Michael Rush (b. 1844 - d. 1922) was an Irish Australian sculler noted for his one-on-one competitions against champion opponents, which drew vast crowds of spectators.
Michael Rush ca. 1874 |
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Irish Australian |
| Born | 3 January 1844 Dooish Townland, Co. Tyrone, Ireland |
| Died | 17 December 1922 Hurstville, NSW Australia |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Rowing (sculling) |
| Retired | ca. 1888 |
Contents |
Rush was the second son of William and Margery Rush née McGrath. He was born and spent his early years on a tenant farm in the Townland of Dooish, County Tyrone, in the Province of Ulster, in what is now Northern Ireland. The Rushes were cattle-raisers, but their 26-acre holding was too small to support their family of sons, of whom four have been identified; there were reputedly ten Rush sons.[1] Rush’s birth-date is usually given as 3 January 1844.[n. 1]
Seeking employment and better opportunities than their native land offered, Rush and his brother John emigrated in 1860, arriving in Sydney in February 1861 per Hotspur, as assisted immigrants.[2] The brothers at first worked in Camperdown for their uncle Michael McGrath, a retail (or ‘cutting’) butcher, who had sponsored their immigration. McGrath’s brother, Thomas McGrath, had been at one time the Champion Sculler of the Colony of New South Wales, and it is likely, though not certain, that during his residence in Sydney, Michael Rush witnessed his uncle Thomas win large cash prizes in several private sculling matches.
Michael Rush then spent some months as a drover in southern New South Wales, while his brother John, taking advantage of the new Crown Lands Act of Sir John Robertson took up a selection on the Lower Clarence River in 1863. Michael Rush soon joined his brother, at first working for other settlers as a stockman and slaughterman. In 1866, he selected land at Ashby and began business in his own right as a butcher.[3]
During its early days of settlement, the Lower Clarence district lacked roads; virtually all communication within the area and with the outside world depended upon water transport.[4] Lower Clarence settlers were thus by necessity good oarsmen, and several of them became national and even world champion scullers.[n. 2] Rush, who was over six feet tall and weighed 13 stone,[5] soon distinguished himself as a powerful ‘puller’.[n. 3] He rowed the heavy settlers’ boats, also known as ‘butcher boats’ up and down the Clarence River delivering meat to customers. By 1866, Rush was competing in various regattas regularly held among the riverside settlements of Ulmarra, Lawrence, Brushgrove and Rocky Mouth.[6]
In 1869, Rush won the title of Champion of the Clarence [7] from Prospero Coulon. The two men then joined forces as a rowing team and competed at the Anniversary Day Regatta of 26 January, 1870 held at Port Jackson. Rush and Coulon contested several events, notably winning the single-scull and pair-oar races,[8] and while the prize money they received was modest, their performances were noted by Sydney rowers who quickly challenged the two ‘pumpkin eaters’ (rustics) to private matches for large stakes.[9] Rush and Coulon remained in Sydney for some months after the January regatta, and continued to win as a team.[10]
Rush then engaged in a series of one-on-one matches with the scullers William Hickey, the current Australian champion, and his brother Richard.[11] Rush, being unfamiliar with rowing outrigger racing boats, on that occasion failed to wrest the championship from Hickey,[12] but returned to the Lower Clarence with prize money totaling over £700.
Using his prize-money as capital, Michael Rush set up as a store-keeper in the town of Rocky Mouth (Maclean), as well as investing in land, and obtaining various water craft. Rush operated a ‘floating store’ which was anchored at Chatsworth Island during the sugar-cane harvesting season when hundreds of itinerant labourers moved into the district. His steam launch Jinnie Rush was used as a mobile general store, delivering goods to farmers and villagers along the river. Rush also bought a several racing boats, importing ‘riggers’[n. 4] from England, as well as ordering them custom-made from local boat-builders.
