A brief history of great code switchers

So Queensland Rugby League pin up boy Karmichael Hunt has announced today his intention to leave the code that has made him a household name and join the AFL’s newest franchise, the Gold Coast Football Club, in a three year deal from 2011.

Hunt’s decision had blindsided (sorry) the Rugby League establishment — with League legends such as Wally Lewis slamming Hunt as “greedy” while others have questioned the move as nothing more than a publicity stunt to enhance the Gold Coast’s public standing in an already cluttered football market.

Whatever the reason or outcome, here at Crikey we thought that any measured analysis has to contain a brief look back at the history of sportsmen and women who have changed codes and judge their various successes/failures on those grounds.

Without further ado here’s Crikey’s list of Code Switch hitters:

1) Michael Jordan. Basketball legend Michael “Air” Jordan did just about anything that could be done on a basketball court. He won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, five NBA MVPs, twice won the NBA dunking contest, won two Olympic Gold Medals, had the coolest ever basketball boots named after him, featured in the “most rad” 1980s Commodore 64 computer game ever,  Jordan vs. Bird: One on One, and won just about anything and everything that you could win in basketball. After retiring a legend in 1993 he surprised everybody and took up baseball, signing up with the minor league’s Chicago White Sox.  However the king of the court was quickly found out as anything but a diamond when it came to baseball. As the New York Times wrote on April 12, 1994:

Michael Jordan has barely begun to translate his incomparable basketball skills to the baseball field … As each day passes, it becomes clearer that Mr. Jordan’s baseball venture is not simply a publicity stunt choreographed by the White Sox or a quick and painless segue from one sport to another.

Needless to say Jordan’s attempt to code switch hit was an epic fail.

2) The 1988 Jamaica national bobsled team. The highlight for the Jamaican bobsled team that competed in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Canada, was not that these reformed sprinters and Jamaican military recruits managed to adopt a sport as foreign to them as a funny John Candy movie, it’s that John Candy starred in a 1993 movie about them called Cool Runnings.

As the San Jose Mercury News wrote on February 13, 1988:

Don’t confuse the Jamaican bobsled team with those other Caribbean bobsledders entered in the Winter Olympics, the ones from Netherlands Antilles and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These guys mean business. They’re not in Canada to play around. They’re not going to win a medal, either.

That’s a five star effort for code switch hitting as far as we’re concerned.

3) Simon O’Donnell. O’Donnell played 24 games of Australian Rules football for St Kilda  in the VFL  in 1982 and 83 kicking 18 goals. In 1985 he walked away from football to play cricket.  O’Donnell played six Tests for Australia and 87 One Day Internationals. He was a big hitting all rounder who’s personality and good looks made him a public favourite in the heady days of 1980s cricket. He also won his battle with cancer which only further endeared him to the public, especially the sports mad Victorian public.

As the Sydney Morning Herald reported on January 4, 1985:

Simon O’Donnell,the 21 year old Victorian cricket all rounder, gave himself an outside chance of national selection in the next two or three years … O’Donnell shocked St Kilda Football Club officials when he retired from the Victorian Football League at the end of last year to concentrate on cricket.

That’s a code switch hit that cleared the boundary.

Honourable mentions:

• Adrian Barich: Played 47 games for The West Coast Eagles in the VFL/AFL between 1987 and 1994 before switching to a rather unsuccessful career for the NRL’s Western Reds.
• Jamie Siddons:  Siddons played 2 games for the Sydney Swans in 1984 before becoming a prolific run scorer at first class level in Australian cricket, Siddons plundered 10,643 runs for Victoria and South Asutralia.
• Brock Lesnar: A prominent wrester in the WWE, Lesnar switched to Mixed Martial Arts in 2007  where he won the UFC Heavyweight Championship in 2008.
• Jeff Wilson: Wilson, the “Double All Black”, played four One Day Internationals in cricket for New Zealand in 1992-93 before embarking on a successful Rugby Union career, playing in 60 Tests for his country. (Thanks to Fakeheadlines for the heads up).
• Max Walker: Walker, aka “Tangles”, played 85 games for the Melbourne Football CLub in the then VFL before turning his attention to cricket where he blossomed as a fiery fast bowler taking 138 wickets in 34 Tests for Australia. He also played in 17 One Day internations. (Crikey reader Michael Strasser couldn’t believe I’d left Walker out, “Max used to be my hero because he played footy for Melbourne and cricket for Australia. How could you forget big Max?”)

Please email me at ljosey@crikey.com.au with any further suggestions.