A man tasked with helping with the keep of treasures at the New Zealand Rugby Museum in Palmerston North has become one himself.
Through passion and experience, Bob Luxford has accumulated a vast knowledge of the museum’s rugby artefacts and the stories that go with them.
Born in Palmerston North, he became fascinated with rugby when his three older brothers played fervently on return home from World War II, and that passion for the game has never left him.
He first started volunteering with the museum in 1987, answering an advertisement in the newspaper that still brings a wry smile.
“It said ...’no knowledge of rugby necessary, our visitors know all there is to know about the game’,” he said.
“That advertisement resonated with me, so I rang the society and began as an attendant on Sunday afternoons. There was not a single visitor on my first afternoon, but that enabled me to rabble around the storeroom.”
The museum’s first home was on the corner of Gray and Carrol Sts as a place to house memorabilia. With little more than a phone and a guillotine, it was a time when pictures were pinned by their corners to a hessian wall.
In 1991 came a move to Cuba St premises, before settling at its present home at Te Manawa in 2011.
The museum now houses more than 40,000 artefacts, from a pig’s bladder to original All Blacks jerseys, attracting visitors from all over the world. Most visitors were from overseas. It brings a lot of people to Palmerston North.
“Comparatively speaking, it has grown into a beast,” he said.
Luxford is a fountain of knowledge. He said the museum’s first display was on April 16, 1969, the same day the NZRU was founded in 1892.
“That’s no mistake,” he said.
The first recorded game of rugby in New Zealand was on May 14, 1870. It was also no coincidence that the museum was incorporated on May 14, 1970.
“You become aware of these things when you do what you do here,” he said.
“They used to play with a pig’s bladder. That’s how much the game of rugby has evolved. They used to get them from the local butcher, but they wouldn’t have lasted very long.”
There is a stuffed kiwi on display, a trophy from the 1924-25 Invincibles tour of Britain, Ireland and France. It was to be donated to any team that managed to beat them. They never lost.
Bob Luxford explains the story behind the kiwi on display at the New Zealand Rugby Museum.
Luxford had come to know the museum items intimately upon realising the need for a cataloguing system to help visitors with a specific search.
That meant filing every single item by card under category, including its description and its donor, what it was related to, and making copies of cards because most items related to more than one category.
“It was cumbersome — it took a helluva lot of typing — but it worked,” he said.
He had to do it all again when the digital age dawned and information about more than 30,000 items was transposed to computers, adding to a website a profile and photo of every All Black.
“I wish we knew then what we know now,” he said.
Luxford, who had come from a lifelong career in banking, became manager and curator of the museum from 1992 to 2008, and has continued to serve as a volunteer at least three days a week.
Now 87, he is one of a band volunteers at the museum who help out with all manner of tasks, including guiding visitors and school tours. The museum is open every day except Christmas Day.
“It’s never felt like work. It’s enjoyable ... I bring my own lunch,” he said.
Bob Luxford at the New Zealand Rugby Museum fends off a photographer.
Museum chairman Clive Akers, who joined the museum in 1975 and has been chairman for the past 25 years, said Luxford was a big asset to the museum, as were all its volunteers.
“He’s very accurate with what he does. He’s got a good brain. I don’t know how many hours he’s put in, but it’s a lot,” he said.
The museum is looking for new volunteers. If anyone wants to help they could contact the museum (06) 358 6947.
