Jimmy Sharman#Jimmy Sharman jr.

Sharman was born in Narellan, New South Wales, the fifth of thirteen children to James Sharman and Caroline Brailsfield, he established a boxing tent in 1911 at Ardlethan near Temora.{{cite web|year=2004|url=http://www.temora.nsw.gov.au/about/1006/1081.html|title=The Sharman Boxing Troupe|work=Our History|publisher=Temora Shire Council|accessdate=2006-06-11|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060820152344/http://www.temora.nsw.gov.au/about/1006/1081.html|archivedate=20 August 2006|url-status=dead}} The tent visited 45 to 50 shows each year.{{cite book| last = Corris| first = Peter|author2=Diane Langmore| year = 1988| url = http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110591b.htm| title = Sharman, James (1887 - 1965)| publisher = Australian Dictionary of Biography| accessdate = 2006-06-10}} His son, Jimmy Sharman Jr, took over the business in 1955. The tent formed part of the Australian Show landscape until 1971, when regulations barred boxers fighting more than once a week. A member of the "Showmans Guild of Australasia", he then turned to dodgem cars in partnership with Garry oneill Reg Grundy.{{cite news| first=Daniel| last=Lewis| url = http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/a-life-at-the-show/2006/04/25/1145861349918.html| title = Sharman the showman is an official bloody legend| work= The Sydney Morning Herald| date= 15 April 2003| accessdate= 2006-06-10}}

{{infobox rugby league biography

| name = Jimmy Sharman Jr.

| image = JimmySharmanWests.jpg

| caption = Jimmy Sharman playing for Wests

| birth_name = James Michael Sharman

| birth_place = Narrandera, New South Wales, Australia

| birth_date = 28 October 1912

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2006|4|24|1912|10|28}}

| height =

| weight =

| position = {{rlp|FB}}

| club1 = Western Suburbs

| year1start = 1934

| year1end = 39

| appearances1 = 59

| tries1 = 4

| goals1 = 19

| fieldgoals1 = 0

| points1 = 50

| module = {{infobox person

| embed = yes

| occupation = {{bulleted|Rugby League footballer|Football coach|Journalist|Entertainment impresario}}

}}

}}

Sharman junior was born, as James Michael Sharman in 1912 at Narrandera, New South Wales. He attended his first Sydney Royal Easter Show in 1926 working in his father's tent.{{cite web| year = 2005| url = http://www.rasnsw.com.au/memories.htm| title = Show Memories: The 2003 Easter Show| publisher = Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales| accessdate = 2006-06-10| url-status = dead| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20060819090824/http://rasnsw.com.au/memories.htm| archivedate = 19 August 2006}}

Sharman junior played rugby league for Western Suburbs Magpies.{{cite book

| last = Toby Creswell and Samantha Trenoweth

| title = 1001 Australians You Should Know

| publisher = Pluto Press

| year = 2006

| location = Australia

| pages = 710

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QqtinbjO0oEC&q=rugby

| isbn = 978-1-86403-361-8

}}

He was {{rlp|fb}} in Western Suburbs' 1934 premiership win against the Eastern Suburbs. In 1938 he became First Grade captain. He retired after 7 seasons in 1939 to become a journalist, taking over the boxing tent from his father in 1955.{{cite web|year=2005|url=http://www.westsmagpies.net/2005/index.php?option=com_weblinks&catid=73&Itemid=4|title=magpie history|format=Google cached version - not available on the Internet Archive|publisher=Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club Ltd|accessdate=2006-06-10|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821054258/http://www.westsmagpies.net/2005/index.php?option=com_weblinks&catid=73&Itemid=4|archivedate=21 August 2006 }} Sharman played 45 games between 1935 and 1939, scored 12 tries and kicked 11 goals. He died on 26 April 2006, aged 94.{{cite web| last = Masters| first = Roy| year = 2001| url = http://rl1908.com/Rugby-League-News/frank-hyde.htm| archive-url = https://archive.today/20070929102738/http://rl1908.com/Rugby-League-News/frank-hyde.htm| url-status = dead| archive-date = 2007-09-29| title = It's long enough, it's high enough ... but the game's just not the same| work = RL1908 Document archive| publisher = RL1908.com reproducing article originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald| accessdate = 2006-06-10}} He was awarded life membership in 1998.{{cite news| first=Leech| last=Graeme| url= http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20876,18939216-28737,00.html| title=Master of the troupe| work= Features| publisher=The Australian| date= 27 April 2006| accessdate=2006-06-10}}{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

