Champ rugby breeder remembered
Tributes have been paid to a stalwart of Kaponga rugby and the father of an All Black and four Taranaki rugby representatives.
James (Jim) Crowley - father of former All Black Kieran Crowley, and a former president of the Taranaki Rugby Football Union - died on Saturday, March 25, aged 83.
Crowley was married to Julia for 58 years and the couple had seven children, six boys and a girl, 20 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
His son Leo, a former assistant coach with Taranaki, said he would remember his father as a real supportive family man.
‘‘He spent a lot of years running us around to sports and practices,’’ Leo said.
‘‘He never forced us, it was just natural in our family to get involved.’’
Leo said his dad was a life member of the Kaponga Rugby Club and was also kept busy with a number of other community organisations.Jim always took an interest in what his kids and grand kids were involved in, Leo said.
‘‘He was a proud man with Kieran making the All Blacks and three others playing for Taranaki. He will be a big loss for a number of reasons.’’
Taranaki Rugby Football Union chairman Lindsay Thomson said he had known Jim since about 1983 when he represented the region in teams playing alongside his sons.
Thomson said Crowley had a keen interest in the game.
‘‘He was a stalwart of the Kaponga Rugby Football Club and he was president of the Taranaki Rugby Football Union in 1996. He will be fondly remembered for breeding a number of high quality rugby players in the form of his sons and now of course with Logan a member of the Taranaki squad for 2017 a grandson.’’
A funeral mass celebrating Crowley’s life was held at St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Kaponga, on Thursday March 30, followed by burial in the Kaponga Cemetery.