In a special series, Koori Mail correspondent Peter Argent looks back across the history of First Nations sports people in this country, looking for the competitors that became heroes and idols in their respective sporting codes.

Challenging Japan’s Masahiko ‘Fighting’ Harada for the world bantamweight title on 26 February 1968 in Tokyo, Rose wrote his name into the history books by becoming the first Indigenous Australian to be a world champion boxer.