school years was committed to

, playing as a rover for South Sydney. His highlight as an Australian rules footballer came representing New South Wales at the

1933 Sydney Carnival The 1933 Sydney Carnival was the eighth edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian football interstate competition. The carnival was held in Sydney over an eleven-day period between Wednesday 2 August and Saturday 12 ...

, where he claimed the Conder Cup as the tournament's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

player. He switched to rugby league in 1935 to play for the

Rabbitohs The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, also known as the South Sydney Rabbitohs, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). ...

and was primarily utilised at fullback in his three first grade seasons. Stiff died at a hospital in 1937 of injuries sustained when he crashed his motorcycle into a car on Botary Road.

References

External links

Jimmy Stiff
at Rugby League Project {{DEFAULTSORT:Stiff, Jimmy 1911 births 1937 deaths Australian rugby league players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby league fullbacks South Sydney Rabbitohs players Australian rules footballers from New South Wales South Sydney Football Club players Road incident deaths in New South Wales