Ken Irvine

Kenneth John Irvine (5 March 1940 – 22 December 1990) was an Australian rugby league footballer of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. He holds the standing Australian record for the most number of tries in a first-grade career – 212. No other player has yet managed 200 tries in their Australian club career, with the closest to Irvine's tally being former Manly-Warringah and Northern Eagles player Steve Menzies who scored 180. He is also the 2nd all-time top try-scorer for the Australian national team with 33, two behind Darren Lockyer's 35. Irvine's great speed is legendary and he is regarded as Australia's greatest ever winger, being named in 2008 in the list of Australian rugby league's 100 greatest players, as well as being an automatic selection for the Australian Rugby League's "Team of the Century".

Irvine played his club football for the North Sydney and Manly-Warringah clubs in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership, winning the premiership with Manly in 1972 and 1973. His great speed saw him play primarily on the Wing.

Born in Cremorne, Sydney, to John Bernard Irvine, a butcher, and his wife Doris May, née McCabe, Irvine attended Marist Brothers College Mosman. Irvine originally excelled in both baseball and sprinting, playing in the New South Wales junior baseball side alongside future New South Wales and Australian team mate Reg Gasnier, while also competitively running for the Randwick-Botany Club. After deciding to attend a trial at Wentworth Park for the North Sydney Bears rugby league club as a 17-year-old, their first grade coach Ross McKinnon stated "sign that kid for life", and Ken was signed and playing for the club the following year.