🐇 Eric Lewis | Rabbitohs Coach #9
Full Name: Eric William Lewis
Born: 20/9/1909 at Mascot (Sydney), NSW
Died: 17/4/1959 at Surry Hills (Sydney), NSW [aged 49]
Club Playing Career: South Sydney 1927-29 and 1932-37 (premiers in 1925-29 and 1932); Galong 1930; Griffith 1931; Canberra 1938
Representative Playing Career: Combined City Seconds 1933; City 1933-34 and 1937; City Probables 1933; City Firsts 1934-37; NSW 1934-37; Australia 1935 and 1937-38 (seven Tests); Sydney 1936; Country Firsts 1938; Southern 1938
Club Coaching Career: South Sydney 1945
Awards and Accolades: Rabbitohs premiership winner 1925-29 and 1932; Kangaroo Tour 1937-38
Lewis was a product of the Christian Brothers Waverley College and played lower grades with Souths between 1927-29, as well as their Presidents Cup side in 1928. He left in 1930 to captain-coach at Galong, approximately 60 kimometres east of Cootamundra. Galong was one of the smallest towns in the Group Nine competition, who didn’t have a large squad to choose from, but they surprised many of their opponents with their style of play. In 1931 he was playing at Griffith, and the following season came back to the Rabbitohs where he finally made his debut in first grade against Easts, in round six.
The talented forward first represented NSW in 1935 and also Australia in two Tests on their tour of New Zealand. He played 58 successive first grade games before being selected on the Australian Tour of New Zealand and Europe in 1937-38, where he played in seven Tests – two against New Zealand, three against Great Britain and two on their ground-breaking tour of France. After coming home from the tour he left the Rabbitohs to captain-coach Canberra, where he was also working as the head man at the Kingston Hotel on Canberra Avenue. Lewis enlisted in the Australian Army between 1942-44 as a Gunner, and while on duty in Papua New Guinea he saw a young unknown former hockey player, Jack Rayner, play on a muddy field at Port Moresby and talked him into trialing with Souths after the war ended.
Upon his return from the war, Lewis stepped in to coach the Rabbitohs in 1945, who were badly disrupted after many of their players left the club to go and fight in the war. The team captain was often named on game day depending on who was available to play, and no wonder with disruptions like that, the Club won only one game during his time as coach.
He was a long-time resident of the Baine family's Dolphin Hotel in Surry Hills and lived there until his death from pneumonia in 1959. His death was widely mourned by many South Sydney fans.
