{"id":75123,"date":"2021-05-23T22:45:54","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T22:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=75123"},"modified":"2021-05-24T00:02:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T00:02:49","slug":"the-day-bob-fulton-had-me-trembling-in-my-shoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=75123","title":{"rendered":"The day Bob Fulton had me trembling in my shoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a child of the 1960s, Bob Fulton<\/a> was a boyhood hero of mine – along with countless thousands other youngsters of that bygone era.<\/p>\n

But my first meeting with the great 'Bozo'<\/a>, many years later, had me trembling in my shoes.<\/p>\n

It was 1983, Fulton had made the transition from great player to fine coach, and I was a cub reporter for Rugby League Week.<\/p>\n

Bozo had just made the move from Eastern Suburbs back to his beloved Manly Sea Eagles, taking four of the Roosters' biggest names with him.<\/p>\n

The incoming Roosters coach Laurie Freier was far from impressed and I wrote a story about him fuming at the raid by Fulton.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A week later, I was in the Manly sheds, talking to a couple of players, when I heard from behind me a familiar sounding voice saying "Oi, you, can I have a word, mate?"<\/p>\n

From his many TV appearances, I knew just who it was, without having to turn around\u2026 but I thought, 'Surely Bozo doesn't want to talk to ME \u2026 he must be after someone else' \u2026 so I ignored the command.<\/p>\n

But seconds later, he said, 'Hey, kid, come here' … and I knew I was in for a dressing down. I turned, took a few tentative steps forward, drew a deep breath and faced the music.<\/p>\n

"I didn't like that story. I did nothing wrong, the players wanted to come with me, end of story," Bozo said sternly, but without anger.<\/p>\n

I was speechless \u2026 I got in a couple of 'but I's when Bozo broke into that familiar grin and put his arm around me, seeing my knees wobbling.<\/p>\n

"It's all good – but next time, give me a call and get my point of view."<\/p>\n

\"Bob<\/p>\n

The following year, I switched to the old Daily Mirror and Bozo and I became 'teammates' – he wrote a column for the afternoon paper for many years.<\/p>\n

We spoke many times in those heady days and became close – we sometimes disagreed but he would always be courteous and polite \u2026 even though he rarely lost an argument.<\/p>\n

Just a few months ago, we met up after some 20 years at a northern beaches restaurant and hugged like long-lost buddies.<\/p>\n

I knew he had been battling cancer for some time but when I asked how he was he shrugged off the problem, smiling and declaring, "I'll be right mate".<\/p>\n

\"Bob<\/p>\n

I've known few people who loved life more than Bozo Fulton.<\/p>\n

Like Tom Raudonikis before him, he was larger than life \u2026 indestructible \u2026 and I was stunned to hear of his passing.<\/p>\n

Rugby league has lost a giant – and it's a sad moment for many thousands of footy lovers around the country.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a child of the 1960s, Bob Fulton was a boyhood hero of mine – along with countless thousands other youngsters of that bygone era. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75123"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75125,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75123\/revisions\/75125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}