H
onoured as a Member of the Wall of Sporting Legends on 10 November 2005
Sam Loxton OBE is the second Australian sporting icon to take his place on the Gold Coast Wall of sporting legends
Born in Melbourne, Victoria on 29th March 1921, Loxton enjoyed an outstanding cricket career spanning 12 tests and 140 first-class matches from 1946 to 1958. He first played for Victoria in 1946-47, scoring a massive 232 not out against Queensland on debut.
World War II interrupted the careers of many cricketers, including Loxton who at the age of 26 made his test debut against India in the 1947-1948 season as part of Bradman’s legendary team -The Invincibles. On that historic tour, Loxton scored 973 runs at an average of 57.23 and as a bowler took 32 wickets.
Modern cricket teams are invariably measured against the 20th Australian team that toured England undefeated under the captaincy of the great Sir Donald Bradman, but there is little doubt the 1948 team that Loxton was a part of was the greatest ever to represent Australia.
A gutsy, square-jawed right-hand batsman who liked nothing more than having fast bowlers try to blast him out with short pitched bowling,he made his only test hundred against South Africa at Johannesburg in the 1949-1950 season.
Loxton was a fast-medium right-arm bowler renowned for his ability to move the ball through the air.
Arguably the best all-round sportsmen of his era, Loxton also played 41 games with the VFL team St Kilda from 1942-1946.
As a footballer Loxton shone on the forward line, heading the Saints goal kicking in 1944 with 52 goals. In that year he also ran second in the club’s Best and Fairest.
In Jack Pollard's book ‘Australian Cricket, The Game and the Players’ Loxton is described as a popular genial, belligerent Victorian all-rounder whose all out aggression more than compensated for his lack of style – a born swashbuckler who loudly threatened to hit bowlers who bounced the ball at him over the fence.
After playing his last test match during the 1950-51 Ashes series in Sydney, Loxton went on to serve as a Liberal Member of Parliament. He served as the Liberal Party whip in the Bolte and Hamer governments and was the MLA for Prahran for a quarter of a century.
Loxton was an Australian Test selector between 1970 and 1981, before retiring on the Gold Coast. Here he umpired cricket in the local Gold Coast competition during the 1990’s and has been a mentor to literally hundreds of up and coming young players.
TEST DEBUT - Australia V India at Melbourne, February 6 - 10, 1948
LAST TEST - Australia V England at Sydney, January 5 - 9, 1951
FIRST CLASS SPAN - 1946/47 - 1957/58
