Rugby league legends Arthur Summons and Norm Provan’s enduring friendship
THEY have been friends for 55 years and Arthur Summons and Norm Provan’s mateship is still as strong as ever. David Riccio reveals exclusively the impact Provan being named an immortal had on Summons.
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THIS is a story of enduring mateship and a bond thicker than mud. Like twins separated at birth, distance is all that divides rugby league’s most recognisable pair, Arthur Summons and Norm Provan.
It’s been 55 years since Summons, the former Western Suburbs halfback, and Provan, the towering St George Dragons forward, were famously photographed holding each other in triumph and defeat following the 1963 grand final on a muddied Sydney Cricket Ground.
Yet their hearts still beat as one.
Earlier this month, Summons was lying in a hospital bed at Sydney’s St Vincents Hospital.
The rugby league world will be shocked to learn for the first time that the legendary 82-year-old was recently required to undergo six hours of major surgery after having cancers removed from his jaw, lips and mouth.
After a fortnight in hospital, Summons is said to be recovering well and is bound for his home of Wagga, hopefully this weekend.
However, in preparation for the biggest operation of his life, Summons was required to spend two days beforehand in hospital.
It meant that Summons was there on August 1 — the night his close mate Provan was finally inducted as an immortal of the game.
The cheeky halfback watched the entire Fox Sports broadcast of the Immortal gala dinner on a little television at the end of his bed.
His eyes glistened and he smiled inside his ward when Provan’s name was finally acknowledged as one of the greatest rugby league players of all-time.
Summons sent Provan’s daughter Sue McLeod a text message that said: “Congratulations, this is wonderful.”
As he watched the telecast, Summons’ heart skipped a beat. Literally.
Such was the rush of excitement which Provan’s immortal moment had on Summons, it provoked an immediate spike in his heart rate on the ECG machine attached to his chest.
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The bond and their spiritual connection had charged Summons with an energy that doctors couldn’t control, leaving them no alternative but to postpone surgery until his heart rate had returned to normal.
“He was watching it on TV and he got a bit excited that Norm had finally become an Immortal,’’ Summons’ son David told The Sunday Telegraph.
“Although Norm lives on the Sunshine Coast and dad in Wagga, they have a very strong relationship.
“And so all that history together I guess, showed up on his ECG. The doctors wouldn’t conduct the surgery after that. They wanted to be sure his heart was strong for the operation, so they made sure by running tests until the following Tuesday. They found his heart was perfectly strong.”
A non-smoker who enjoys only a small glass of wine at dinner, Summons and his family didn’t see the diagnosis of mouth cancer coming.
“It began with some white plaque across the back of his mouth and his tongue two or three years ago,” David said.
“He’d go and have it looked at every six months by a specialist, but then on his most recent visit he had a cold sore on his lip which the specialist suggested we get checked out.
“They did some tests and found cancer cells in his mouth.”
David said the doctors believe Summons — who worked in the early 1980s as the secretary manager of the Wagga Leagues club and ran two other pubs in Wagga — may have contracted the cells through passive smoking.
“The doctors have tested all his lymph glands and it (cancer) hasn’t spread or gone anywhere else, so we’re lucky they’ve got it in its very early stages,” David said.
“He’s eager to get home. He’ll message his old mate, I’m sure.”