Eddie Tyson had a nickname for everyone and everything in his life. It was ironic then that he received his most popular monicker without seeing what he was named after.

When the Mount Isa members of the Queensland side played against and with him, they knew exactly what he reminded them of, and so Eddie became known as 'mucker.'

Like a mucker those Isa boys had seen scooping earth deep under the ground, Eddie scooped up any ball that came into his vicinity.

The label perfectly summed up how he played third base; a way no one else in Australia ever has.

There are many words that describe Eddie Tyson and one is loyalty, a quality he showed to family, friends and his beloved Rebels Softball Club.

When Eddie arrived in Mount Isa, he found state teammates Benny Trindle, Kenny Robinson and Craig West at Captain Cook Oval where Softball was played at the time.

“I’m supposed to be playing for one of the clubs here, you know who it is?”

“You’re playing for Rebels, mate,” Kenny Robinson quickly said. From that moment he was a Rebel and stuck with the club through thick and thin for the rest of his life.

“I went back to my car, pulled out me cleats and put me shoes on and me glove. I had a pair of shorts on and a T-shirt and played my first game. I finally got here.”

Another state teammate, Sid De Satge (Scratchy), also played for Rebels and they hung around together his first few months in town. He quickly made friends and the pair engaged in a running bet with Wanderers ladies, Kim Coghlan and Jenny Ross, that saw them paying for quite a few meals.

“The deal was, when Rebels played Wanderers, whoever’s team lost had to shout dinner. We lost every game to Wanderers and were getting jack of it because we were always taking them out to dinner. Finally we won a game and Scratchy and I decided on the most expensive restaurant in town, The Verona, for a three-course meal.”

Occasionally, a friend of Kim’s, Feliz Gonzalez, would join them. That particular day, his presence changed the trajectory of Eddie’s life. It was only a short walk from the Verona to the Isa Hotel and “The Cave” disco, so they headed up.

“I saw her on the dance floor, she caught my eye because she is a very attractive lady. She’s up there dancing with friends so I went out there and started chatting. I said ‘hello my name’s Eddie Tyson, I’m here to play Softball for Rebels.'”

Never one to tread delicately, Gina’s reply indicated it was only love at first sight for one of them.

“You’re that import that Rebels brought to win the Grand Final.”

Gina was a strong supporter of her brother, Felix or more commonly referred to as ‘Flex’, and their friends in the Red Devils side, many who they had known for years from Felix’s Soccer days.

Eddie took it on the chin and told her he had just gone to dinner with some people and when he mentioned Flex, Gina said "that’s my brother." They had a dance and then he left her with her friends.

Fate had smiled on Eddie because the final push to take the leap and move to Mount Isa was when he broke up with a girlfriend and needed to get out. Turns out Gina was waiting for a guy from Cairns to arrive that night but he never showed.

The next day was a grey drizzly day at Softball and Eddie saw Gina hugging herself on the sideline and made his move.

“Are you warm enough?” he asked and when she shook her head, he gave her his '“Hang Ten” hoody to wear.

“After the game, I asked if she wanted to come to a party that night but she said, ‘I’ve got my own party to go to.'”

Felix and Kim Coghlan were sharing house minding duties at a house on Duchess Road and it turned out to be the same party. The two of them hit it off and from that night they were inseparable.

At the time, four teams contested the Mount Isa competition and the sides were littered with Queensland and Australian players. Games were fiercely competitive, but when the last out was made, friendship took over. Though it didn’t stop Gina’s neighbour, Frank West, who played for Wanderers, from offering Gina some advice.

“Hook up with that fella and break his arm, he’s a good player.”

It is a testament to how good Eddie was and his commitment that he represented Queensland at six National Championships. Four of them after sustaining an horrific knee injury at a State carnival in Hervey Bay.

It was not the only time he pulled on the maroon colours because Eddie was a brilliant sportsman at school level.

A gifted runner who finished runner up in the state schoolboys 110 metre hurdles and represented Queensland at the National titles, finishing fifth in the country. His school didn’t have the fancy equipment of others, but they made do.

“Mr Harvey, our PE Teacher made up hurdles out of PVC piping.”

While Softball became the dominant sport in his life it was not always so.

“Basketball was my first love,” Eddie recounted. The friends he played with at school were the same he played with at club.

