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7 August, 2024
Last man standing: Fred Brophy's still bringing boxing to the bush
The Aussie icon says his tent will be the last of its kind.
What can be written about Fred Brophy that hasn’t been said before?
The honorary North West citizen has led the cheers, jeers and beers from his iconic boxing tent at the Mount Isa Rodeo for more than four decades.
And he is returning again this week, albeit at his new home at the Isa Hotel in the CBD.
Brophy and his sideshow convoy were rolling towards Winton when North West Weekly spoke to him down the line from the patchy reception along the Landsborough highway.
He says he always looks forward to returning to Cloncurry – where he brought his show to the Merry Muster – and Mount Isa because it’s where he first made a name for himself.
“Mount Isa is the toughest town in Australia – you’ve got miners, you’ve got ringers, you’ve got labourers and you’ve got rodeo riders – and they all don’t like each other – so when they all get into town, they take it out on each other in my tent,” Brophy laughs.
“That’s why the police are always happy when I am in town.”
He gets stopped in the street in the North West. People know him – want to share their memories of the tent and want to know how he’s been going.
At 72 years old and living a quieter life on Bribie Island, he says there won’t be another permit given to operate a boxing tent after he retires.
A spruiker’s spruiker – Brophy
says he is proud to be called the “last showman.”
He is known as much for his catch cries outside the boxing tent as he is for what happens inside.
“Give ’im a rally on the bells and drums,” you’ll hear him call.
The names of his tent pugilists are legendary – Beaver, Friendly Mauler, Afro Savage, Chopstix and Mangrove Jack.
Even his uniform is iconic – the dog eared Akubra, the red silk shirt hanging forlorn over his workman’s jeans and boots. The tired whistle around his neck.
He’s been profiled in every media outlet from the New York Times to ESPN. There are articles in Chinese, Italian and Spanish spinning yarns from his tent.
He has an Order of Australia, an autobiography on the bookshelves and a spot in the Queensland Boxing Hall of Fame.
Brophy says he has been shot at, had spears thrown at him and chopped parts of his fingers off in a failed jailbreak.
The fourth-generation showman cut his teeth in the heyday of bush sideshow alleys.
“Slim Dusty, Chad Morgan – there are lots of well-known people from those days that are still remembered – I grew up with all of them. They were my mates when I was a kid,” he said.
Brophy says he last caught up with Slim Dusty at the Isa Rodeo shortly before the equally legendary Australian singer-songwriter died.
Slim signed a pair of boxing gloves that Brophy says holds pride of place at his home.
Decades on, he says he still receives regular calls, emails and social media outreach from boxers across the country who want to climb into the ring at his famous tent.
“They know it’s a little piece of Australiana that we still have. It is something for their bucket list,” he said.
“I’ll give anyone a go who wants to have a go.”
“The tent belongs to the people of Australia – I’m just running it for them.”