Australia has always and will continue to be a great sport-loving and I discovered that even more getting involved in sports reporting.

Greg Norman was not only winning at home but he was enjoying enormous success around the world and so too were other Australians in their chosen sport whether it was cricket, rugby league and also a prior unknown Wayne ‘Wollongong Wizard’ Gardner who was bringing motor-cycle racing to the fore like never before.

Gardner capped his career capturing the 1987 World 500cc Motor Cycle Championship and in that same year Pat Cash brilliantly won Wimbledon.

Motor cycle GP racing was becoming that popular every race, and no matter where it was being held, was shown on Australian TV and it became so popular in 1987 that Gardiner won the coveted ‘Australian Sportsman of the Year’ and in the process denying Cash, who had beaten Ivan Lendl in the Wimbledon final.

Looking to cash-in on the sports growing popularity, a brand-new race track was opened in 1990 at Eastern Creek to the west of Sydney with a goal of attracting an Australian Motor Cycle Grand Prix.

Thanks to the popularity I would also attend, while in Europe, rounds of the 500cc World Motor-Cycle Championship and taking me to such famed race tracks as Le Mans, Assen, Donnington Park, Spa and the Österreichring in Austria.

As well, I found my way seeking media accreditation to some of the famed cricket grounds in England to report on Australia’s efforts against the arch foes.  I was present in 1993 at Old Trafford with Shane Warne bowled the ‘Ball of the Century’, and with my golf reporting seeing present at Royal St. George’s when Greg Norman won a second Open Championship and with the Australian winning Ashes Team present to see Norman handed the Claret Jug by Gene Sarazen.

In reporting on the 500cc championships led me to become friendly with a number of the riders including Australia’s Kevin Magee and the Americans Rainey and his fierce Texas-born and long-time rival Kevin Schwantz.

Schwantz grew-up in Houston, and it’s possible to say the local neighbours wouldn’t know the reason for his and his parents to just pack-up for some seven to eight months each year and travel Europe, and then on the flipside of that Schwantz, and other legendary motor sports stars, could not walk down a street in Spain, Holland or wherever in Europe without being recognised and mobbed for autographs.

For the GP motor-bike riders, and like any motor sport, it was all about being the fastest but then so many enjoyed one of the quietest and also one of the slowest games in the world – golf.  They would carry their golf clubs with them tucked away in these massive motor homes.

Indeed, I also vividly recall undertaking a swing sequence for Australian Golf Digest with Magee one day close to the start/finish line at Donnington Park race circuit in England, and on that small portion of grass between the crash barrier and the race track.  Didn’t we get some looks if to say:  “What the hell are those two doing swinging a golf club at a race track?”

And much akin to the F1 drivers, many of the 500cc riders enjoyed their golf so much that soon after a practice session and the usual debriefing, they would find their way to a local golf course for a round.

Schwantz was no exception.  He loved his golf and there was times when a leading Australasian Tour event would be taking place in Sydney and Schwantz would be invited to tee-up in the Pro-Am.  Also, I recall the local Channel Seven network, who had the rights to the golf, actually interviewed Schwantz on the range ahead of the leading groups teeing-off and quizzed him not on how his off-season practice was going his love of golf.

Kevin Schwantz doing was he did best

And what I found as beneficial in my early journalist career is the teams would travel to Australia in the off-season to practice with their new machines and/or team mates.   I had struck-up friendships with many European-based journalists covering GP motor cycle racing and I would send them reports of the individual team’s ‘Down Under’ testing.

So, on top of reporting Australasian Tour golf for the likes of Golf Illustrated and newspapers such as the Daily Record, Express and Irish Independent, I was also reporting on off-season GP motor-cycle testing.  Each proved very profitable and what a reception I would receive visiting my local Sydney bank with cheques originating from the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, France and Holland.

Kevin and myself became friendly enough that we talked often about golf.  He would ask me about the tournaments I attended and I would be quizzing him on his endeavours.  There was one occasion, and while he was in Sydney, when he asked where was the next tournament on the PGA Tour.  It was just prior to Christmas and he was staying on in Sydney for testing before heading off early January to return home to Texas.  I remember saying to him: “Probably, the Hawaiian Open.”  He said:  “I might go there.”

Kevin kept his word as two-time PGA Tour winning Aussie, Brett Ogle told me the tale of being on the practice putting green ahead of teeing-up in a round of the Hawaiian Open and here’s this fellow in the crowd looking on, and much to Bretts surprise, he’s going:  “Pssst, pssst, Brett?”  It was Schwantz.

Kevin Schwantz …. Starts-105,  Wins-25, Podiums-51, Fastest laps-29.

So, here is where I get the headline for this tale.

Kevin and I had played a couple of rounds of golf together including this one Sunday morning on the ultra-private Australian Club in Sydney, and venue for many leading Australian tournaments including last December’s 2018 Australian Open.

Joining us on this very crisp summer Sunday morning was Brian ‘BJ’ Johnson, then Head of News at Sydney’s Radio 2MMM-FM and who I also owe so much in my then fledging career, and to this day remains a very close friend.

I cannot recall who arranged for us to play The Australian early that December in 1992 but it was getting so cold that after we putted out on the ninth, Kevin wanted to stop by the Pro Shop and buy a pullover to wear over the back nine.

Now, we are playing in short socks (though not sure if ‘BJ’ was) and no sooner had we stepped into the Pro Shop and there was the comment: “Excuse gentlemen.  You cannot tee-up wearing short socks.”

Kevin responded in his Texas accent saying something to the effect: “But we’ve just played the front nine and no-one said a thing.”

The response from the Pro Shop was something akin: “No sorry, you have to be wearing long socks.  Club rules”.

Long socks?  Those horrible-looking socks that came up to just below your kneecap.  Actually, you could pull them up over your kneecap if you didn’t fold over the top of the sock.

Long socks?  Those horrible-looking socks I remember my father wearing every Saturday morning to competition at his beloved Castle Cove club in Sydney.

However, this particular pro shop staffer had us over a barrell.  Kevin bought two pairs of long white socks and we completed our round at the Australian Club wearing long socks.

At the end of the next year, 1993, Kevin was crowned World 500cc Motor Cycle Champion and when he retired a few years later administrators of the sport withdrew his race number – 34 – in his honour.

I still have at home in Sydney, and still in mint condition, a very expensive-looking Lucky Strike red leather jacket with black sleeves he gifted to me and high-up on one of the sleeves is his autograph.

And it has been good to read in checking a few dates and so on over the ‘net’ that Kevin kept himself involved in motor sport.

If I get back to Texas, and I have been to so many Houston Open’s and Valero Texas Open’s, I must try and make the effort to catch-up with him as that would be very special.

And I will have in my hand a very special gift – a pair of those bloody-awful long socks!