Rush never lost his fervour for aquatics and other sporting activity. He continually divided his energies between his business ventures and his sculling contests, organizing as well as competing in regattas and ‘aquatic carnivals’, so much so, that he never achieved the solid prosperity of other Clarence River commercial pioneers. He added the Criterion Hotel and a string of race-horses to his business ‘empire’ at Rocky Mouth.[13] He bought and sold land, often too rapidly to realize a useful profit on it, and with no thought for the state of the market. As a former farm-boy from impoverished Ireland, where he might never have owned even a house plot, Michael Rush now bought up Clarence River acres by the score, often at bargain prices. It was often land of only marginal utility, which he acquired from sheer enthusiasm at the ease and possibility of gaining wealth, though he was less interested in retaining it. Rush’s Irish background of tenant farming, with a severely limited income, and few life prospects, had given him and his peers no training in the management of large sums of capital, property, or conducting a business career.[14] Added to his sheer exuberance for living, his open-handed spending habits and generosity (his wedding present to a daughter-in-law was a grand piano) and his belief that Australia was an inexhaustible source of wealth left Rush deeply in debt later in life. In the somewhat feckless management of his business affairs, Michael Rush fits an Irish immigrant model offered by historian Patrick O'Farrell:
[Rush] typifies… several central characteristics of the middling Irish immigrant. It is misleading to say they were poor judges of land, though their selections were often of inferior quality: it was not quality that governed their choice, but size, expanse. So, while the poor Irish fell by the constriction of their vision (100 acres seemed vast), the middling Irish fell by the largeness of theirs. Too often they bought extensive tracts of marginal land, just because it was land, and cheap, and their pride was built on quantity, size: too often they became lords of the desert, kings in worthless scrub. And often too the entrepreneurial Irish fell victim [...] to an expansive lifestyle. To the dangers of inexperience and chancy judgement, they added an ingredient which made a recipe for disaster - prodigal generosity. They gave loans at no interest, gave money to unreliable friends and relations, were free and imprudent with credit they could not afford, pursued paths of extravagance when thrift was needed and were careless when caution was called for. Such Irish had a boom mentality and they perished by it. Unlike the Scots, they were not ‘canny’, and the lack destroyed them. It was not so much that they were gamblers - though some were very much that and the racecourses were full of them - as that they were men with big ideas seeing in the colonies their chance to cut a fine figure and break away from mean Irish lives.
— O'Farrell, The Irish in Australia p.122
Rush still had his sights on the Australian Sculling Championship, and in February 1873,[15] took it from William Hickey in a controversial match: many claimed that Hickey had 'sold' the race.[n. 5] From this time onwards, Rush insisted that the championship be contested on his home waters of the Clarence River. To make this condition was his right as the holder of a current championship[n. 6] but Rush's insistence, and his enterprise in arranging for sponsors to provide substantial sums of prizes persuaded Australia's best scullers to compete. The events also served the purpose of attracting attention and often large crowds of spectators and gamblers to the Clarence River, especially the town of Grafton. Rush helped to organise, and took part in, aquatic contests held Grafton in 1874[16], and 1875 [17] Two of these were held in conjunction with Grafton's celebration of the Queen's Birthday.[n. 7] Rush also devised an Intercolonial Regatta, held at Grafton 7 October of 1874 [18] at which Rush successfully defended his title. However, at the Queen's Birthday regatta of 1875, Rush, who was ill, lost the race to Elias C. Laycock. Though this was not a match for the Australian Championship, it should have served as a warning to Rush that others could easily displace him from his leadership if he did not maintain peak fitness and training.
