All Black, teacher, MP – and modest too
The real story behind the achilles tendon injury that ended Tony Steel’s short but stellar rugby career isn’t set on the rugby field.
While most would assume he tore his achilles during a game, it was a medical misadventure that forced him into an early retirement in his mid 20s.
After an All Blacks training session in 1968, Steel told coach Fred Allen he had a little twinge in his achilles.
He saw the physiotherapist, who put a hot coil on it, went away, and forgot about it. It burned his achilles to a twig. He had to have surgery to remove the entire tendon and had an artificial one put in. After nine weeks in hospital, surgeons told him he would never run again, and would walk with a limp.
And while he defied both those predictions, he was utterly devastated. It killed him to watch his team-mates head off on tour, wife Raewyn recalled. She said he rarely talked about the incident, but suffered a lot of stress and trauma from it.
As a winger, he scored 20 tries in 23 All Blacks matches, including nine tests between 1966 and 1968. He played in the four tests against the Lions in 1966, two against Australia in 1967, against Scotland and France on the tour in 1967, and both against Australia in 1968.
He moved to Australia not long after he hung up his boots, with former wife Fay and two young children, Nicky and Don, and spent 61⁄ years in Brisbane.
He played a bit of social rugby for the Brisbane Wests rugby club, dabbled in rugby coaching, was a Queensland state rugby selector and taught at Brisbane Grammar School with former Wallabies coach Alan Jones.
Steel was born in Greymouth, on the South Island’s West Coast, and moved to Christchurch when he was 9.
Growing up, he attended Christchurch Boys’ High School then Canterbury University, where he received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s, majoring in geography, history and economics.
While playing for the Canterbury provincial rugby team, he hurt his knee. The surgeon said if he wanted to strengthen his knee enough to get back to playing rugby, he needed to take up running.
So he did. And boy, was he quick. He was the New Zealand national sprint champion in the 100 and 220 yards race in 1965 and 1966 and was selected for the Commonwealth Games. But he couldn’t do both, and chose rugby in the end.
He moved back to New Zealand from Queensland, and in 1975 was head of department at Kelston Boys’ High School in Auckland. The school had a fierce rugby rivalry with former All Blacks coach Graham Henry’s Auckland Grammar. Steel and Henry formed a great friendship.
He was then appointed Tauranga Boys’ College deputy principal and, two years later, headmaster at Hamilton Boys’ High School from 1980 to 1990. At 39, he was the youngest person to be appointed principal to a boys’ high school, Raewyn said.
He achieved a lot during his time at Hamilton Boys’. He strove to increase the roll that allowed the school to remain a single-sex school, as the Ministry of Education was putting on pressure to join with Hamilton Girls’ High.
As the roll almost doubled, he added on music suites, rooms and a new gymnasium. Raewyn said he wasn’t a big spender, but if there was money to be spent he wanted it to go into the students.
By 1990 he believed his philosophy and ethos on education was clashing with the development of Tomorrow’s Schools and it didn’t sit right with him. He thought if he could make changes, he would have to get into Parliament.
He became a National Party MP by winning the Hamilton East electorate in 1990, but lost his seat in 1993 to Labour’s Dianne Yates. He regained the seat in 1996 until 1999, but in 2002 was defeated again by Dianne Yates. He chaired the Health Sponsorship Council committee from 1994 to 1999.
In 1996, he refused to go on the party list and wanted to remain an electorate MP. He believed if the people of Hamilton East didn’t elect him, he couldn’t represent them. It didn’t feel right to him, Raewyn said.
Aside from rugby, education and politics, he loved a dress-up party, and was never shy of making the most of a themed night out, especially if it involved Elvis.
At a Christmas event every year, he would dress as Santa, and Raewyn would be a fairy. Until one year, Raewyn was over it and decided to switch it up – so Tony went as a ‘‘fat fairy’’ and Raewyn as a ‘‘skinny Santa’’. He loved making people laugh and was happy to take the mickey out of himself to make others smile.
The pair also met the King of Spain, and Queen Elizabeth, through rugby and politics, and Elton John after a concert in New Zealand. ‘‘It’s experiences [like these] you treasure for the rest of your life, and through Tony I had so many. We did some pretty amazing stuff,’’ Raewyn said.
She first met Tony in 1978 at Hamilton Boys’, where they both taught. Raewyn moved schools and then to Japan to teach. They married at Christmas in 1986.
They both have two children each and shared seven grandchildren together. He loved spending time with the grandkids and his cat, Chloe.
Raewyn said he was incredibly hardworking but very humble. She couldn’t get him to wear his All Blacks blazer to a function, as he was too modest. Once retired, he drove for a car dealer in Hamilton, and tour vans on the Coromandel.
But in his early 60s, he was diagnosed with early onset dementia. He died aged 76.
His funeral service was held at Hamilton Boys’ High School, with tributes by former National Party leader Bill English, Graham Henry and former Waikato All Black Matthew Cooper. – Maitland