“We played for Generals in Brisbane’s Triple AB League and though we were only 18 and 19, we were quite good and played against NBL stars Larry Sengstock and Leroy Loggins.”

As a schoolboy, he represented Queensland against New South Wales in Basketball.

For Eddie sport was something you gave everything to and you played to win. At its heart though, it was more about friendship, loyalty and connecting.

“It was more social, just the guys I played with. Like Gina’s always said, she’s seen the best players in our sport and they mainly come from here in Mount Isa. The King brothers, Lenny and Shane. Shane, he’s gone the furthest, he’s been to World Series, played all around the World. He’s a mate, one of the guys I played with.”

“I’ve seen a lot of the country playing Softball. I played with some of the best players in the country, maybe even the world. They all came from Mount Isa, just country boys.”

When you talk about country boys Eddie fits the bill perfectly, for it was where he grew up and learned the values that shaped the man he became. Born 6 July 1962 in Brisbane, he was the eldest son of Marion Williams and Frank Tyson.

"I know that mum and dad got married and then had me and then David, he was born in Brisbane also. After a while, I think we were only two or three, maybe four when mum and dad sort of split up."

When times were tough, the family would move back to his grandparents just to the North of Bundy. They lived on 171 acres at a small place called Berajong which was called “Bero” as that was the name of the nearby train station.

“I sort of grew up outside Bundy at my grandparents' place when I was smaller.”

Eddie’s grandparents were the family’s rock and he always felt their place at Bero was his safe and special place. He credits the time with his grandparents for teaching him the values he took through life; hard work, humility, patience, persistence, love, care and kindness.

“Grandad was a railway ganger, but I will always remember when he would take me fishing at Baffle Creek. It sticks with me to this day how he could walk through the shallow water with his spear without making a ripple.”

He caught fish and eels and taught Eddie how to remove the Eel’s slimy skin with gravelly sand and passed on his enquiring mind.

“When he took the car to get serviced he wouldn’t wait outside, he’d be lying on the floor next to the mechanic watching him so the next time it happened he could do it himself.”

Eddie could always picture the water tank, the mango, bush lemon and Burdekin Plum trees, the copper pot for washing and the old fencing line, with the fork of a tree holding it up in the middle, serving as a clothesline.

However, it was the old wood stove his nanna cooked on that was the central piece of the house.

“She was a hard worker, up before the crack of dawn with the stove all warmed up and ready to go. Nanna cooked scones, fish and other fabulous meals using her four basics; flour, sugar, eggs and a lot of love. You know she could even make steamed puddings in custard. There is an art to it yeah.”

The couple were from the old school, so when they headed into Bundy to stock up on sugar, rice and big bags of flour it was a special occasion.

“Grandpa and Nanna would get dressed up like they used to back in the old days. I had slacks and a nice shirt and Nanna had a nice dress and always made sure me and David were bathed and dressed up.”

“We’d head into Bundy early in the morning, do all the shopping and then Nanna and Grandad would give us a treat, that’s where we got introduced to chocolate and vanilla milkshakes (in the old aluminium containers.)"

“It was a long day with us leaving home by 6-6:30am, getting all the shopping done, having lunch, doing a few other little things and driving home, arriving in the dark.”

The real adventures occurred on school holidays when Eddie's cousins would come from Bundaberg and nearby Rosedale.

“We’d just have family days down the Baffle Creek and just go fishing, swimming, play Cricket, Football, hide-and-seek or just exploring. We had all this property to run around on and in the wet season the home creek would be running.”

The house was on a hill and when they heard a car, they would go out on the veranda to see who it was and wait for them.

“The cousins would come up, it would usually be two cars but sometimes one because back in them days you didn’t have to wear seat belts, so you could stuff 10 kids into a falcon station wagon.”

“The skies were so clear. We used to lie on a blanket in the front yard and look up at the stars. We knew what the Southern Cross was, every Australian kid does I think, then there’s the big dipper and the Little Dipper and I also know the seven sisters.”

At night the kids would play Chess and on holidays have tournaments.

“I’ve taught my boys how to play Chess, it’s a good game.”

One day Eddie’s Auntie Fay found a bargain at Vinnies in Bundy. When she returned to the property she proudly presented a complete set of Golf clubs to the kids.