Next began a campaign by sculler Edward 'Ned' Trickett to win the Australian Championship from Rush. Trickett had been outclassed by Rush at the 1874 and 1875 events, but in the meantime had competed at numerous regattas and in private matches, and his form was consistently improving.[19] Now he sought the Australian title. Trickett and his backers demanded that Rush contest the title on the waters where he had won it from Hickey, the Championship sculling course[n. 8] on Sydney's Parramatta River. Rush declined to row anywhere but on the Clarence, and demanded that the stakes be not less than £500. By 1875, Rush had a wife and five children to support, as well as multifarious business commitments, and could not afford to undertake a sporting endeavour involving a major investment in time and money, unless there was a chance of an adequate financial return. Dozens of letters and articles in the Australian press debated the issue[20] for nearly two years, as Trickett and his supporters became increasingly incensed at Rush's stalling. Finally, James Punch, former champion sculler and now a backer of sculling events, offered to finance an attempt by an Australian sculler to topple the current holder of the World Sculling Championship, Englishman Joseph Sadler.[n. 9] Rush declined to travel overseas. Trickett agreed to the journey, went to the Thames, beat Sadler, [21] and brought home the World Championship to Australia.[22] Rush now challenged Trickett for the World title. Trickett demanded that the race be rowed over the Parramatta River Championship course, and the match came off on the afternoon of June 30, 1877.[23]
The Rush vs. Trickett match attracted the largest number of spectators that had ever gathered for a Sydney sporting event, and has gone down in Australian sporting history.[24] Estimates of the size of the crowd range from 30,000 to 70,000.[25]Shops and government offices were closed for the event,[26]special trains ran to bring people into the city.[27]A flotilla of steamers carrying fare-paying spectators accompanied the competing champions, and a 'mosquito fleet' of smaller, private vessels crowded and criss-crossed the waterways. Special Regulations had to be devised by the Marine Board of the NSW Government to deal with the problems of maritime traffic regulation during the event.[28][n. 10]
Rush was soundly beaten, Trickett winning by several lengths. A combination of factors led to Rush's defeat. Trickett had won a World Championship, at an international venue, and he brought home to Australia with him the polish and the self-confidence that went with this experience. Trickett had been trained on the Thames, the home of championship sculling, by expert coaches including Harry Kelley. Rush, though lately trained by the ex-champion R. A. W. Green, remained in effect an amateur, largely self-taught. Rush was an athlete who had devised his own sculling technique, based on sheer strength and endurance; his clumsy style was often deprecated.[29] Trickett was three inches taller than Rush, and his arms had a longer reach.[n. 11] Finally, Trickett had learned during his time on the Thames to use racing craft fitted with a sliding seat, which allowed a more efficient use of the sculler's whole body when rowing. Before the race, Rush had tried a sliding-seat racing-shell, but could not discover any advantage, and chose instead a fixed-seat outrigger to race in.[30] Once the news of Rush's decision became public, betting odds changed dramatically, favouring Trickett, and the result of the race was considered a forgone conclusion by many - though not all.[31] Rush had a reputation as an unshakably honest sportsman and a valiant athlete, and it was expected he would put up a mighty effort to beat Trickett. And so he did, but without success.[n. 12]
The celebrations in the streets of Sydney on the evening following the match rivaled and even exceeded the scenes of popular fervour that had accompanied Ned Trickett's return from his London victory, in November 1876.[32] The commercial exploitation of the event had been considerable,[33] and thousands of pounds changed hands in wagers,[34] but Trickett and Rush were out of pocket afterwards, Trickett claiming to be considerably so. The stakes were only £200 [35], and expenses such as training, accommodation, advertising, new outriggers and incidentals now made professional sculling an expensive business, as Rush had argued beforehand.[36] Trickett claimed a considerable shortfall in return from gate money from spectator steamers, and a public benefit concert was held for Trickett[37] by actor George Darrell. Others spoke up for Rush as a major financial loser from his endeavour.[38]
It is from this date and this event that most histories of professional Australian sculling commence.[39] Rush and his colleagues, through their entrepreneurial efforts and mastery of setbacks, showed that by 1877, Australia as a nation had come to sufficient maturity and prosperity, and had such a vigorous interest in sport, that it could now support a body of professional athletes. Far from defeating him, the match of 30 June 1877 infused new life into Rush's sculling. After a year or two of retirement, he began again to train and compete, mastering the sliding seat, and regaining his Australian Championship in September of 1881.[40]
Later in his life, Michael Rush described sculler Elias C. Laycock as his 'chief rival'.[41] Just a year younger than Rush, and like Rush, a large and powerful man,[42] Laycock had come to live on the Lower Clarence River around 1874.[43] The two scullers met first at the Queen's Birthday regatta in Grafton in May 1874. Laycock, untried at boat racing, was soundly beaten, though undeterred. During the following years, Laycock doggedly challenged Rush and others to sculling matches,[44] until at last, in April 1879, Laycock beat an ailing and unfit World Champion Ned Trickett at a State regatta. A series of matches followed to determine the current Australian sculling Champion, who would defend the World Title.[n. 13] Laycock beat Rush again and again, but Trickett, now fit once more, eventually beat Laycock.[45]Trickett once more went to the Thames, this time in the company of Laycock, to row against Ned Hanlan[46], but their preliminary contests in Sydney had marked the end of Rush's World Championship ambitions.
