The Honourable Michael Cleary AO
Minister for Sport and Recreation
In office 2 October 1981 – 26 May 1982
Premier	Neville Wran
Preceded by	Ken Booth
Succeeded by	Himself (Leisure, Sport and Tourism)
In office 10 February 1984 – 25 March 1988
Premier	Neville Wran Barrie Unsworth
Preceded by	Himself (Leisure, Sport and Tourism)
Succeeded by	Bob Rowland Smith (Sport, Recreation and Racing)
Minister for Tourism
In office 2 October 1981 – 26 May 1982
Premier	Neville Wran
Preceded by	Ken Booth
Succeeded by	Himself (Leisure, Sport and Tourism)
In office 10 February 1984 – 25 March 1988
Premier	Neville Wran Barrie Unsworth
Preceded by	Himself (Leisure, Sport and Tourism)
Succeeded by	Garry West
Minister for Leisure, Sport andTourism
In office 26 May 1982 – 10 February 1984
Premier	Neville Wran
Preceded by	Himself (Sport and Recreation) Himself (Tourism)
Succeeded by	Himself (Sport and Recreation) Himself (Tourism)
Minister for Racing
In office 4 July 1986 – 25 March 1988
Premier	Barrie Unsworth
Preceded by	Position created
Succeeded by	Bob Rowland Smith (Sport, Recreation and Racing)
Member of theNew South Wales Parliament forCoogee
In office 20 July 1974 – 3 May 1991
Preceded by	Ross Freeman
Succeeded by	Ernie Page
Personal details
Born	Michael Arthur Cleary[1] (1940-04-30)30 April 1940 (age 85)[1] Dover Heights,New South Wales
Rugby player
School	Waverley College 1947–1958
Rugby union career
Position Wing[1] Amateur team(s) Years Team Apps (Points) 1959–1960 Randwick DRUFC – New South Wales International career Years Team Apps (Points) 1961[1] Wallabies 6 (12)
Rugby league career
Playing information
Position	Winger
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1962–1970 South Sydney Rabbitohs 139 266 1971 Eastern Suburbs 13 15 Total 152 0 0 0 281 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 1962–69 NSW 11 39 1962–1969 Australia 8 15
Medal record Men'sathletics Representing Australia Commonwealth Games 1962 Perth 100 yards

Michael Arthur ClearyAO (born 30 April 1940) is an Australian formerrugby union andrugby league footballer of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and a politician. He represented Australia in both rugby codes as well as in athletics making him one of only four Australians who have represented their country at full international level in three different sports.^[2] He represented as aWallaby in six Tests in 1961 and as aKangaroo in eight Tests from 1962.

Cleary was born inDover Heights,New South Wales and was educated atWaverley College. In 1943 having initially lived in Hardy street, his family moved to 17 Rodney Street, Dover Heights, where his father had built a new family home. At age 17, having set a number of schoolboy sprint records, he was offered a sporting scholarship toStanford University, which he declined, with his sights set on representing Australia in athletics.

In 1959 he joined theRandwick DRUFC and played in the club's 1960 winning first-grade premiership side. He was selected in theAustralian national side for all three Tests of the 1961 series againstFiji and made furtherWallaby appearances againstFrance, and against theSpringboks on the1961 tour of South Africa.

After leaving rugby union, during his first year of rugby league with theSouth Sydney Rabbitohs, Cleary maintained his amateur status to enable his selection for theCommonwealth Games later that year. He represented Australia in athletics at the1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games inPerth, placing third in the100-yard sprint. He recorded 9.3 secs for the 100 yards during his athletic career.^[3]

In 1964 he beat the rugby league speedsterKen Irvine in aA£2,000 match race atWentworth Park, and in 1966 he won the Australian professional 130m sprint race.

Cleary joined theSouth Sydney Rabbitohs in 1962 along withJim Lisle his Wallaby three-quarter partner. Cleary was aWinger with the club throughout the 1960s playing in three premiership winning sides in1967,1968 and1970. Cleary finished his first grade career with the Rabbitoh's neighbouring club, theEastern Suburbs Roosters, in 1971. This made him ideally suited to represent his future NSW State electoral district of Coogee, which sits close to the geographic border between the two clubs.

His international rugby league debut in the 1st Test againstGreat Britain in Sydney on 9 June 1962 saw Cleary become Australia's 29thdual-code international, followingArthur Summons and precedingJim Lisle. He made Test appearances againstNew Zealand in 1963, 1965 and 1969; againstFrance in 1964 and was selected for the1963–64 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France^[4] during which he made one Test and twenty tour match appearances.

He is one of only four Australian sportsmen to represent internationally in three different sports at the senior level (see alsoDick Thornett,Snowy Baker andWal Mackney).

Cleary joined theAustralian Labor Party in 1965 and was the State member forCoogee in theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1974 to 1991 and was the NSW Minister for Sport and Recreation and Tourism in theWran Labor Government from 1981 to 1988. From 1986 to 1988 he was also the NSW Minister for Racing.^[5]

He was at one time or another the Chairman Sports House Advisory Committee, memberNorth Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, memberCoogee Surf Life Saving Club and a director South Sydney Leagues Club.

In the Queen's Birthday Honours list of 1992, Cleary was awarded anOfficer of the Order of Australia for his service to theNew South Wales Parliament,^[6] and in 2000 he was awarded theAustralian Sports Medal for his achievements as a Kangaroo player.^[7] He was inducted into theSport Australia Hall of Fame in 1999.^[2]

Cleary was a wrestling commentator forWorld Championship Wrestling.^[8][9]

• 1940 births
• Australian men sprinters
• Athletes (track and field) at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
• Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Australia
• Dual-code rugby internationals
• Australian rugby league players
• Australia national rugby league team players
• Australian rugby union players
• Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
• Officers of the Order of Australia
• South Sydney Rabbitohs players
• Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees
• Living people
• Australia international rugby union players
• Australian sportsperson-politicians
• Professional wrestling announcers
• Sydney Roosters players
• Rugby league players from Sydney
• Athletes from Sydney
• Rugby union players from Sydney
• Rugby union wings
• Medallists at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
• Sportsmen from New South Wales
• People educated at Waverley College
• Randwick DRUFC players
• New South Wales rugby union team players
• New South Wales rugby league team players
• Rugby league wingers
• 20th-century Australian sportsmen
• Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in athletics
• Commonwealth Games athletes for Australia

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