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Before he was a big name in sports, Peter V\u2019Landys was a student at the University of Wollongong. Photo: NRL.<\/p>\n
A migrant kid in Wollongong to head honcho of Australia\u2019s two biggest sports \u2013 Peter V\u2019Landys has come a long way over the course of his career.<\/p>\n
The NRL and horse racing boss credits his parents\u2019 hard work and his time at the University of Wollongong with setting him up for success.<\/p>\n
Peter migrated to Wollongong from Greece with his family as a young boy and remembers his dad working from 6 am until midnight at the steelworks, and his mum pulling 7 am to 7 pm shifts in a cafe.<\/p>\n
He said his parents showed him the importance of hard work and education.<\/p>\n
\u201cMum and Dad worked so hard, they could never come to watch us play sport or anything like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they came to see my graduation. They were enormously proud when I got my degree.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a tough slog for Peter, who said he wasn\u2019t a natural student, although he tried hard.<\/p>\n
He also worked at the Unanderra Hotel to support himself through his degree.<\/p>\n
The university celebrates 50 years of tertiary education in Wollongong this year, and Peter credited the unique culture at UOW with getting him through his degree.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt more like family than uni, and that was lucky for me because I would have been the worst student ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I got a pass I used to do cartwheels \u2013 even the subjects I repeated I didn\u2019t get a credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite that I was treated equally; we were all treated like high distinction students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was just an afterthought in class I probably wouldn\u2019t be where I am.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the tutors and lecturers were all very professional; you didn\u2019t have to be the greatest star of all time as long as you tried your hardest they would support you to make your way through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in accountancy.<\/p>\n
On top of the pride he felt seeing his parents at his graduation, Peter said the uni gave him other gifts.<\/p>\n
As a migrant kid in Australia, growing up in Wollongong wasn\u2019t always easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were seen as a stranger; you weren\u2019t seen as being Australian and you had to work hard to become an Australian,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not being critical of the Aussie kids because they were intimidated by new people coming into their country as much as we were intimidated by them, but it did make it hard for migrants to become part of the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd kids being kids, they say what they think.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the uni helped the town become more cohesive and attract a lot of people from Sydney and other places.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was somewhere you could meet new people, people who would be the decision-makers of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
One life-changing experience Peter had at UOW was shared by another prominent alumnus, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.<\/p>\n
In a word \u2013 girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to an all-boys school, so sitting next to a girl on my first day of uni was quite a striking thing,\u201d Peter said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was intimidated!\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the number of prominent alumni the uni has turned out Peter said he wasn\u2019t surprised many of them had made a name for themselves.<\/p>\n
He said there was something unique about the uni, and the city, that brought out the best in people.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing from Wollongong does toughen you up a little bit, especially the ones who went to UOW from public schools,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not as fragile as the others, and it does encourage big personalities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Wollongong as a city assists people in being themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s much bigger now of course and certainly more prestigious, but it still punches well above its weight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always pride myself on my time at UOW because I think it is one of the best \u2013 you get everything you get at the other universities and you get the friendliness and that value of treating everyone equally.\u201d<\/p>\n
His advice to students \u2013 or anyone \u2013 today?<\/p>\n
Hard work, hard work, and more hard work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a normal student and you work hard you can achieve things you\u2019re probably not expected to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe university is a magnificent platform, and it will change you, but you still have to work hard, not only at university but in your career.<\/p>\n
\u201cHard work always brings lucky breaks, and if you don\u2019t work hard it doesn\u2019t matter how lucky you get.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before he was a big name in sports, Peter V\u2019Landys was a student at the University of Wollongong.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-230082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}