- Will always be a happy place for Wally Lewis
- Wants to be laid to rest at the iconic venue
- Five-eighth dominated Origin arena at Lang Park
Footy legend Wally Lewis virtually owned Lang Park when playing for Queensland at Origin level during his decorated career – and now the ‘King’ has declared he wants to be buried at the iconic rugby league venue in Brisbane.
A bronze statue of Lewis is a permanent feature at Suncorp Stadium – and the 65-year-old confirmed it is where he wishes to be laid to rest.
‘It has been my home, this place,’ he said. ‘I love it here. ‘As a little boy I dreamed about running onto this field one day.’
Sadly, life is a struggle for Lewis – a rugby league Immortal – these days.
Repeated head knocks from a career spanning over three decades have resulted in memory loss – but Lewis doesn’t want sympathy.
‘Life’s pretty good…I wouldn’t change a thing. I love this game, its given me everything,’ he told News Corp.
Wally Lewis virtually owned Lang Park when playing for Queensland at Origin level – and now the ‘King’ has declared he wants to be buried at the iconic rugby league venue
A bronze statue of Lewis (pictured) is a feature of Suncorp Stadium – and the 65-year-old confirmed it is where he wishes to be laid to rest
‘I hate every conversation where I talk about taking too many knocks to the head – all footy blokes do – but if I can take that on now and deal with it in the best way possible, I think the future’s going to be good for me.
‘I’m going to get on with it and enjoy playing with my grandkids.’
A constant in Lewis’ life is his new wife Lynda.
The couple were married in April, and she helps Lewis get to doctors appointments, footy functions and speaking engagements.
At times Lewis gets frustrated – notably when he repeats himself – but he won’t be suing the game that made him an Australian sporting legend.
In 2023, Lewis announced his shock retirement as a sports presenter after revealing he was probably suffering from the effects of a neurodegenerative condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy – or CTE – which can only be fully diagnosed after death.
CTE is the progressive degenerative disease most commonly found in people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic head injuries.
The disease is most commonly associated with athletes involved in contact sports such as rugby league and AFL.
Repeated head knocks from a career spanning over three decades have resulted in memory loss and likely CTE – but Lewis doesn’t want sympathy
A constant in Lewis’ life is his new wife Lynda. The couple were married in April, and she helps him get to doctors appointments, footy functions and speaking engagements
The rugby league Immortal gets embarrassed when he realises he often asks his wife the same questions over and over
Symptoms include memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, aggression, depression and eventually progressive dementia.
Lewis says his first symptoms were fleeting moments of forgetfulness – but these soon began recurring with ‘monotonous regularity’.
‘I was a little bit out of sorts, and then the confusion came, and then the denial,’ he said in a 2024 interview.
‘My best friends, my workmates…it soon became very obvious by the looks upon their faces.’
