Jimmy Sharman

Background

Sharman junior was born in Narrandera, New South Wales. He attended his first Sydney Royal Easter Show in 1926 working in his father"s tent.

Career

Born in Narellan, New South Wales Jimmy Sharman Senior had established a boxing tent in 1911 at Ardlethan near Temora. The tent visited 45 to 50 shows each year. The tent formed part of the Australian Show landscape until 1971, when regulations barred boxers fighting more than once a week.

Sharman junior played rugby league for Western Suburbs Magpies.

In 1938 he became First Grade captain. He retired after 7 seasons in 1939 to become a journalist, taking over the boxing tent from his father in 1955.

Sharman played 45 games between 1935 and 1939, scored 12 tries and kicked 11 goals. He was awarded life membership in 1998.

Many famous boxers worked in the Sharman tent, including:

Graham Burns, Jeff Burns, Ted Burns, Charlie Burns

Teddy Green (bantamweight)

Harry Mack (featherweight)

Mickey Miller (bantam and featherweight)

George Cook (heavyweight)

Jack Hassen (lightweight)

Billy Grime (triple titleholder)

Jackie Green (triple titleholder)

Dave Sands Aboriginal boxer

Greg McNamara (light-heavyweight)

Famous Indigenous Australians to work in the tent include:

George Bracken, Aboriginal lawyer

Geoff Clark, former ATSIC chairperson

Max Stuart, convicted murderer and Arrente elder

Some boxers came from the Cherbourg Aboriginal mission, near Nanango, Queensland.

In 2003 the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales honoured Sharman Junior. with the title of "Show Legend". The Australian rock band Midnight Oil"s 1984 album Red Sails in the Sunset includes the song "Jimmy Sharman"s Boxers" whose lyrics assert that Sharman exploited the Aboriginal boxers he employed in his show. The Australian rock band Cold Chisel"s song "Yesterdays" has lyrics which refer to Jimmy Sharman"s boxers.

The 2007 Peter Carstairs film September features its main characters - 15-year-old boys Editor and Paddy - setting up a boxing ring on Editor"s family"s wheatbelt property in anticipation of a visit by Sharman"s boxing troupe.

Paddy later joins the troupe. Jimmy Sharman Junior"s son Jim Sharman became a theatre and film director known especially for the musicals Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Show, and the movie version, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

One Paul Kelly track, "Rally Around the Drum", written with Archie Roach, was about an Indigenous tent boxing manitoba

Achievements

• He was fullback in Western Suburbs" 1934 premiership win. Frank Burns (middleweight champion).

Connections

Partner:

Regional Grundy