Bob Fulton played, coached, selected for and has commentated on the game with great success at the highest levels and has been named amongst Australia's greatest rugby league players of the 20th century.
43 Facts About Bob Fulton
1.
2.
Bob Fulton represented the Australian national side on thirty-five occasions, seven times as captain.
3.
Bob Fulton had a long coaching career at the first grade level, taking Manly to premiership victory in 1987 and 1996.
4.
Bob Fulton coached the Australian national team in thirty-nine Tests.
5.
Bob Fulton was a New South Wales State selector and a national selector.
6.
Bob Fulton was a radio commentator with 2GB at the time of his death in 2021, aged 73.
7.
Bob Fulton was born in Stockton Heath, a civil parish of Warrington, in the English county of Cheshire.
8.
Bob Fulton moved to Australia with his family when he was four years old.
9.
At 18 years of age, Bob Fulton made his senior football debut in the Illawarra Rugby League with Western Suburbs in 1965 and went on to represent Country Seconds.
10.
Bob Fulton was signed to Sydney's Manly-Warringah by club secretary Ken Arthurson after being spotted by John Hobbs and started his NSWRFL first grade career in 1966 aged 19.
11.
Bob Fulton earned State representative honours in 1967 and was an absolute beast the following year became the youngest ever captain in Grand Final history when he led Manly in the 1968 decider against Souths.
12.
Bob Fulton made 219 appearances for the Manly club between 1966 and 1976.
13.
Bob Fulton won premierships with Manly in 1972,1973 and 1976.
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Bob Fulton left Manly holding the club record for most tries.
15.
Bob Fulton played 56 matches for the Eastern Suburbs club, mainly at five-eighth.
16.
Bob Fulton made his international debut for Australia in the 1968 Rugby League World Cup and played in the World Cup final at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
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Bob Fulton toured New Zealand in 1971, was on the 1973 and 1978 Kangaroo Tours, played in home Ashes series against Great Britain in 1970 and 1974 and the home series against New Zealand in 1972 and 1978.
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Bob Fulton was named as the World Cup Man of the Series in 1970.
19.
Bob Fulton captained his country to a total of 4 wins and 3 losses.
20.
Bob Fulton represented Australia in 20 Test matches, 15 World Cup matches and 22 minor internationals whilst on tour.
21.
Bob Fulton's was one of the few clubs opposed to the State of Origin concept when it first began and he called it the "non-event of the century".
22.
Bob Fulton went on to coach the Roosters for two more seasons.
23.
Bob Fulton returned to Manly as coach in 1983 and in that same year took them to a Grand Final against the Parramatta Eels where the club was unsuccessful for the second year running.
24.
In 1989, Bob Fulton succeeded Don Furner as coach of the Australian national side.
25.
Bob Fulton guided the team in 39 Tests between 1989 and 1998 to 32 victories, one draw and six losses, including the successful 1990 and 1994 Kangaroo tours, as well as winning both the 1992 and 1995 World Cup finals.
26.
In 1993 Bob Fulton returned to Manly as coach and he guided the club to three successive Grand Finals from 1995.
27.
Bob Fulton was a longstanding and loyal friend of Kerry Packer who wholeheartedly backed the ARL and his own commercial interests and rights to broadcast the traditional game.
28.
From 1999, Bob Fulton was a selector of the New South Wales and Australian sides.
29.
From 1997, Bob Fulton was a member of the Continuous Call Team, first on radio 2UE, and later on 2GB with Ray Hadley, Erin Molan, Darryl Brohman, Mark Levy, David Morrow and Mark Riddell.
30.
Bob Fulton was conscripted into the Army in 1968 and allotted to artillery.
31.
Bob Fulton was effectively exempted from active service by being posted to the School of Artillery in Manly NSW as a Physical Training Instructor, enabling him to pursue his professional football career while fulfilling his national service obligation.
32.
Bob Fulton spent time on HMAS Sydney taking the troops through PT during the voyage to South Vietnam.
33.
Bob Fulton was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985.
34.
In 1994 Bob Fulton was inducted as a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to rugby league football" and in 2000 he received the Australian Sports Medal.
35.
In February 2008, Bob Fulton was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.
36.
Bob Fulton went on to be named as an interchange player in Australian rugby league's Team of the Century.
37.
Bob Fulton was made a life member of the Sydney Cricket Ground and a plaque in the Walk of Honour there commemorates his career.
38.
Bob Fulton was a member of the Order of Australia.
39.
Bob Fulton is one of only two people to have gone on four Kangaroo Tours.
40.
Bob Fulton toured as a player in 1973 and 1978 and as team coach in 1990 and 1994.
41.
The other is Mal Meninga who made four tours as a player on the unbeaten 1982 and 1986 tours and as the team captain under Bob Fulton's coaching in both 1990 and 1994.
42.
Bob Fulton is the only person to have captained and coached Kangaroos touring teams on separate tours.
43.
Bob Fulton was laid to rest at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney on 4 June 2021, with hundreds of Australian sporting and media personalities in attendance.