Professional sculling had now reached a stage of respectability, publicity and profitability that attracted commercial sponsorship. Among the earliest of these sponsors in Australia were the liquor importers Mason, Brothers. In April 1881, they offered a cash prize of £300, to be known as the Walker Whiskey Trophy.[47] The cash prizes attracted so many entrants that a series of preliminary races was held during September, 1881. Rush took part, but was eliminated from the final race.[48]. As well as the Trophy races, Rush also rowed a number of private matches, notably against J. J. Power, Harry Pearce, both of whom he beat, and Elias Laycock. The match against Laycock was for the Championship of Australia, which Laycock won almost with ease.[49] Rush announced his retirement from sculling contests, not for the first or the last time.[n. 14]
Francis Punch was the brother of sculler, publican and promoter James 'Jem' Punch. Following the death of James, Francis took bought Punch's Hotel.[50] Observing the success of the Walker Whiskey matches, Francis offered a similar sculling prize [51]The race did not attract any international entrants, but the 'Big Three' of Australian sculling - Rush, Trickett, Laycock - fought it out over the Championship course in early October, 1882 [52] and Rush emerged triumphant, winning not only the Punch Trophy but regaining the Australian Championship. [53]
Following his defeat during the Walker Whiskey Trophy race, a number of Rush's admirers and backers held a banquet in his honour, at which they presented him with an illuminated testimonial along with a sterling silver tea set, salver, and claret jug, valued at £200.[54] The Rush Trophy, as it became known, was given to Rush in recognition of his excellence as an athlete and a sportsman, and as a tribute to his admirable qualities as a man. The salver was inscribed with a dedication, and each piece bore an inscribed caricature of Rush at the oars of an outrigger skiff. The Rush Trophy is now part of the collection of the Clarence River Historical Society in Grafton, New South Wales.
Business and family commitments kept Michael Rush busy for the next few years. He moved his home up-river from Maclean to Grafton, the town which was rapidly becoming the commercial centre and effective 'capital' of the Clarence River district.[55] Rush purchased a hotel and an adjacent store, and a large, riverside villa which he grandly named 'Clarence House'. Rush took an active part in a great many community and sporting organizations. Among other interests, Rush owned and trained a number of race-horses, and was an office-holder of the Clarence River Jockey Club. He continued to promote and take part in local regattas. One of these was the Clarence River Aquatic Carnival, held on 10 March 1883.[56] The Carnival attracted thousands of spectators. [57] The main event was Rush vs Laycock for a stake of £1000 and the Championship of Australia, which Laycock won convincingly. At a banquet later that week, Rush announced his retirement from professional sculling, but in December of that year, he rowed Ned Trickett over the Parramatta course for a stake of £400, losing convincingly.[58] The newspapers praised Rush for his valour, but hinted that it was high time he retired.[59]
As part of the national celebrations marking the centenary of European settlement in Australia, Rush organised an Aquatic Carnival at Grafton, held on 2 January 1888, which attracted not only many up-and-coming young scullers, including future World Champion Henry Searle, but even the great Ned Hanlan, who declined to compete due to illness, though he gave an exhibition of 'trick' sculling.[60][n. 15] It was at this meeting that Mick rowed his last match, as a member of a pair-oar crew, just he had in his earliest contests. Though his crew came third, Rush's spirit remained undiminished.
For most of his remaining years, Michael Rush remained keenly interested and involved in sculling. He was often in demand as umpire, starter, timekeeper or judge, though he did little coaching.[61]
In 1893, Rush moved his family to Sydney.[62] The Banks Crash reduced many Australians to ruin. Rush’s entire empire was built on credit alone. Rush did not even own the Grafton house where he and his family lived, having mortgaged it from the man who had sold it to him. He had also borrowed heavily from local banks using his store-keeping business as security.[63]
In Sydney, Rush took a lease on the York Hotel, at the corner of King and York Streets which quickly became known as 'Mick Rush's Hotel',[64] a popular venue for meetings of sportsmen. Rush's finances continued to fail. Rush had little capital. He had relied always upon credit, overdrafts, or quick sales of his assets, often at a loss. During the next decade, Rush took leases on a series of small hotels in and around the centre of Sydney,[65]and operated also as a hotel broker. Rush finally retired around 1913, buying a cottage and ten acres of land in what was then rural Hurstville, New South Wales.