Gina and Flex had no extended family in Australia as they all lived in Spain.

“When she hooked up with me, she got a forest,” Eddie reckoned, “It was an eyeopener for her. She’s been there a couple of times and the kids too, but I don’t know if they know the value of what it means to me.”

Primary school was in Bundaberg and nearby Rosedale Primary, so he and David caught the bus each day. Sister Lisa joined the family and when Kylie came along, Eddie’s mum moved them to Bundaberg. Youngest sister Brooke was the final addition and his sisters all have different fathers to Eddie and David.

“Doesn’t worry me; they’re still my sisters. The Sarra’s were second cousins but I claimed them as first cousins, cousins are cousins.”

Family was everything to Eddie. He referred to his cousins as Custard, Big Cuz or Little Cuz, depending on where they sat in the family line.

Aunty Fay, she of the left-handed golf clubs, married Jimmy Kiss and they had five children. One was Les Kiss who played for North Sydney and State of Origin for Queensland (hence Eddie’s affection for the North Sydney Bears) and when his tenure finishes this year as Queensland Reds’ coach he takes the role of Wallabies mentor.

Eddie’s mother’s sister, Iris, married Eric Eggmolesse, a south sea islander. One of their two daughters, Annette, lives in Mount Isa and had a daughter Melissa.

“Melissa calls me dad and Gina mum and we call her daughter. We’ve known her since she was born and she’s got two little children we call our grannies.”

Christmas was always a special time for Eddie because in his early years presents came only through hard work.

“We used to go bean picking and tomato picking on the holidays and that’s how we got our money for Christmas. We’d go for a whole day and get paid something like maybe $26 or $30 for the day’s work. We thought we were kings. Then we’d go into Bundaberg as a family and buy all these presents.”

It may not have been a white Christmas, but the family always made it special.

“We’d go down to the creek and pull out a tree. The old gum tree was a good Christmas tree, we’d do it up nicely.”

One Christmas, Eddie’s mother had to work but promised she would come home after her shift and cook a late Christmas lunch for them. When she arrived Eddie and David surprised her with dinner already prepared.

He was always looking to lighten the load for others, especially his sisters. A teacher told Eddie’s mum how in Lisa’s first year of school, Eddie, in grade seven, would go and check on his little sister each lunch break to make sure she was okay.

If it rained, he would rush home and then back to school with umbrellas, so Lisa and older sister Kylie did not get wet.

He adored James and Christopher and Gina his “lovely lady.” Christopher described him as a romantic who would tuck Gina into bed every night until he was no longer able to.

When the family went camping at the Gregory, the first thing he did was build some steps into the bank so Gina could go to the toilet.

The Gregory River was actually their first official date.

“Some friends said we’ll go up there and it was beautiful. That’s our happy spot. We always went back up there, took our kids, all our friends go up there too.”

If he wasn’t teaching the boys to fish, he would be frolicking in the river. Eddie would rise before sunup for a quick dip and then put the pot on the fire for coffee. Perhaps in these moments he remembered his nanna and her early morning rituals.

“If we were going to get married, that’s where we were going to get married. The plan was to blow up a queen air mattress and float down the river with a ‘Just Married’ sign on it.”

Their neighbour, Alison, became a celebrant and Eddie and Gina joked they would get her to marry them at the Gregory. Alison passed from cancer but Eddie explained;

“You don’t need to get married to be married.”

Eddie’s passing left their union just shy of 40 years, but Gina did get a ring when, with Felix and the boys present, Eddie surprised them.

“I just said, ‘you know your mum and me have been together for this long. We’re not going to get married but I have bought her a wedding ring.'”

The couple waited eight years before having children. Christopher came along in 1994 and 10 years later, James entered the world.

“Gina and me have two beautiful children. Two lovely boys. We lost one in the middle which we said was our girl and her name would have been Jade Marie Tyson.”

Eddie was 42 when James came along and when he took him to get his needles, his ego took a hit much to Gina’s merriment.

“The nurse said, ‘Oh it’s so lovely to see the grandparents bringing in the kid.'”

While Eddie’s parents were a huge influence on him and David, they were also influenced by the extended family, particularly his mother’s brother, Michael. Eddie finished primary school at Ipswich and attended Brassal High for a year until his mother, a single mother, looking after four kids got a bit sick.

