Australia's Greatest All-Rounder

We all knew that one kid in PE class that was good at every sport they tried. Well, Peter Mullins was that kid. He was sport-obsessed and had a natural ability to pick up new skills like it was nothing. So much so, that Peter became a champion athlete in many of them, earning him the unofficial title of Australia's greatest all-rounder. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Peter Mullins was an Australian basketball player. No wait, Olympic
to Kathleen, sorry he threw javelins. He was a pole vaulter,
hockey player, swimmer, footy player. We've all known a guy
like Peter Mullins that one minute in Pe who's good
at everything. It's just Peter decided to go and be

(00:25):
a world champion about it. Hey, I'm Tony Armstrong and
welcome to the pool room. This is where we celebrate
the winners, losers and the weird stuff between. Peter Mullins

(01:03):
was actually a pe teacher. He was the definition of
living and breathing sport, trying his hand at pretty much
everything as what was the sports I already listed, which
was most of the ones that exist. He played table tennis,
regular tennis, soccer, water polo and rugby league and union.

(01:26):
He started pole vault when he was fifteen and from
there he just kept adding on more events until he
had a hold to cathalon. In case you're not across it,
a decathlon is a one hundred meters sprint, long jump,
shot put, high jump and four hundred meters sprint. Then
you go get some sleep and on the second day
you do on one hundred and ten meter hurdles, discuss

(01:48):
pole vault, javelin and fifteen hundred meter run. He was
bloody good at to Cathalon's in nineteen forty seven, aged twenty,
he smashed Theustralian record by more than five hundred points.
That's a lot of points. To put it in context,
the current world record is more than nine thousand points.

(02:14):
World War II put the Australian to Cathlon Championship on
indefinite hiatus, but Mullins simply went out and won medals
in various other track and field events. In nineteen forty eight,
after his string of wins in running, throwing and jumping,
things were looking good for a Game's Berth. Selectors told
newspapers at the time that Mullins would be a shoe

(02:36):
in as long as he could quote forego some of
the successes of single or double event specialization. He needed
to stop being incredible at individual things and focus on
being incredible at ten of them at once. Anyway, he
went to London where he placed sixth, breaking the Australian
record again in the process, then won another goal to

(02:57):
the Australian National champs once again. Making his own record
for But here's the twist. Track and field isn't even
what Peter Mullins is great at. In fact, he only
went to the Olympics once. At this time, chins were
wagging for another reason. People were starting to recognize his

(03:17):
talent in other sports, namely basketball. Being six foot four
and ninety kilos made him an obvious candidate as soon
as he picked up the ball. The papers were obsessed.
Jerno's called him an inspiration, Australia's most versatile athlete and
probably one of Australia's greatest all rounders of all time.

(03:43):
Then came an offer he couldn't refuse, a college track
scholarship in Washington. It was, he told newspapers at the time,
the hardest decision he had ever had to make. After
years of playing every possible sport simultaneously, Peter Mullins was
forced to narrow down his incredible sporting curriculum like just

(04:03):
a little at Washington State University, he could be a
basketballer and an athlete. When the famous Harlem globetrot Has
toured Australia in nineteen fifty four, they brought along Peter
Mullins and his Boston Whirlwinds so they'd have someone to beat.
After playing b ball while he was studying, he moved

(04:25):
to Canada and became a coach at the University of
British Columbia the Thunderbirds. That country, so far from his
beginnings in Sydney, would become his spiritual basketball home. From
repping Canada at the World Basketball Tournament in Chile to
leading the next generation of champions, Mullens shonnas coach, but
his nineteen sixty nine seventy teen was his real crowning glory.

(04:48):
That squad won the title of Canadian University champions by
a monster twenty one points, finishing unbeaten against its Canadian
competition and landing at a spot in the UBC Sports
Hall of Fame. Mullins himself was inducted two years later.

(05:09):
For two decades, he was head basketball coach of the Thunderbirds,
the second longest head coaching role in the college's history. Together,
he and his teams won three hundred and thirty seven
games against local and US teams, including seven Western Canadian
Championships and two Canadian University Championships, and he's remembered with
the kind of reverence and admiration you'd expect. He was

(05:32):
inducted into the British Columbia Basketball Hall of Fame in
two thousand and four and Canadian into University Sports still
awards the Doctor Peter Mullins Trophy to the men's basketball
Rookie of the Year. When he died in twenty twelve,
back in his home country of Australia, he was the

(05:53):
longest serving men's basketball coach in the history of British
Columbia University. Peter Mullins was a basketballer. He was a decathlete.
He played first class Aussie rules, first class rugby union,
represented his country on the world stage, played A grade
tennis and was regarded as one of New South Wales's
best table tennis players. But what he was really good

(06:15):
at was loving the sport, whatever it happened to be,
being part of a team, or showing others they could
be champions too. That's what made Peter Mullins a truel rounder.

(06:41):
Thanks for dropping by the pool room. You've been listening
to an iHeart production. I'm Tony Armstrong. Catch you in
the next episode. Yeah,