Rod O'Loan

Roderick Charles O'Loan (1915–1992) MBE, CBE was an Australian rugby league footballer for the Eastern Suburbs club in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership. He was also a businessman and a war veteran of distinction.

Rod O'Loan was born in Katoomba, New South Wales, on 26 March 1915 and enjoyed Rugby and Rugby League during his younger years. By the time he was at Sydney University, he excelled at Rugby League and joined the University club as a winger.

O'Loan played for University in 1933 and 1934, scoring twelve tries in twenty-eight games. He then shifted to Easts in 1935 with his university teammate Ross McKinnon and became part of a champion backing with Dave Brown, Fred Tottey and Viv Thicknesse, who broke many scoring record in 1935 with 131 tries in just sixteen regular season matches. O'Loan scored 76 tries in 82 games for the Tricolours before retiring at the end of 1941.

O'Loan participated in four premierships during a stellar career at the Tricolours: 1935, 1936, 1937 and 1940, but chose to never play at representative level due to study and corporate commitments.

His junior sporting career began at Saint Patrick’s College Goulburn, then he moved to the senior school at Waverley College before going onto the University of Sydney. In an article in the Freeman’s Journal of 1931, it was stated that Rod O'Loan was the 1931 junior sprint champion over 100 yards in N.S.W., had won the Botany Junior Sprint title in 1931, was a champion high jumper at 13 years of age and was the holder of many junior swimming records, and he was in the First XI cricket and the First XV Rugby teams at 15 years of age.