LIONEL ROSE

The First-Ever Aboriginal World Champion

6th May 2012 Authored by: Judy Beddoni

Table of Contents
LIONEL ROSE......................................................................................................................................... 3 BORN IN HUMBLE BEGINNINGS ........................................................................................................... 3 CAREER ................................................................................................................................................. 3 CHAMPION BOXER ............................................................................................................................ 4 RECORDING ARTIST ......................................................................................................................... 6 AWARDS AND ACHIEVMENTS .......................................................................................................... 7 INSPIRED ABORIGINALS AND OTHERS ........................................................................................... 8 REMAINED AN AUSTRALIAN HERO DESPITE HARD TIMES ............................................................... 9 REMAINED A HERO ........................................................................................................................... 9 ILLNESS .............................................................................................................................................. 9 STATE FUNERAL ................................................................................................................................. 10 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................... 11 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................. 12 RESEARCH TIMELINE...................................................................................................................... 12 RESEARCH TOOLS .......................................................................................................................... 12 METHOD USED ................................................................................................................................ 12 PRESENTATION PRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 13 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................................... 14

LIONEL ROSE

LIONEL ROSE

Introduction
Lionel Rose was an inspiration to his people and the following will show, how he came from a very humble beginning, at a time when racism was high, to become the first Aboriginal to win a World Title Champion. With his love of boxing, Rose received awards and achievements, throughout his sporting career. His other love, music, lead to Roses music career with the release of several records. His recent passing was a great loss, Lionel Rose, was a gentle man, with a big heart and an amazing soul.

LIONEL ROSE

Lionel Rose
Born In Humble Beginnings
Lionel Rose was born on the 21st June 1948, and raised in Jackson's Track, a poor aboriginal settlement, near the Victorian town of Warragul, south of Melbourne. The oldest of nine children in an aboriginal family, Rose was on the wrong side of a society divided by racism, mistrust, and economic disparity. Since 1770, when white settlers first arrived in Australia, the Aboriginals have suffered a fate similar to that of Native Americans in the United States.
Young Rose

By the early 1900s, entire aboriginal communities had disappeared. Up until the 1970s, the Australian government imposed a program of social adaptation and assimilation that consisted in removing aboriginal children from their families and rearing them in state-run missions or settlements. Though, Australian policy has since adopted Aboriginal rights legislation and Aboriginals have officially gained equal status as Australian citizens, racism has continued. As a child, Rose escaped such racism through boxing. Rose's father, was an amateur boxer, his father inspired Rose to don his first pair of boxing gloves at the age of 14. They trained in a ring made of chicken wire. Rose and his siblings also became avid fans of tent matches, popular boxing bouts that traveled the country much the way a carnival would.
LIONEL ROSE
Young boxing Rose

Career

Considering his humble beginnings Lionel Roses achievements and career was astonishing. Rose began his amateur boxing career under the guidance of trainer Frank Oakes. He later married Oakes's daughter Jenny and they had a son.

Champion Boxer
Roses won his first major fight at Melbourne's Festival Hall in 1963 the day after his father died. By the end of that year, he won Australia's national amateur flyweight title. In 1964 Rose narrowly missed being selected for the Australian Olympic team. Rose knew he wanted to make a career of boxing and to help support his family, Rose turned professional in 1964 under the legendary Australian trainer Jack Rennie.
Rose with trophies

After a string of successful fights, Rose won the Australian bantamweight title in October 1966, he then made Australian sporting history in 1968 when he became the first Indigenous boxer to win a world championship title; he beat Japan's Fighting Harada in Tokyo at the age of 19 to claim the world bantamweight title.
LIONEL ROSE

Rose claims the world bantamweight title from Harada

When Rose returned to Australia, he was greeted by more than 100,000 people outside the Melbourne Town Hall he had returned a hero to all the people of Australia. Five months after defeating Harada, Rose returned to Tokyo to retain his title with a 15round decision win over Takao Sakurai. Rose defended it again by decision against Chucho Castillo in Inglewood, California, later that same year. Even Elvis Presley requested to meet him while Rose was in California.
Rose waiving to the people

Elvis Presley became one of his biggest American fans, Rose and Rennie were the only outsiders in 10 years to be allowed on to the set of a Presley film, Roustabout, and spent three hours with the king of rock'n'roll, who insisted on a brief spar with the Aboriginal star.

LIONEL ROSE

Rose sparing with Elvis

In March 1969, Rose retained the title with a 15-round decision over Alan Rudkin, but five months later he returned to Inglewood, where he faced Ruben Olivares and lost the world bantamweight title via a fifth-round knockout. Rose continued fighting, coming close several times to another world title before retiring in 1971. He made a brief comeback in 1975 but retired permanently. Rose finished his professional career after 53 fights with 42 wins, 12 of them by knock-out. He had a few of those losses near the end of his career when he was probably fighting for the love of fighting more so after his world championship days were well and truly over. Rose remains one of only four Australian-born fighters to win a world title oversea
The famous hands of Lionel Rose

Recording Artist
Music had been a part of Rose's life for even longer than boxing. He had learned to play guitar as a child and was never without one. In 1969, Rose appeared on a televised variety show singing along to his guitar. Australian producer and songwriter Johnny Young caught Rose's act and offered to pen a song for the boxer. The result was "Thank You," Rose's first single. The song reached the number one spot in Australia's country charts.
Johnny Young and Lionel Rose

LIONEL ROSE

The following year, Rose again made the charts with a cover of the country classic, "Pick Me up on Your Way Down." Rose began touring as a musician when not boxing, and in 1970 recorded two albums for the Festival label. One of those, Jackson's Track, is considered a lost classic in Australian country music circles.

