Star-studded crowd turns out to farewell Knights' founding father

A husband, a father and a "Pop" to his many grandchildren.

And, believe it or not, a circus performer.

Maughan, who was farewelled by a star-studded crowd of several hundred mourners at Pettigrew's Chapel in Mayfield on Monday, became a household name in Newcastle during his days as a radio commentator and sports presenter on NBN television.

But before his foray into the world of media, the charismatic raconteur also worked as a real-estate agent, managed a supermarket and, at one point, earned a quid by riding horses around a circus ring, standing on their backs.

If that seems a tad larger than life, it was just one chapter in the remarkable 84 years Edward Leigh Maughan, OAM, spent on this earth.

Few Novocastrians have left a greater legacy than Maughan, who passed away on February 28 and was lauded during his funeral service as "a man of passion and compassion".

Perhaps nothing reaffirmed that description better than his long-term friendship with the late David Charles Cross.

Cross suffered from Down Syndrome, yet for decades Maughan took him to sporting fixtures, sat alongside him on the sideline during commentary stints and, on one occasion, even arranged for his entry to rugby league's night of nights, the prestigious Rothman's Medal presentation dinner.

(Maughan's second wife, Mary Mortimer, drew the line, however, when Cross arrived on their doorstep after their wedding day, expecting to accompany the newlyweds on their honeymoon.)

Other examples of "Lethal" Leigh's ingrained enthusiasm for serving the community were his tenures on the International Sports Centre Trust, which oversaw Newcastle's main sporting stadium, and his seven-year stretch as marketing manager of the Hunter Prostate Cancer Alliance, during which he was credited for the "get a little prick" awareness campaign.

As his former NBN colleague Mike Rabbitt told the service: "You left this town a better place than you found it, and I'll miss you mate."

Without doubt Maughan's greatest claim to fame, one that will endure well beyond any lifetime, was his role in the creation of the Newcastle Knights.

A sports-mad kid who learned to play squash and tennis with different hands because of broken arms, Maughan's preferred code was rugby league, and after playing and refereeing, he moved into radio commentary.

In the late 1970s, Maughan started pushing the narrative, over the airwaves and via Newcastle Rugby League's official match programs, that the city was capable of fielding a team in the toughest competition of them all, the NSWRL premiership.

He joined forces with real-estate agent Gerry Edser and lawyer Michael Hill to chase this unlikely dream, but initially they kept running into dead-end streets.

Early in the piece, a proposal put to the Newcastle RL board was emphatically rejected after a 36-0 vote.

That was no deterrent to Maughan. Instead he managed to get himself elected onto the board and proceeded to convince the doubters and sceptics to jump aboard a bandwagon that started building momentum, slowly but surely.

A decade of sacrifice and commitment was rewarded in April, 1987, when the NSWRL announced that three new teams would be added to their competition: Brisbane Broncos, Gold Coast Giants ... and the Newcastle Knights.

As former NSWRL chief executive John Quayle told the Newcastle Herald on Monday: "Leigh drove me mad almost every day for four years, but he was always so positive and he believed in the area.

"We always knew that Newcastle were going to come in at some point.

"But Leigh gave us a lot of confidence that the decision we were going to make would be right."

Maughan wasn't about to rest on his laurels after securing entry for the Knights into the top flight.

He resigned from NBN to become the Knights' inaugural media and marketing manager, and played a key role in helping establish the crowd and corporate support that helped the start-up club pay its way.

Two decades later, long after retiring, he returned to serve on the club's board of directors.

His son, Christopher Maughan, recalled that there was "never a prouder moment in our dad's life" than in 1997, when the Knights beat Manly in the greatest grand final of them all.

"I look back now and we were so lucky to share that moment with him ... he was so damned proud of that team," Maughan's granddaughter Kirby-Leigh Coker added.

Watching on from the great commentary box in the sky, Maughan would no doubt have been chuffed on Monday to note that the entire current Knights squad, and staff, attended his funeral service, along with a plethora of club legends, to pay their respects.

Among his coffin bearers were Hall of Fame champions Paul Harragon, Danny Buderus and Michael Hagan, and former premiership-winning forward Marc Glanville, who moved to Newcastle in 1987 as a pioneering player and has never thought of leaving.

"It was an appropriate ceremonial send-off," Maughan's long-time confidant and former Knights chairman Hill told the Herald.

"The people who spoke all confirmed what everyone knows, and that is he was one of a kind and he'll be sadly missed."