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Tony Rafferty |
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Tony Rafferty was born and educated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. As a student he excelled at sport and represented Ireland as a schoolboy international at soccer against England, Scotland and Wales, traveling to those countries on tour. His brother emigrated to Australia in 1958. Tony learned of the opportunities available and followed his brother two years later at age 21. Their sister and parents were to follow a few years later. In Australia, he initially gained employment in the steel industry in Wollongong and Maitland, playing soccer in those places and later in Tasmania. Eventually he moved to Melbourne where he entered the fitness industry as a gymnasium instructor at the Golden Bowl Health Club in Camberwell and later managed a number of fitness studios. As part of the promotion of the fitness studios, he did a three day run in the Camberwell area with World Vision being the beneficiary. Tony organized the publicity through a public relations form and the running feat attracted huge media interest. Tony learned of an achievement by a Mexican athlete who broke a World Record for the three day’s non stop walking. He then decided, in collaboration with athletics coach Percy Cerutty, to make an attempt on the record. Percy crewed for Tony throughout the event. This feat also attracted huge media attention, with TV personalities Jimmy Hannan, John Bailey and Brian Smith walking several laps with Tony. The attempt took place at Olympic Park Melbourne in July 1971. Tony was to achieve 218 miles in 69.5 hours, breaking the record. Readers may remember the feat of Percy Cerutty (HOF, Ulramag June 2005) running from Portsea to Melbourne in 1946. One of Tony’s earliest running achievements was to run from Portsea to Melbourne and return (120 miles) which he did in January 1972. Undoubtedly this would have been in collaboration with Percy and, again, was to attract huge media interest. Although there was an earlier feat of running from Melbourne to Sydney (Alf Robinson, 1931), Tony became the first person, in January 1973, to run from Sydney to Melbourne (1,058 km). The publicity at the finish again attracted intense media attention. This feat, combined with his many other ultra road running feats in the 1970’s led to the establishment of the famous and well-documented Westfield Sydney to Melbourne races, conducted from 1983 to 1991 (incl). In 1973 Tony was to be sponsored by Kelloggs. His was the face that helped launch Nutri-Grain in it’s promotion as a health food for athletes. Tony became known in some circles as the ‘Kellogg’s Kid’. In August to October 1973 Tony became the first person to run from Fremantle on the West Coast to the Gold Coast on the East Coast (3,686 miles), in the process becoming the first person to run across the Nullarbor Plain. This was a very interesting experience as George Perdon (HOF Sep 2005 issue of Ultramag) decided to emulate Tony’s feat, starting a week later than Tony. George was a world record holder at many distances and at that stage a faster runner than Tony. It is now history that George was first into Sydney by a day, but Tony of course, continued on to the Gold Coast, an additional 789 miles. In November/December 1974, Tony became the first person to run the length of the Birdsville Track (574 km) which he achieved in 6 days and 5 hours. Later, in December that year, he ran for 50 hours non-stop on a circuit in Sydney, achieving 325kms, finishing on the David Frost television show. In 1975 he ran from Bathurst to Bondi a distance of 214 km, in 30 hours: 45 min and later that year ran from Newcastle to Sydney and return, a distance of 346km, in 49:30. In 1978 Tony ran from Melbourne to Sydney and return [a distance of 1,761 km] in 18:04:30, breaking the world 1,000 miles road record in the process. Tony then truly gained the attention of the world by running through Death Valley, California in mid-summer. The run was from Shoshone to Scotty’s Castle, a distance of 207 km which he achieved in 2 days and 6 hours. The temperatures reached 58 degrees Celsius by day and not dropping below 33 degrees at night. Tony credits his performance to good planning & preparation and a very capable crew, which included a Death Valley ranger. In 1983 Tony contested the first of the Westfield Sydney-Melbourne events (864km) placing fifth. This was really a match race between he and George Perdon but the race was won by Colac potato farmer and, at that time, relatively unknown Cliff Young, who will be featured in a later HOF article. Tony went on to contest seven of the nine Westfield’s, placing in the top ten on four occasions. He said “The Westfield races were the toughest I’ve ever encountered by far”. “In one of these early races, I lost so much body weight and looked so haggard that even my own sister didn’t recognize me at the finish”. Tony has contested 10 Colac Six Day races (now known as the Cliff Young Colac Six Day race), with a best of 743 kms achieved in 1984. In 1984 Tony contested the historic Six day race in New York, the one in which Yiannis Kouros burst into prominence by breaking George Littlewood’s 93 year old record. Tony said “This race was run in the most atrocious conditions. Yiannis not only proved what a great runner he is, but was the only runner prepared to continue running through several inches of water on the track in the midst of fierce electrical storms”. In 1986 Tony ran 1,000 miles around country Victoria in 15days:22:01 In the summer of 1986 he ran a 381 km section of the Simpson Desert in a match race against Ron Grant. Grant was first to reach Birdsville. Later in 1986 he ran 1,000 miles from Bundaberg to Cairns. The last 187 km were completed on the harness racing track at the Cairns Showgrounds to make up the total distance. The time was 15:06:48. In 1986 Tony contested a 1,000 mile International race in Hull, UK, on a one mile circuit. He won the race in 14:16:45:11 which still stands as a British 1,000 mile road record. In 1989 Tony contested the 1,000 mile Rotoract Challenge at the Granville Athletic track, NSW, winning the event by six hours from a then much younger Pat Farmer in 14:11:59:04 creating a World track record that would stand for five years. This win was all the sweeter as it carried $5,000 prizemoney on a winner-take-all basis. Tony contested the Sri Chinmoy 1,300 mile race in New York in 1991, placing fourth with 903 miles. In 1993 Tony ran a match race against Dave Taylor from Sydney to Melbourne and return [1,750 km.] Tony withdrew at 1675 km which he achieved in 18:08:30. This was conducted during daylight hours only [6 am until 6 pm.] In 1995 Tony contested a Seven Day Race in New York, placing sixth. Tony’s career in 25 years of running was most distinguished. He has probably run more long runs than any other known ultrarunner, clocking up more than 32,000 km in races and documented solo runs. He certainly had no peer when it came to attracting publicity for his own running feats or the sport of ultrarunning in general. The sport of ultra running can be thankful for his prowess and success in this regard. It was through his achievements and the publicising of them that ultra running in Australia became well known and his feats were the catalyst for the development of the Westfield Sydney-Melbourne races. Tony was elected as Vice President of the Australian Ultra Runners Association upon its inception in 1987, a position he held for 13 years. He was elected a Life Member of AURA in 2004 for his services to the administration of ultrarunning. Tony Rafferty, more so than any other person, can rightfully be regarded as the pioneer of ultra running in Australia. He has won many honours, decorations and awards including: Tony has now returned to his early love – soccer - coaching students at Ivanhoe Grammar School and at the Soccer Academy (Football Federation Victoria). Compiled by AURA President Ian Cornelius from AURA records and from information furnished by Tony Rafferty.
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