Tanya Yow Yeh has rekindled memories of her father Kevin, who played for Balmain and Dolphins

The Dolphins meeting with the Wests Tigers has revived a 50-year link to one of the most interesting and enigmatic characters in Queensland rugby league history, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

Dolphins and Balmain rugby league legend Kevin Yow Yeh.

It’s not easy for someone to stand out in a list of 27,000 club members but there’s some names you just never forget.

And Yow Yeh is one of them.

Dolphins officials were fascinated to see the name Tania Yow Yeh bob up in their ­memberships because it rekindled their link to one of the most interesting and enigmatic characters in Queensland rugby league history – her father, Kevin.

The short story about Kevin Yow Yeh is that he shone as a fleet-footed centre in the Dolphins 1965 Brisbane grand final winning side, moved to Balmain with his mate Arthur Beetson next year, stayed just two seasons because he found Sydney life abrasive, returned to the Dolphins for a while and later collapsed and died aged 34 of a purported heart attack in a Mackay watch house on June 27, 1975.

The long story – studded with dramatic playing highlights and the chastening racial abuse which was a sad norm for the era – is one only the man himself would have been able to tell.

Tania, who lives on Bribie Island, is the eldest of five siblings born. She was born in Balmain during her father’s brief Sydney stint after the Dolphins were given $2000 to allow him to head south.

When Tania takes her place in her seat near the halfway mark at the Wests Tigers game against the Dolphins at Suncorp on Saturday she will be perhaps the only person in the stadium who cannot lose.

Tania Yow Yeh is the daughter of former Dolphin and Tiger, Kevin Yow Yeh.

Out of deference to her father, whose great nephew Jharal played for the Broncos, Tania supports both teams.

By coincidence, she works for Dolphins sponsor Budget Direct and can be seen walking in the background of their latest television commercial.

“I am a Wests Tigers supporter but because I don’t get to see them I support the Dolphins as well,’’ Tania said. “On Saturday I will wear a jersey for one of the teams and a hat for the other one. I like the fact my father’s name keeps coming up in footy. He has been gone for a lot of years now. I like it you can walk into the Redcliffe Leagues club and see his photo behind the glass.’’

Tanya, herself a junior rugby league coach, does not dwell on the rugged challenges her father faced but is aware it wasn’t an easy ride.

“Back in that day was very different from today. There is a lot of support for players these days. I didn’t know about a lot of the stuff.

“Even though Uncle Artie has passed on now he told me a few stories as well. It would have been much harder in those days compared to now.’’

Former Broncos flyer Jharal Yow Yeh. Picture: Darren England

Kevin Yow Yeh playing for Balmain in 1966.

Beetson had great fondness for Yow Yeh and it saddened him to witness the racial abuse that would make Yow Yeh an angry man and drove him to drink.

“He couldn’t live with the white man, a hatred inspired by the attitudes of some,’’ Beetson wrote. “It virtually killed him” Beetson was always suspicious about Yow Yeh’s death.

“People who knew him, who knew the strength of his heart and power of the bloke, couldn’t believe he died of a heart attack.”

However Goodna historian Lyle Reed shed light on the issue in his book Inquest ­released a decade ago.

Reed revealed former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal aid officer Tony Irelandes’s claims that Yow Yeh died in front of him due to a severe heart attack.

“Kevin walked towards us and he just went up on his toes, and then hit his head on the gate of the watch house and the wall,’’ Irelandes later told The Queensland Times.

“We waited there and the ambulance and doctors came and they said, ‘This man has had a severe heart attack’.”

Originally published as Tanya Yow Yeh has rekindled memories of her father Kevin, who played for Balmain and Dolphins