YOU know a day is momentous when even the man dubbed 'Joe Cool' rocked up feeling nervous.
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Inaugural Steelers skipper John Dorahy admits that was the case when he arrived at Wollongong Showground for what would be the fledgling Illawarra club's first outing in the NSW Rugby League on February 28, 1982.
It didn't help that the man supposed to lead the Steelers onto the ground that day wasn't allowed into the ground on his first attempt.
"I can remember almost like it was yesterday, it was that big a moment, and I was a wee bit nervous," Dorahy said.
"I guess I've always had the ability with nerves to play it down and keep it calm but, when I got to the ground and came in off Crown Street at the northern end, there was a guy on the gate and he said 'can I see your pass mate?'
"I said 'Oh no, I've left it at home' and he said 'sorry I can't let you in'. I said 'I'm playing, I'm captain'. I told him my name and he just said 'I don't know who you are, you could be the Queen for that matter'.
"A guy behind us driving in said 'do you know who you just knocked back?' and he just gave him the same line 'I don't know who he is, he's got to have a pass or he's not getting in'."
Lucky he truly was Joe Cool.
"I just said 'OK', turned around went home and got it," he said.
"I got back to the gate and he wasn't there at that time and I got through."
It's a humorous anecdote - one that will no doubt be recalled at Friday's 'The Originals' luncheon at WIN Stadium - but it says a whole lot about the times and just how significant the birth of the Steelers was for rugby league.
It might seem absurd nowadays to think that a NSW and Australian Test player with more than a hundred first grade games could go unrecognised at the gate of a rugby league ground.
However, in 1982, a time when only the single match was broadcast on television each week, it wasn't that implausible. Even die-hard fans knew little about players from rival clubs.
That a Wollongong team in the Sydney competition would even be considered 'expansion' is also tough to fathom given that, in present times, there's an argument over whether or not the game should expand to Perth.
Getting the NSWRL to spread its reach just an hour and a half down the road was an arguably bigger mountain. Steelers godfather Bob Millward headed unsuccessful bids for inclusion in the Sydney comp in 1954 and 1968.
The success of 'Bishop's Babes' - Tommy Bishop's 1978 Illawarra Division side that made a compelling run to the Amco Cup quarter-finals - proved the impetus for the third and successful bid in 1980.
That side featured the likes of Peter Wynn, Steve Morris, Brian Johnson, Keith Rugg, Allan Sheppard and Rod Henniker who all traveled north to the Sydney competition a year later.
"Enough's enough," Millward told the NSWRL brass.
"We keep producing them, you keep taking them, give us a go wearing our own jumper'."
When the bid finally got over the line, the seemingly bigger challenge was putting a side together that could justify the leap.
Millward went to work, looking for a mix of veterans and youth - Henniker and and Rugg returned after following Bishop to North Sydney in 1979.
Dapto product Brian Hetherington was also brought across from Newtown along with NSW Origin hooker Barry Jensen - briefly earning them the moniker of 'Stealers'.
However, it was Dorahy's signature was the jewel in the recruitment crown. Bringing the Wests Illawarra junior back to Wollongong was no small feat given the Steelers guzumped rugby league giants Ron McAuliffe and Arthur Beetson to do so.
"I was playing at Manly at the time and I'd have a bit of an injury-riddled year in 1980," Dorahy recalls.
"I was going OK in 81 but Manly had spoken with Chris Close, they had Russell Gartner there, so it was probably a good time for me to move on.
"As it turned out with the Steelers looking to get into the competition and for me it was either there or going to Brisbane.
"I'd had a lot of talks with Ron McAuliffe and also Artur Beetson at Redcliffe and it was almost a toss of the coin but the call of home is generally a wee bit stronger.
"Bob Millward and [foundation coach] Allan Fitzgibbon had put the carrot in front of me to be the inaugural captain and that was probably the icing on the cake and tipped me across to coming back to Wollongong."
Spurning the interest of Redcliffe, a long established heavyweight of Queensland footy, for a fledgling franchise would have looked like a gamble to some, but Dorahy says the passion of Millward and Fitzgibbon was enough to lure him home.
"I didn't see it as as big a step as other might have," he said.
"Off the back of Bob's enthusiasm and Fitzy's fantastic experience and knowledge, I felt I was best served to go back to Wollongong and be part of the inaugural season of the Steelers.
"I knew I had the ability for it and I knew I was a capable leader. Bob and Allan gave me the additional confidence for me to take the role.
"I guess the question was 'is it worthwhile coming back to Wollongong and being part of a start-up team?' but I thought 'look, someone's got to hold their hand up and be a representative for the people'.
"To be able to have the game at the top level played in Wollongong as a national sport did that. It was momentous for both Wollongong and also for rugby league in general."
The history was made in February 1982, when the Fitzgibbon-coached Steelers ran onto Wollongong Showground to take on Penrith in the club's first ever game.
Former Canterbury prop Greg Cook, the first player signed by the club, became it's first ever try-scorer, while Jensen was the first Steeler marched to the sin-bin in the 17-7 loss. It came in front of a healthy crowd just shy of 10,000.
"Fitzy gave us a fantastic pre-match chat," Dorahy said.
"It wasn't a long one, it wasn't a big one, but it was certainly commensurate with where we were at and what we were trying to achieve.
"We came out and walked across the old dog track onto the pitch, the crowd was fantastic, they were really looking up for it and they were anticipating good times ahead.
"We performed well enough to be competitive against Penrith. It was probably a stretch to win the first one but we played pretty well."
It seems a modest assessment, but Dorahy says it's only with the passing of time that he's come to realise the significance of that sunny day in February.
It will hit home on Friday when all 14 of those players who took the field on that day to return for the luncheon that was - somewhat fittingly - shifted to WIN Stadium after selling beyond the Steelers Club's capacity.
Let's just hope Dorahy remembers to bring his ticket.
"There's not too many times we've been there as a group, this'll probably be the second time since that moment," he said.
"As you grow older you look back on the times you've had and the euphoria of the moments that challenge you and the opportunities that present. It's only in looking back you think 'gee whiz, that was a really big thing'.
"We as the 13 players, and Mitch Jones as the 14th guy that got on, should feel proud that we were the forefathers of what's now the St George Illawara Dragons and part of the family that is the Steelers."
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