Awards And Achievments

Rose (NITV, 2011) won the Australian Amateur Flyweight Title in 1963, then the Bantamweight Title in 1966. In 1968 after his world title win, Rose was named Australian of the Year for his achievement; he was the first Aboriginal person to be awarded the honour, a year after the referendum, which finally made Aboriginals citizen of their own country. He was also appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the same year.
Rose King of Boxing

He became the King of Moomba in 1973, and then in 1994 he was one of only ten Aboriginal boxers, inducted into the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame. In 2000, he had the honour to carries the Olympic flame at Drouin, Victoria. Rose was also the Recipient of the Australian Sports Medal 2001 and the Centenary Medal in 2003. In 2005, at the 11th Annual Deadlys he received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Sport.

LIONEL ROSE

Rose carrying the Olympic flame

Inspired Aboriginals and Others

Many people regarded him as a symbol of a promising future for Indigenous people in Australia, including a young Evonne Goolagong. Rose was Australia's greatest boxing talent; he is remembered equally by many for how he helped change racial attitudes and inspired his people. Rose refused to get involved in political issues; instead he helped Aboriginals at a grassroots level, often with children. He sent a strong message especially to young people around the world, to stand up and fight for their rights, and to aspire to reach for their dreams.
Roses teaching young boys

One example occurred in 1999, when Rose gave his championship belt to an aboriginal child, Tjandamurra OShane who used the belt as inspiration to overcome horrific burns he received after being doused with petrol and set on fire in a racially-motivated attack, Tjandamurra grew up, following in Roses footsteps to become a boxer. Tjandamurra, (Herald Sun, 2011), now aged 21, plans to return, the gift of Roses historic world title belt, in a final symbol of thanks. "It's a beautiful gesture, just beautiful," said Rose's widow, Jenny. "Lionel was a very generous man ... he'd be extremely grateful
Tjandamurra, with Roses historic world title belt

LIONEL ROSE

Remained an Australian Hero Despite Hard Times

Remained a Hero
Over the next few decades, Rose worked odd jobs, including running a caf and performing as a musician. He soon fell on hard times due to alcoholism. At his lowest point, he was arrested for his role in a robbery attempt. Despite these setbacks, Rose remained a hero for both aboriginal and white Australians. In 1991, a biography of Rose, called Rose Against the Odds was published. In 1995, a full-length movie of the same name was released.
Rose Against the Odds Book Cover

Ten years later, Rose was honored with an Australian stamp bearing a replica of his boxing gloves.

Illness
Rose, who reportedly, long believed he would die young, battled with his health over the past two decades, having his first heart attack at age 39. He suffered a stroke in 2007 that had left him partially paralysed and with speech difficulties.

Roses Stamp

LIONEL ROSE

State Funeral
World boxing champion (Heralds Sun,

2011), LIONEL ROSE, was honoured

with a state funeral on the 16th May 2011, Rose, aged 62 passed away at his Warragul home after a long battle with illness. The Victorian government held the state funeral for Lionel Rose in recognition of the boxing legend's 'extraordinary' contribution to sport, at Festival Hall in Melbourne. The World Boxing Council also declared 16th May 2011, a day of mourning in honour of Rose, describing him as Australia's greatest boxing hero.
Lionel Rose's coffin at his state funeral at Festival Hall

Lionel Rose Rest in peace

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Conclusion

Lionel Rose was a World Title Boxing Champion in his lifetime and he became a legend in his passing, especially since he was the first-ever Aboriginal world champion, Rose earned himself, a place in Australian sporting folklore. He was a gentle man, with a big heart and an amazing soul. Rose received so many astonishing awards and achievements throughout his life, starting at such a young age he was an inspiration to his people and will be sadly missed.

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Research Methodology
Research Timeline

Research Tools
My research on Lionel Rose was carried out by utilizing the following tools: the internet, by searching websites, online documents, newspapers and reference resources. I then checked out the library for books and indigenous newspapers.

Method Used
After collecting all my research information and the images of Lionel Rose, I decided to work out how to outline all my information in an orderly manner, with this in mind I started to complete my layout design in Microsoft words. With each heading I used an image which was relevant to the content of that section of my work.
LIONEL ROSE

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Presentation Production
I decided I would produce a video for my presentation containing the main points of my research, with images of Lionel Roses in his two careers plus his awards and achievements. I have used two songs for the background music the first a ballad written for Rose about his life and the second the song penned by Johnny Young which Rose released as his first single. I have also incorporated a voice over in certain sections of the vide

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References
National Indigenous Television (NITV). (2011). [Internet]. Available at <http://nitv.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=764%3Anitv-tobroadcast-live-lionel-edmund-rose-mbe-state-funeral-from-melbourne&catid=9&Itemid=16> accessed 15th May 2011.

Herald Sun (2011). [Internet]. Available at <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/burnsvictim-tjandamurra-oshane-to-return-lionel-rosess-title-belt/story-e6frf9if-1226056347716> accessed 15th May 2011.

Herald Sun (2011). [Internet]. Available at <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breakingnews/mourners-gather-for-boxer-lionel-rose-funeral/story-e6frf7jx-1226056776778> accessed 16th May 2011.

All Images. (2011) [Internet]. Available at <http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=cl0&rlz=1R1MOZA_enGB___AU343&biw=1366&bih=543&tbm=isch&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=g3&oq=&q=lionel%2 0rose> accessed 15th May 2011.

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