Lawrence Morgan
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| Lawrence Morgan | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Lawrence Robert Morgan | ||
| Date of birth | 5 February 1915 | ||
| Date of death | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. | ||
| Original team(s) | Yarrawonga[1] | ||
| Height/Weight | 183 cm / 84 kg | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 1937–39 | Fitzroy | 34 (14) | |
|
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1939 season.
|
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| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Equestrian | ||
 |
1960 Rome | Eventing |
|
1960 Rome | Team eventing |
Lawrence "Laurie" Morgan (5 February 1915 – 19 August 1997) was an Australian sportsman who is the only person to play VFL/AFL football and win an Olympic Gold Medal.[2] He played his Australian rules football with Fitzroy during the late 1930s and won two gold medals in equestrian at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
Morgan was born in the country and, as a child, raced horses over tree branches with his friend, fellow Olympic equestrian competitor Bill Roycroft.[3] When he came to Fitzroy in 1937 he played in the same side as the great Haydn Bunton. He spent two further seasons at Fitzroy, both under coach Gordon Rattray, before leaving.
Morgan returned to the sporting scene in 1960, at the age of 45, when he competed for the Australian equestrian team at the Rome Olympics. Riding his horse 'Salad Days', Morgan won a Gold Medal ahead of countryman Neale Lavis in the Individual Three-Day Event to become the first Australian to win an equestrian gold medal. The former VFL player then teamed up with Lavis and Bill Roycroft to win Gold in the Team Event, best remembered for Roycroft's heroics in riding despite suffering concussion and severe injuries from a previous fall.
Although the Australian Olympic team consisted of big names like Herb Elliott, Dawn Fraser and Murray Rose, Morgan was the only dual Gold Medalist.
Morgan's biography, entitled Too Tough To Lose, was recently completed by his son Warwick Morgan, himself an accomplished horseman, and published in 2012 by Forty Degrees South Publishing (see External Links).
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Historial Vignette – "Lawrence Morgan dual gold medallist and AFL Champion", Australian Olympic Committee web site, accessed 10 December 2008
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Use dmy dates from September 2015
- Use Australian English from September 2015
- All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
- 1915 births
- 1997 deaths
- Event riders from Australia
- Olympic equestrians of Australia
- Australian equestrians
- Equestrians at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Male equestrians
- Olympic gold medalists for Australia
- Olympic medalists in equestrian
- Fitzroy Football Club players
- Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia)
- Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
