In a previous issue I mentioned getting my hands on a wonderful collection of Gerringong sporting memorabilia from Athol Noble.

Among this treasure trove was a couple of beautiful meticulously constructed scrapbooks about Paul Quinn’s trip with the Kangaroos in 1963/4.

These were too wonderful to be lost and took them to Michael Cronin, who assured me they would find a good home with his family.

It got me thinking of Paul and how his memory is one to be honoured. The basic facts are there. He played with Gerringong from a young age. He gave sterling service to the club and was a member of the premiership-winning sides of 1956 and 1960.

For Quinn, 1963 was his highlight year, making his Test debut against South Africa. But the cream from that year came later in the season when he became, not just the first Gerringong Rugby League player to represent Australia but he was also chosen in the famous touring side of 1963/4, hence the scrapbook of newspaper articles.

When he returned from the tour a big crowd gathered to welcome home Gerringong’s “gentleman hero”.

Included in the crowd naturally enough, was his entire family. Paul's comment was: “If all the family are here, who’s milking the cows?”

After returning he joined the Newtown side from 1964-67.

Playing representative football is undoubtedly a major moment but rugby league players will tell you a major highlight of their career will be getting a chance to play finals football, better still to participate in a grand final.

Winning a premiership is the “toppermost of the poppermost” to quote John Lennon.

Now in the mid 1960s St George (who joined with Illawarra in 1999) always took one finals place. So it was a fight among the other nine clubs to get the other three places.

In 1966, Paul got the chance to play at the SCG in his one and only semi-final against Manly-Warringah. Not only that, he was captain of the Newtown side.

Now this was a big affair. So big that the Sydney Morning Herald of Saturday August 27 had an article about a contingent of South Coast dairy farmers heading to the big smoke to watch the match.

Paul himself drove back from training to pick up his wife and mother-in-law. He did have a problem with what to do with his four sons, aged from seven years to 12 months!

The Rugby League News was a weekly publication from 1920 until 1973. It had team lists of the main games in Sydney and representative fixtures. It also had stories from around Australia. Two about Paul while in Sydney are worth repeating.

The first was about Paul and another Newtown player travelling to training at Henson Park. The other player came from Wollongong and Paul had to travel from Gerringong, after milking, and meet him there.

From Wollongong, they took turns driving to Sydney. “It was fine," the other player said. “When Paul was driving, he was chatty. But when I drove all he did was sleep!”

The other story happened in 1965 when Paul was a member of the Australian side touring New Zealand. As the team were on the bus travelling to the next town for a game, one wag, obviously roping in the other members of the team for the joke, innocently asked Paul if he was a dairy farmer.

After getting an affirmative answer he asked Paul, again in that innocent voice, if you could get milk from bulls.

Paul laughed and proceeded to go into a long and detailed explanation as to why it is impossible to get milk from bulls. At that moment the bus pulled into a town to pick up some supplies, including milk.

The name of the NZ town? Bulls.

Paul Quinn playing for Newtown.

After finishing with Newtown in 1967 he went to Nowra and then onto Canberra. He was described in the Rugby League News as having a ‘blinder ‘ in a match for Monaro Division in 1970.

There have been many members of the Quinn family who have had distinguished careers for Gerringong and Sydney clubs. Some of the others include James, Tom, Jack, Peter and Ron.

Paul, though, must have a special place in the Quinn family. He forged an outstanding career with Gerringong, Newtown and various representative teams and will be remembered as the first Gerringong player to represent his country.

When discussing great sportspeople from the town, and there have been more than just a few, his name should be front and centre.

It was wonderful reading all the old newspaper articles that Athol Noble had in beautifully presented scrapbooks and I know they are treasured by the family.