39 Facts About Nicholas Shehadie

Nicholas Shehadie was President of the Australia Rugby Union from 1980 to 1987; in that role he pushed for and succeeded in persuading the International Rugby Board to launch the Rugby World Cup.

Nicholas Shehadie is an inductee into both the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame and the IRB Hall of Fame.

Nicholas Michael Shehadie was born to a Lebanese Greek Orthodox family in the beachside Sydney suburb of Coogee.

Nicholas Shehadie was the third of five children born to Hannah and Michael Shehaidie, who arrived in Sydney from Lebanon in 1923, two years before Nicholas was born.

The young Nicholas Shehadie embraced Sydney's sporting lifestyle and joined the Coogee Surf Club where many of the surfers were avid rugby players, Keith and Colin Windon among them.

Nicholas Shehadie joined the Randwick Rugby Club and was first picked as a replacement in first grade when he was still aged fifteen.

Nicholas Shehadie made his first representative appearance for New South Wales against a Combined Services side at age sixteen.

Nicholas Shehadie dislocated his shoulder in the fourth tour match against Cardiff but recovered to make 24 tour appearances including the final two Tests against England and France.

Nicholas Shehadie finished the tour in the Wallabies side that met the Barbarians in their inaugural match against an international touring team.

Nicholas Shehadie made representative appearances against the New Zealand Maori in 1949 and that year toured New Zealand in Trevor Allan's team which for the first time in history returned victorious with the Bledisloe Cup.

Nicholas Shehadie made further representative showings against the British and Irish Lions in 1950, the All Blacks in 1951 and Fiji in 1952.

Nicholas Shehadie made his second tour of New Zealand in 1952 and then on the 1953 Wallaby tour of South Africa he was honoured with the Australian captaincy in eight tour matches and in one Test.

Nicholas Shehadie continued to represent at the highest level from 1954 to 1956 and then in 1957 he made history as the first Wallaby to repeat a tour of the British Isles and Europe.

Nicholas Shehadie was signally honoured however when he became the first tourist to be asked to play for the Barbarians in the final tour match against his own team.

All up, Nicholas Shehadie made 175 appearances for Randwick in a 16-year club career.

Nicholas Shehadie worked in the 1950s selling fire doors and securities systems for Wormald Industries and later became a sales manager with an asphalt company.

Nicholas Shehadie ran on a ticket with the Civic Reform Association, a non-aligned ratepayers' association.

Nicholas Shehadie was elected and then served a second term from 1966.

Nicholas Shehadie was instrumental in an administration that presided over the development of Martin Place including its beautification and closure to traffic.

Nicholas Shehadie was in office at the time of the opening of the Sydney Opera House by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973.

Nicholas Shehadie officiated at visits by Charles, Prince of Wales in 1972 and by Anne, Princess Royal in 1974.

Nicholas Shehadie was in office during the Green Bans when the New South Wales Builders' Labourers Federation led a campaign to protect the built and natural environment of Sydney's Woolloomooloo area from excessive development.

In 1973 Nicholas Shehadie stood for Liberal Party preselection for the seat of Parramatta with the support of future prime minister John Howard, losing by one vote to Philip Ruddock.

Nicholas Shehadie was appointed as Chairman of the Special Broadcasting Service in 1981, and served that organisation until 1999.

Nicholas Shehadie served as patron to The Infants' Home Child and Family Services during his wife's Marie Bashir tenure as Governor.

Nicholas Shehadie was an active patron, opening new childcare centres in 2013.

Nicholas Shehadie was appointed Chairman of the New South Wales Rugby Union in 1979, a position which gave him a seat on the Australian Rugby Union board, where he was immediately selected Deputy President.

Nicholas Shehadie was instrumental in the schoolboy rule changes which outlawed forceful scrum engagements aimed to avoid neck injuries and make schoolboy rugby safer.

Nicholas Shehadie was first involved in discussions regarding a Rugby World Cup from 1983 when the ARU raised the matter with the International Rugby Football Board.

Nicholas Shehadie retired after the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup and was made a life member of the ARU.

On 24 October 2011, at the IRB Awards ceremony in Auckland, Nicholas Shehadie was inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame in recognition of his role in the creation of the Rugby World Cup.

Nicholas Shehadie had been a member of the Sydney Cricket Ground for 29 years when in 1978 he was invited by the New South Wales Minister for Sport, Ken Booth, to become a Trustee.

Nicholas Shehadie served as Trustee of the SCG from 1978 to 2001 and was chairman from 1990 to 2001.

Nicholas Shehadie's grandfather Nicholas Shehadie was a clergyman in the Antioch Orthodox Church who migrated from Lebanon in 1910 and later became the head of that church in Australia and New Zealand.

In February 1957, Nick Nicholas Shehadie married Marie Bashir.

Nicholas Shehadie was the Governor of New South Wales between 2001 and 2014.

Nicholas Shehadie lived in Mosman with his wife from 1960 until his death.

Nicholas Shehadie died aged 91 on 11 February 2018 and was granted a state funeral which was presided over by the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies at St James' Church on 22 February 2018.

Nicholas Shehadie was buried privately at Waverley Cemetery in Bronte, Sydney, New South Wales.