Among other activities, Rush organized two major sculling events, held on the Parramatta River. The first was in August 1906[66] which included a Veterans' Race, and a Ladies' Double Sculling Championship. The Veterans' Race included many old sculling champions, with the exception of Ned Trickett, who had retired from sporting activity. In 1907, Rush organized an even more ambitious event, 'Rush's Rowing Carnival', held in February 1907.[67] with a Veteran's Event, and an 'All Comers' Handicap' offering a prize of £50. Rush had hoped to 'resuscitate an interest in rowing.'[68] The Carnival attracted several promising scullers, including future champions Richard Arnst and Peter Kemp, but spectator attendance was 'miserably small'.[69]
Rush's last recorded participation in a major sculling event was as umpire of the World Championship match between William Webb and Charles Towns held 3 August 1907, over the Parramatta course.[70][n. 16]
Michael Rush was a tall, well-built and powerful man; his true age on arrival in Sydney as an immigrant was sixteen, but he claimed to be twenty years old, which implies that he must have been a physically superior teenager. Rush’s appearance is described many times in Australia’s colonial press since he was an athlete, and his ‘form’ would have been subject of interest to sports fans as well as those betting on his races, of whom there were thousands. Journalists commented repeatedly on Rush’s open and honest manner – ‘the genial Mick Rush’ – and his unshakeable honesty in the world of professional sculling, which at one time had almost as bad a reputation as Sydney’s notorious and corrupted ‘Ring’ of bookmakers, trainers, jockeys and horse-owners, which at that time dominated racing and its associated gambling activity.
Michael Rush had a strong social conscience, and was always deeply involved with community and charitable projects. Some years after his death, a Grafton lady who had known him well, wrote ‘Mick Rush was the best-hearted Irishman who ever broke bread, and helped many a poor beggar irrespective of colour or creed, and may his descendants follow in his footsteps.’[71]
Rush's energy and vision in continually organising sculling events has not been fully acknowledged in the history of Australian aquatic sports.[72] None of Rush's sculling peers had the entrepreneurial skills or drive to promote meetings or matches, though they often took part in and sometimes financially benefited from Rush's efforts. Most scullers depended on backers to effectively manage their careers. Their backers, who often made large amounts of money by betting on such sculling matches, undertook promotional tasks like placing challenges to race and subsequent match advertisements in the Press, hiring steam ships to carry spectators to the match venue, raising money for the stakes, and even ghosting letters for their protégés. Rush managed his own sculling career, raised his own stakes, issued his own challenges, wrote his own letters to the Press, though this all activity eventually depleted his fortune and hampered his performances. His rivals usually had nothing more to consider than giving their peak performance in a race. Rush often had considerably more to worry about.
Rush was continually praised for his good-humour and honesty, and these qualities did much to improve the public's perception of the sport of professional sculling and its adherents.
Rush married Anne Aby (known as Annie) Fitzpatrick on 18 September, 1865, at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney. Annie Fitzpatrick, born 1846, was the daughter of Irish convicts. She bore Rush fourteen children, three of whom died in infancy and two in early adulthood. None of Rush's children became professional sportsmen, though three of his sons competed successfully in various amateur sculling contests and one as a cyclist. His daughter Emily was a well-known amateur singer during her youth. Two Rush sons fought in the Boer War, another went gold-prospecting on the Kalgoorlie gold-fields, and died there.[73] Michael Rush died at his home in Croydon Road, Hurstville on 22 December 1922, after a brief illness.[74]. Rush is buried in Sydney's Waverley cemetery.
| Abbreviation | Newspaper Name | Abbreviation | Newspaper Name | Abbreviation | Newspaper Name | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMH | The Sydney Morning Herald | CRE | Clarence and Richmond River Examiner | SM | The Sydney Mail | ||
| TCJ | Australian Town and Country Journal | MM | Maitland Mercury | RB | Rockhampton Morning Bulletin | ||
| TA | The Argus | ISN | The Illustrated Sydney News | E | The Empire | ||
| LE | Launceston Examiner | QA | Queanbeyan Age | BLS | Bell's Life in Sydney |