{"id":40789,"date":"2025-08-03T17:19:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T17:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/40789\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T17:19:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T17:19:14","slug":"australian-rugby-league-legend-sam-backo-dies-aged-64","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/40789\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian rugby league legend Sam Backo dies aged 64"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Queensland <a class=\"css-1lg16vp-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/rugby-league?page=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">rugby league<\/a> legend Sam Backo has died aged 64.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The Maroons and Australian Kangaroos champion passed away surrounded by family at Cairns Hospital on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Backo had been in intensive care for some time, having been diagnosed with melioidosis in April.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-178igh4-StyledParagraph e1s06mna1\">Know the news with the 7NEWS app: <a class=\"css-cvgehw-StyledContextualLink e1s06mna0\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/app?utm_source=7NEWS&amp;utm_medium=contextual-link-app&amp;utm_campaign=7news-app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Download today <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/static\/media\/right-red-arrow.92bca5db.svg\" alt=\"Download today\" height=\"14\" width=\"20\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Melioidosis is a bacterial infection commonly found in soil and water in tropical and subtropical regions, and has killed 35 people in Queensland alone so far this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The former Broncos and Raiders front-rower, who also had a stint with Leeds in England, had been transferred to a hospital in Brisbane for a period before later returning to Cairns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The man affectionately known as Slammin\u2019 Sam spent most of his NRL career in Canberra, where he played 114 games between 1983 and 1988, before adding another 20 when he moved to Brisbane in 1989.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Backo played 18 games for Leeds in the 1988-1989 UK season, inbetween NRL campaigns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He was without doubt one of rugby league\u2019s toughest ever players, but was also renowned as one of the sport\u2019s great characters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Backo suited up in seven State of Origin games for Queensland and played six Tests for Australia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Most notable in his international career was his series against England in 1988 when he scored a try in all three games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Backo suffered a heart attack in 2023, after which he was in a critical condition, but survived.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He was a proud Indigenous man who was also known for his work in Indigenous health.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/rugby-league\/wests-tigers-get-last-laugh-over-lachie-galvin-in-massive-boilover-against-canterbury-c-19564565\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Wests Tigers get last laugh over Lachie Galvin in massive boilover<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">2 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/rugby-league\/nrl-decision-looms-as-apologetic-panthers-coach-takes-blame-for-trainer-blunder-c-19562887\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>NRL decision looms as apologetic Panthers coach takes blame<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">2 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland rugby league legend Sam Backo has died aged 64. The Maroons and Australian Kangaroos champion passed away&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,13388,4428,4532,158,13385,760,588,85,6405],"class_list":{"0":"post-40789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australian-kangaroos","11":"tag-brisbane-broncos","12":"tag-canberra-raiders","13":"tag-nrl","14":"tag-queensland-maroons","15":"tag-rugby","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-state-of-origin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40789","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=40789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}