SYDNEY (Reuters) - Ron Coote was announced as the 14th "Immortal" of Australian rugby league on Wednesday, the former Kangaroos captain earning the game's highest honour 46 years after hanging up his boots.
A rangy lock, Coote split his club career in the 1960s and 1970s almost equally between fierce rivals the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Sydney Roosters, winning four championships with the former and two with the latter.
Coote won three World Cups with his country, scoring one of the tries in the 1968 final against France and captaining Australia in the 1970 triumph over Britain.
"To me it's sort of sensational, I never thought it would happen," the 79-year-old said at a ceremony in Sydney, where 17 other players were inducted into the game's Hall of Fame.
"I've been at this function several times and this time I got the gong."
The idea of bestowing "Immortal" status on the greatest players in the game's history was dreamed up by Rugby League Week magazine in 1981.
The Australian Rugby League Commission took responsibility for the concept when the magazine folded in 2017 and the following year added five more "Immortals".
Coote joined Andrew Johns, Wally Lewis and Mal Meninga as the only living recipients of the accolade.
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
