Obituary: Rob Owen becomes one of the stories for which he lived

Died: Echuca, July 2, 2021

His funeral will be held at Radcliffe’s on Friday, July 9 at 11am.

For a man who, by choice, lived much of his life out of the limelight — apart from accepting trophies for his beloved trotters — Rob Owen knew more than most about what was going on, what was going to happen and what had transpired to get us to where we were today.

The old school individual who eschewed the digital/dot com era had no time for mobile phones or email addresses. His idea of social media was to drop in on the local paper or radio station to deliver his messages personally.

Rob lived for sport and he devoured newspapers. He probably knew more about what was contained within the pages of the Riverine Herald than the people who put it there, he pored over other regional papers and soaked up the ones from Melbourne.

For generations of young sports journalists in Echuca-Moama, Rob was their entrée to local football and cricket in the main, but frequently he had leads, reports and/or rumours of all sorts of things taking place around the traps.

His encyclopaedic recall could trot out names of players long forgotten; Rob not only knew who they were, he could rattle off their career statistics. On the rare occasion he was himself stumped, Rob would withdraw to his home and its unbelievable stacks of lovingly hoarded newspapers, clippings filed about all sorts of things — all redolent with that musty, old paper smell that was the hallmark of all old-style newspaper offices.

Rob gave up playing to become a fanatically accurate and dedicated scorer for local cricket; he bled bottle green for his adored Echuca, he dropped off boxes of chocolates for young journalists who had met his high standards and, perhaps not as well known, would laminate pages of success stories for local sportsmen and women and discreetly present them when the opportunity arose.

Today, Gus Underwood, who has been covering sport across the Goulburn Valley for six decades, and like Rob is a dedicated harness racer, and Andrew Johnston, once one of the Riv's young wannabe sportswriters, recall the man who touched both their lives — and the lives of so many others.

Hopefully he would have liked it enough to have it in his pile of treasured clippings

By GUS UNDERWOOD

The death of Echuca’s Rob Owen last Friday has been felt across Victoria.

Rob, 78, who lost a brave battle with prostate cancer, was a born and bred Echucaite, a bachelor who inspired many people through a passion for sport, people and trotting horses.

Bill Williams, long-time Echuca friend — and former cricket rival — described Rob as “a great fellow”, while adding with a chuckle, “even though he didn’t drink”.

On a more serious note, Bill said Rob was a very handy leg spin bowler with Echuca East and Echuca cricket clubs in his younger days, but his real forte in the game was as a scorer, a hobby position for which he would become known across Victoria.

“He started scoring when he was playing with Echuca Cricket Club and became the scorer for the Echuca and Campaspe associations at Melbourne and Bendigo Country Weeks — and did it for years and years,” Bill, a 30-year-plus servant of the Victorian Country Cricket League and a former president of the former Echuca Cricket Association, said.

“He was even asked to score when the West Indies played at Echuca in the early 1980s, which he got a great kick out of.”

Rob’s other sporting loves were football and trotting.

He was a regular supporter of the Echuca Football Club from a young age, and Echuca players wore black armbands in his honour at Kyabram on Saturday, where the Murray Bombers rallied to the occasion to defeat the reigning GVL premier at Kyabram for the first time since 2011.

Rob had a genuine passion for harness racing and was a committee member of the Echuca Harness Racing Club for a long period.

He also was in an ownership syndicate that raced some talented horses down the years including Newsbreaker, Messini and current campaigners Sacario and the Victoria Trotters Derby winner Stress Factor.

From the old school, Rob had no time for mobile phones and social media outlets but was a fanatical newspaper reader all his life.

One of his hobbies was gathering newspaper clippings of stories on drivers and trainers, particularly the young up and comers, and presenting them to them.

He also was a close friend of the late Graham Arthur, Hawthorn’s first premiership captain, from his days coaching Echuca Football Club after his VFL playing days.

Rob was too ill to attend Arthur’s funeral earlier this year but another ex-Echuca player, Steven Gough, a former general manager of the MCC, arranged a copy of Arthur’s eulogy to be sent to Rob, which he greatly appreciated.

Rob’s entire working life was with the Campaspe and Echuca City shires where he worked in the finance department and took an early retirement settlement when he turned 60.

Unfortunately, Rob won’t be around to read this. Hopefully he would have liked it enough to add it to his big pile of treasured clippings.

An innings well played, Rob Owen.

Rob loved a story, especially when it would shine a light on someone else

By ANDREW JOHNSTON

I like to think I know a lot about sports history at many levels.

But when I arrived at the Riv in 2017, I was in a new town where I knew nothing at all.

Not the clubs, not the history, nothing.

Rob Owen, however, knew everything.

Be it off the top of his head, or in one of the many records and sporting histories he was keeping (no one cared for the history of our local sport more than Rob); if it was worth knowing, he knew it. More correctly, if he knew it, it was worth knowing.

I think that’s why I enjoyed Rob’s company so much.

Whenever he’d come into the Riv we’d spend a lot of time in the foyer having a chat about what was going on in the world, particularly football and cricket.

Because Rob loved a story, especially when it would shine a light on someone else.

Rob would regularly come into the Riv during my tenure at the paper, always with a story, a rumour he’d heard (in Rob’s case the rumours were about 99 per cent spot on) or a clipping from a different paper he’d seen — and thought we should too — about a local athlete.

He was passionate about the clubs, yes, but so much more about the people.

He’d clip the paper for stories and photos of people after they achieved something. He’d come to us to ask if we knew something, so a young player could get their name in black and white when they had achieved something special (and then, no doubt, would have clipped that story and given it to the player).

I wonder how many people have come through our town and been presented with a clipping by Rob, not knowing he’d basically got it published himself to celebrate what they had done.

He cared deeply about people.

He wanted people to see themselves in the way he did — as stars.

That’s how I always saw things with Rob.

Even when he became ill, he continued making his regular trek into the Riv to tell us what was happening.

He wanted the stories to keep getting told, to be preserved for time.

Clubs, towns, communities need that kind of person.

Someone who wants the history not just rescued, but continually updated.

Someone who cares deeply about the people in sport.

Someone who will give more than they will ever get, let along expect, back.

That was Rob. The real question on everyone’s lips now is painfully obvious. Who will be the new Rob?