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| Born | (1902-07-12)12 July 1902 Meerschaum Vale,New South Wales, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 11 October 1984(1984-10-11) (aged 82) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Position | Second-row | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Louis Victor Armbruster[1] (born 12 July 1902 – 11 October 1984)[citation needed] was an Australianrugby league footballer forNew South Wales,Queensland andAustralia. He is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.[2] Standing 6 feet 1 inches tall (1.85m) and weighing 191 lbs (86 kg), Armbruster primarily played in theSecond-row, but he could also playLock.[3]
Armbruster was born in the small farming community of Meerschaum Vale, New South Wales near Lismore. He began his rugby league career in 1922, he played over 230 games, including eight for Australia, scoring 63 tries and won a premiership in his career.[4]
Armbruster's grade career commenced in the country atMullumbimby, New South Wales from where he gained state selection forNew South Wales in 1922. He played in the historic match of 1922 which saw Queensland beat New South Wales for the first time since 1908. Many of the victorious Queenslanders that day would later be Armbruster's state and national team-mates.[5]
Along with his future Kangaroo captainTom Gorman and state/national teammateHerb Steinohrt, Armbruster was a member of the 1924-25 world class Toowoomba side that beat all-comers including Sydney premiersSouths, Brisbane, Ipswich and representative sides includingNew South Wales, Victoria, Great Britain andNew Zealand.[citation needed]
While playing with Toowoomba, Armbruster first gained national selection appearing in the 2nd and 3rd Tests of the 1924 domesticAshes series against Great Britain.[citation needed]
He played with the Grammars club in Brisbane and then Valleys and was a regular representative in theQueensland state side making 35 appearances up till 1931. He was selected for the1929–30 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and played in three Tests and sixteen minor representative tour games.[citation needed]
In February 2008, Armbruster was named in the list of Australia's100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by theNRL andARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.[6][7]
In 2008,rugby league in Australia's centenary year, Armbruster was named on the bench of both the Bundaberg Rugby League's and Toowoomba and South West teams of the century.[8][9] He was also inducted in the National Rugby League Hall of Fame.[10]