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The name Griffin is synonymous with Queanbeyan Sporting Teams and
Clubs. Among other sporting attributes Bob Griffin has served the Queanbeyan Sporting Community as a player, coach, administrator, volunteer, sports medicine massage therapist, practical joker, supporter and developer of youth in the community along with involvement with various sporting and public personalities throughout Australia
The accolades flow without compromise when discussing Bobby Griffin among Queanbeyan people particularly when associating his time with the various sports and sporting clubs in Queanbeyan.
Bobby Griffin like many young men in the 1950’s through to the 1970’s often played the various football codes throughout any given season which meant playing different codes of footy on separate days over a weekend.
“Griffo” was one of many who tested his talents between Rugby League, Rugby Union and Australian Football often representing each code at the highest level available in the community. His playing records standalone being recognized as one of the only players to have played 100 1st Grade games in different codes for Queanbeyan – they are being for the Queanbeyan Blues and Queanbeyan Tigers.
He is also acknowledged as being an inaugural player of the Queanbeyan Whites Rugby Union team.
Off the playing arena when his playing days had concluded he tested the waters of Coachi
ng having held the senior position at the Queanbeyan Tigers in 1965.
Although unsuccessful he still has fond memories of those days. In fact, his association with the Queanbeyan Tigers spans over 60 years and includes being a player, coach, chairman of selectors (in the seventies) – to the current day as a sports massage therapist – a position he has held on and off for over 25 years.
He has had a long association with the Canberra Raiders which commenced in 1983 when employment with the local bus company as a driver saw him transporting the Raiders team up and down the Hume Highway when playing in Sydney. From that experience, he combined his love of Rugby League with Sports Massage and became the Raiders Official Sports Massage Therapist, a position he held for approx. 23 years.
He held the Sports Massage Therapist position with the Raiders during the glory years including the premiership and grand final years.
His knowledge of Sports Injuries and his ability to get sportsmen and sportswomen back “on the track” as a Massage Therapist became world renown. His services were called upon by the NSW Rugby League State of Origin team on many occasions as well as the Australian Super Rugby League team with the highlight being a tour of England.
In addition to services to Rugby League he has also assisted many other sporting and prominent identities not just within our local community but Australia wide include former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, Surf Lifesaving Champions Dean and Darren Mercer, King of Tonga, Kickboxing Champion Karen O’Brian, the Fainagaa Boys who went onto represent the Brumbies, Melbourne Rebels and Queensland Reds in the Super Rugby Union competition and Body Shaping Award Winner Marina Rech.
Much to the “delight” his wonderful wife Alice of 60 years, he has a designated room in the home adorned with photos of sporting identities and others of whom he has practiced his sporting massage expertise on along with other sporting memorabilia that he has collected along the way.
Bobby Griffin is a LEGEND in his own right. He is a wonderful example of a sports person who has given back to the Queanbeyan Community and to others in Australia and elsewhere by way being involved in sport well after his playing days had concluded.
Many of the hours performed have been voluntary in addition to the hours of service given to Forbes House in Queanbeyan where he tended to the elderly for 5 or 6 years.
He is a lovable character. A person of high integrity. A great example of an Australian Sport person with varying fields of talent and expertise. Everyone knows Bobby Griffin.
He has given back to the Queanbeyan Community three-fold for what he has taken out and continues to be an achiever at age 82.
He would be a worthy recipient of an Australia Day – Queanbeyan Citizen of the Year Award.
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