Lawrence Robert Morgan (5 February 1915 – 15 August 1997) was an Australian sportsman who is the only person to play

VFL/AFL The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

football and win an Olympic gold medal. He played his

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 ...

with Fitzroy during the late 1930s and won two gold medals in

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

at the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

in Rome. Morgan was born in the country and, as a child, raced horses over tree branches with his friend, fellow Olympic equestrian competitor Bill Roycroft. When he came to Fitzroy in 1937 he played in the same side as the great Haydn Bunton. He spent two further seasons at Fitzroy, both under coach

Gordon Rattray Gordon Kitchener Rattray (19 October 1898 – 10 December 1964) was an Australian rules footballer who played with and coached Fitzroy in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He was the first VFL player to use the torpedo punt. Family The son ...

, before leaving. Morgan returned to the sporting scene in 1960, at the age of 45, when he competed for the Australian equestrian team at the Rome Olympics. Riding his horse 'Salad Days', Morgan won the Gold Medal ahead of countryman

Neale Lavis Neale John Lavis (11 June 1930 – 6 October 2019) was an Australian equestrian and Olympic champion. He won a team gold medal in eventing at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, and a silver medal in individual eventing. He also participated at t ...

in the Individual Three-Day Event to become the first Australian to win an equestrian gold medal. The former VFL player then teamed up with Lavis and Bill Roycroft to win Gold in the Team Event, best remembered for Roycroft's heroics in riding despite suffering concussion and severe injuries from a previous fall. Although the Australian Olympic team consisted of big names like

Herb Elliott Herbert James Elliott (born 25 February 1938) is a former Australian athlete and arguably the world's greatest middle-distance runner of his era. In August 1958 he set the world record in the mile run, clocking 3:54.5, 2.7 seconds under the r ...

Dawn Fraser Dawn Fraser (born 4 September 1937) is an Australian freestyle champion swimmer, eight-time olympic medallist, a 15-year world record holder in the 100-metre freestyle, and former politician. Controversial, yet the winner of countless honours, ...

and

Murray Rose Iain Murray Rose, (6 January 1939 – 15 April 2012) was an Australian swimmer, who swam for the University of Southern California, and worked as an actor, sports commentator and marketing executive. He was a six-time Olympic medalist (four g ...

, Morgan was the only dual gold medalist. Morgan's biography, entitled ''Too Tough To Lose'', was completed by his son Warwick Morgan, himself an accomplished horseman, and published in 2012 by Forty Degrees South Publishing (see External Links).

1937 Best First-Year Players

In September 1937, ''The Argus'' selected Morgan in its team of 1937's first-year players.Football Season's Many Good Recruits, ''The Argus'', (Tuesday, 7 September 1937), p.14.
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References

External links

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Article from the AOC website"Too Tough To Lose - The Story of Laurie Morgan." Biography by Warwick Morgan. Forty Degrees South Publishing, Hobart, Tasmania, 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Lawrence 1915 births 1997 deaths Australian event riders Olympic equestrians for Australia Australian male equestrians Equestrians at the 1960 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Australia Olympic medalists in equestrian Fitzroy Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees 20th-century Australian sportsmen