Gary Knight

Gary Knight won a medal but didn’t make too much of a splash at the 1974 Commonwealth Games. However, he certainly connected with sports fans over the next decade of his sports career.

Knight, born in Wellington in 1951, attended Mana College. The first sport in which he made a name for himself was wrestling, and he won the bronze medal in the super-heavyweight division of the wrestling in Christchurch. After that he turned his sports attention to rugby and became a fixture in the All Black team, eventually playing 66 matches for New Zealand, including 36 tests.

In Christchurch, Knight, 22, found that there were only five fighters entered in the super-heavyweight division – Willie Robertson of Scotland, Bill Benko of Canada, Bishwanath Singh of India, Buck Samrai of Australia and himself.

The burly Canadian Benko was best wrestler and required a total of only 2min 15s to pin both Robertson and Knight. Then Benko and Singh were both disqualified for being too passive. Knight had a bye, then lost to Benko by a fall after 1min 01s in his first outing. On the last day Knight and Robertson were both disqualified for being too passive during their bout, but oddly, this was enough for Knight to squeak through with a bronze medal.

Knight won one national wrestling title, in the 100kg division in 1973. 

If Knight’s wrestling effort was underwhelming, there is no arguing with his stature as a rugby player.

The tough, courageous prop represented Horowhenua and Manawatu at provincial level, including during Manawatu’s Ranfurly Shield reign in the late 1970s, and played for the All Blacks from 1977-86.

A dairy farmer, he had to miss some tours because of his farming commitments.

While playing for the All Blacks in the third test of the 1981 Springbok tour at Eden Park, Auckland, Knight was famously felled by a flour bomb dropped from a plane by protester Marx Jones. “It hit with a decent wallop,” he recalled. “There was probably a pound of flour in it and it knocked me to the ground. I had a headache afterwards.” Ironically, he scored his one test try in that match.

Nicknamed Axle, Knight formed a long-serving All Black front row with fellow prop John Ashworth and hooker Andy Dalton. They came to be known as the Geriatrics and that was the title of the book they collaborated on.

Knight’s rugby career ended soon after he toured South Africa with the rebel Cavaliers team in 1986. Like his team-mates he was suspended for two matches on his return for having undertaken the tour with the permission of the New Zealand Rugby Union.

Knight regained his test spot later in 1986 for two tests against the Wallabies, but then drifted out of top rugby.