Peter Ives, one of Queensland football’s great servants, has died aged 54.
Monday 13 June 2011
Peter Ives, one of Queensland football’s great servants, has died aged 54.
Ives, the 1978 Grogan Medalist and a member of the Queensland Football Hall of Fame, died on Sunday (12 June) following complications with heart surgery.
The ever-competitive left-footed rover had suffered a heart attack on Friday and was admitted for a quadruple bypass but failed to come through the surgery.
Originally from Toowoomba, Ives made his name with the Mayne Tigers, twice winning the Clem Ryan Medal for the best & fairest player in the QAFL U19 competition before playing more than 100 senior games with the Tigers from 1975-80.
He was the first Mayne player to win the Grogan Medal, named after long-time Mayne official J.A. “Joe’ Grogan, and was named in the Mayne Tigers Team of the Century.
A one-time Geelong VFL triallist and a member of the final 100 players nominated for the Queensland Team of the Century, he was a fixture in the Queensland team through late 1970s, playing 12 times for his State.
In 1983 he filled the one missing gap in his stellar career when, having moved to the Gold Coast to play with Southport, was a member of the Sharks’ premiership side in their first season in the QAFL in 1983.
A plumber by trade and a long-time merchant seaman, Ives was described by former teammate and long-time Queensland football official Shane Johnson as “a fearless and wonderful competitor” and “a gut runner before gut-running became fashionable”.
“He was absolutely fearless. He’d through himself head-first into every contest and was the sort of guy you’d love to go to war with. He was a team player through and through,” said Johnson.
“He wasn’t especially quick but he never stopped running – that’s how he got to so many contests and how we he was so effective. And although he didn’t kick the ball too sweetly at times he was a very penetrating kick.”
Ives, long-time divorced, leaves two children – son James, captain of the Queensland U16 side last year. and daughter Lauren.
