Ian Heads | |
|---|---|
 Heads in 2015 | |
| Born | Ian John Heads 15 February 1943 Rose Bay, Sydney, Australia |
| Died | 25 March 2024 (aged 81) |
| Occupation | Historian, journalist, author, sportswriter |
| Language | English |
| Education | Sydney Boys High |
| Website | |
| www | |
Ian John Heads OAM (15 February 1943 – 25 March 2024) was an Australian historian, journalist, commentator and author. He was described as "Australia's foremost rugby league historian" by the National Museum of Australia.[1]
In the reconstruction period following World War II, sport was exceptionally prominent in Australian society. Like many of his contemporaries, Heads was a sports-mad preteen and teenager. After completing high school, he began work as a copy boy in the early 1960s for the Sydney Daily Telegraph, but soon rose through the ranks to become the main journalist covering rugby league for most of his long career. At times, he also wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Herald-Sun.[2] He also spent some years as the much praised editor of the magazine Rugby League Week.
Heads wrote more than 50 books, mostly on rugby league personalities, but also significant books on other sports, and some books of general interest. He also wrote a comprehensive history of Australian sport since 1788, histories of rugby league in general, and chronicles of several sporting clubs.
Most of his sport articles and reports on events such as the Olympic Games, the Australian national rugby league team and the Rugby League World Cup, national and international swimming, Davis Cup and international tennis were in newspapers and magazines. He also contributed to other works in collaboration with David Middleton, Gary Lester, Norman Tasker and Geoff Armstrong.
- ^ National Museum, of Australia (2008). League of Legends: 100 years of Rugby League in Australia. Canberra: National Museum of Australia Press. p. 41. ISBN 9781876944643.
- ^ Tribune, The National (19 July 2023). "George Piggins and Ian Heads Inducted into the NRL Hall of Fame". The National Tribune. Retrieved 17 September 2023.