Brother who was ‘better than Wally Lewis’ rescues discarded league memorabilia

Wally Lewis may be better known for his Queensland Origin heroics, but his mum and dad reckon brother Eddie was a better footballer. Now Eddie is helping to keep league history alive.

The two Lewis brothers took widely divergent paths through life, but football and family will always ensure Wally and Eddie are never far apart.

State of Orign legend Wally Lewis may be considered the greatest rugby league player of all time.

But Eddie, the lesser known Lewis, is believed by those who know him best to have once been the more talented player.

And Eddie’s passion for the game has not dimmed in the 43 years since he last ran on to the field.

That devotion was never more evident than in the clean-up after the February floods.

Eddie, now just a month short of his 60th birthday, was working as a traffic controller near Suncorp Stadium during the flood aftermath in early March.

He spotted some rugby league memorabilia being discarded outside what was once known as Lang Park, where a statue of brother Wally holds pride of place.

Wally Lewis in action for Queensland during a 1986 State of Origin clash.

Even though the memorabilia was damaged by floodwater, Eddie saw the historic value in it and decided to rescue it for posterity.

“It was tainted by flood water and it was all supposed to be dumped, but I thought it was all pretty valuable,’’ he says.

“There’s a few old trophies and even a match program dating back to the 1920s that my mum has got and is going to try and restore. It’s all part of history.’’

Eddie has some history of his own and, as painful as it’s been, he’s managed to transcend it, demonstrating the perseverance and endurance of the great Australian battler.

Nine days before Christmas 1979, the hugely talented 17-year-old league player who had played with the firsts rugby union team at Brisbane State High School, was involved in a horror road crash on Chambers Flat Rd on the way home from the Gold Coast.

A drunk driver ran into him and his two mates as the trio were going back to Brisbane in his little Hillman Hunter.

Eddie Lewis, brother of Wally Lewis, with items salvaged from Suncorp Stadium after the Brisbane floods in February. Picture: Richard Walker

His injuries were too numerous to catalogue but, among other things, he suffered a fractured skull, depressed cheekbone, a broken jaw in seven places, five broken ribs, two collapsed lungs, a broken back, a broken pelvis and a broken left leg in three places.

The mates, Garry Bridge, 15, and Peter Privitera, 17, died as a result of the crash, as did Eddie – several times.

He was brought back to life through the efforts of a nurse at the scene who performed emergency surgery and opened up his airways before he was rushed to hospital in a coma.

Wally, who documents the drama in his autobiography, flew back from overseas to be by his brother’s side in a gesture Eddie says he well remembers, even though he was officially unconscious.

”There were going to be Christmas drinks at the Gold Coast Surf Club and Wally was holding my hand and talking to me, saying I should come along and have a few beers,” he says.

“I wasn’t responding, but then he suggested we have a rum and Coke and I squeezed his hand, and that was when the family knew I was going to get better.

“Funny that – I don’t even like rum and Coke.’’

This Kangaroos tour photograph featuring captain Wally Lewis was one of the water-tainted items his brother Eddie salvaged from Lang Park after the Brisbane floods. Picture: Richard Walker

The next four decades have not been easy for Eddie, with no chance of ever running back on to the rugby league paddock because of his injuries.

His job as a first-year apprentice panel beater and spray painter with a Gold Coast auto business was also no longer an option.

“I couldn’t go back to spray painting because my lungs were damaged and I couldn’t play football because of the head injuries,’’ he says.

“It was tough – Mum and Dad will still say I was better than Wally at rugby league.’’

Wally himself acknowledges Eddie’s extraordinary skills on the footy field.

In his autobiography Mt Life, Wally says their father, Jim, a talented footballer himself, rated Eddie as “the best of the Lewis footballers’’.

But Eddie has kept up with the game, offering his services as a referee during celebrity fun matches, doing a bit of coaching and keeping the history of the game alive.

He also keeps himself lucratively employed as a traffic controller, putting in long hours to maintain a good annual salary, and he’s even written a book about his life that he hopes to publish online.

The aftermath of the horror crash that injured rugby union player Eddie Lewis, brother of Wally, in December 1979.

There’s no bitterness about the turn his life took, but as Eddie gets older, he often ponders what might have been.

“I was in the firsts (rugby union team) at school but I always saw my future with rugby league,’’ he says.

He was a hooker, playing for Valleys when the crash occurred and still remembers league’s “greats’’.

Artie Beetson, the powerful prop who rivals Wally for legendary status among the game’s older Queensland fans, was going to testify in a court case regarding his estimated lost earnings but the matter was settled before the case went ahead.

Eddie has also enjoyed watching Wally go on to achieve great things in the game he loves.

And Wally has proven himself a good mate to his brother as the Lewis family keep a close eye on their ageing dad and mum, Jim and June.

“We still talk all the time, phone each other all the time,’’ Eddie says.

“Wally is a great brother.’’