Many famous boxers worked in the Sharman tent, including:

• Ronald O'Callaghan

The Black Irish Man (champion) Aboriginal

• Frank Burns (middleweight champion)
• Graham Burns, Jeff Burns, Ted Burns, Charlie Burns
• Teddy Green (bantamweight)
• Harry Mack (featherweight)
• Mickey Miller (bantam and featherweight)
• George Cook (heavyweight)
• Jack Hassen (lightweight)
• Billy Grime (triple titleholder)
• Jackie Green (triple titleholder)
• Dave Sands Aboriginal boxer{{cite news| last = Sloane| first = Garry| url = http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/02/1064988351353.html?from=storyrhs| title = Journal of a Journey| work = November 2003 archives| publisher = ochre-shores.net| accessdate = 2006-06-11| date=2003-10-03}}
• Greg McNamara (light-heavyweight)

Famous Indigenous Australians to work in the tent include:

• George Bracken, Aboriginal lawyer
• Geoff Clark, former ATSIC chairperson
• Douglas Nicholls, later Pastor with the Churches of Christ in Australia and then Governor of South Australia
• Max Stuart, convicted murderer and Arrente elder{{cite web| last = Thornton| first = Henry| year = 2002| url = http://henrythornton.com/article.asp?article_id=1980| title = Black and White:The story of a famous legal case| publisher = henrythornton.com| accessdate = 2006-06-11| url-status = dead| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20060911072538/http://henrythornton.com/article.asp?article_id=1980| archivedate = 11 September 2006}}

Some boxers came from the Cherbourg Aboriginal mission, near Nanango, Queensland.

In 2003 the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales honoured Sharman Jr. with the title of "Show Legend".

• The Australian rock band Midnight Oil's 1984 album Red Sails in the Sunset includes the song "Jimmy Sharman's Boxers" whose lyrics assert that Sharman exploited the Aboriginal boxers he employed in his show.{{cite news| url = http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/final-bell-for-boxing-showman/2006/04/26/1145861376146.html| title= Final bell for showman Jimmy Sharman| publisher=The Age| date= 26 April 2006 |accessdate=2006-06-10| location=Melbourne}}
• The Australian rock band Cold Chisel's song "Yesterdays" has lyrics which refer to Jimmy Sharman's boxers [https://web.archive.org/web/20060819110334/http://www.coldchisel.com.au/l1_yesterdays.html].
• The 2007 Peter Carstairs film September features its main characters - 15-year-old boys Ed and Paddy - setting up a boxing ring on Ed's family's wheatbelt property in anticipation of a visit by Sharman's boxing troupe. Paddy later joins the troupe.
• Jimmy Sharman Jr's son Jim Sharman became a theatre and film director known especially for the musicals Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Show, and the movie version, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• One Paul Kelly track, "Rally Around the Drum", written with Archie Roach, was about an Indigenous tent boxing man.
• Colleen McCullough's novel, The Thorn Birds, features a character joining Jimmy Sharman's troupe.{{cite book |last1=McCullough |first1=Colleen |title=The Thorn Birds |date=1977 |isbn=9781781852514 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Uw-AAAAQBAJ&q=Jimmy+Sharman+The+Thorn+Birds&pg=PT112 |accessdate=22 June 2018}}

Stephen McGraths historical fiction novel Jimmy Sharmans Boxers published 1 September 2023 describes Sharman’s touring during World War One when Sharman who was 27 and fit did not enlist and continued to tour his troupe throughout the war.

{{reflist}}

Cherbourg is near Murgon Qld not Nanango

• Pictures:
• {{cite web| last = Carter| first = Jeff| year = 1959| url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3104828| title = Jimmy Sharman's travelling stadium, New South Wales, 1959| format = picture| work = PictureAustralia| publisher = National Library of Australia| accessdate = 2006-06-11}}
• [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110591b.htm ADB biography]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharman, Jimmy}}

Category:1887 births

Category:1965 deaths

Category:Australian boxing promoters

Category:Australian male boxers

Category:Australian rugby league players

Category:Boxers from Sydney

Category:Business duos

Category:People educated at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill

Category:Rugby league players from Sydney

Category:Western Suburbs Magpies players

Category:20th-century Australian sportsmen