“Mum asked my Uncle Mike if he would take us boys for the rest of our secondary schooling years and he said yes. The girls stayed with mum and David and I would travel back most weekends to stay in touch with them.”

Living with his uncle and auntie in the leafy Brisbane suburb of Ashgrove, the boys attended the Gap High School. When Eddie finished Year 11, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do so he and his mate repeated.

That put him and David in the same grade and they graduated together with good friend Kathy Lawson.

“Kathy was in David’s grade and we had been friends since starting at the Gap. When we went into Year 12, Kat became School Captain and I was Sports Captain. Kathy and I have been friends for 50 years next year.”

Both boys were excellent sportsmen, but after school David headed to Gladstone and Eddie stayed a couple of years in Brisbane.

He worked as a production assistant in the Kelvin Grove Teacher’s College media department and the Commonwealth Government Department of Aboriginal Affairs setting up the first Indigenous radio station, 4EB.

“Come up to Gladstone and get into the railway,” David, who was living and working for the railway with his uncle, told him.

“The previous year I visited and watched David compete for Gladstone at the State Championships. In 1984, I moved up to Gladstone and that’s when I got into Softball.”

He represented Gladstone with David in 1984, defeating Mount Isa 3-1 in a wet Grand Final.

“I made the Queensland side that went to Melbourne for the Nationals and got selected in the Australian All-Star side, I was 22.”

In 2002, Eddie was inducted into the Queensland Softball Hall of Fame, but his stature in the game is evident by the introduction of a new trophy at the State Championships.

Though ill, a humbled yet well-deserving Eddie presented 'The Eddie Tyson Most Valuable Player of the Tournament' in its first year.

When Eddie moved to the Isa, he worked as a labourer in the Copper Smelter and while there, he heard about adult apprenticeships.

“I threw my hat into the ring for a Diesel Fitter Apprenticeship and got it.”

Because Eddie had a year as a labourer under his belt when he finished his time, that meant five and a half years with the company and only another year and a half until long service pro rata.

“They said come back in six months and there will probably be a job for you. That was what they did in those days because when I started again I would have to wait another seven years for pro rata.”

So Eddie headed over the tracks and spent eleven years at the Queensland Department of Housing.

“I was a field officer and covered Camooweal, Burketown, Normanton east to Hughenden and south to Barcaldine and Birdsville.”

Eddie is one of those people who can get on with anyone, but there was an incident that his affable nature could not get him out of and led to him fearing for his life.

“I went from Normanton to Burketown and arrived around four or five in the afternoon. I was booked into the pub so I bought a cold drink and settled down at the bar. A young indigenous guy was there and he introduced himself.”

It was when Eddie introduced himself that things went sideways very quickly.

“Oh you’re that ‘so and so’ that is going to evict my auntie and my mother. Who do you think you are you dog coming in here into my community?”

The guy kept at him and fearing for his safety, Eddie tried to mollify him.

”Look, mate, I am just doing my job.”

After advising the publican he was going to head off rather than stay, he called his boss who was not concerned but Eddie was adamant he didn’t feel safe. Heading off toward the Gregory, he soon saw lights coming at him in the rear-view mirror.

They were getting closer and closer, so instead of staying on the road to the Gregory he turned off the main road only for the lights to follow.

“When I got to a dip there was a bit of a clearing, so I drove off and turned the lights out and sat and waited. The car zipped past and I waited maybe ten minutes in case the car doubled back.”

While waiting, he rang good friends Pedro and Jo Magdics who were friends with the new principal at the school.

“I said ‘Pedro, can you give him a ring? I am fearing for my life.”

The principal rang back and told Eddie to come and stay the night and took his car out of the garage so Eddie could hide his.

“I put my car in the garage and slept on the floor. I got up the next morning and literally cut for it. I was glad to get home that week.”

The incident saw two changes at the department, the first was that no field officer could travel on their own and Eddie was transferred to cover a different area. However, after eleven years with housing, Eddie felt he was not appreciated.

“I was an AO3 and every time an AO4 officer went on leave I would fill in. But every time I applied for an AO4 position I’d get overlooked so I said ‘stuff this.'”

He was working as a contractor with the Rebuild Workshop when he saw a vacancy at the Copper Smelter and applied. The circle was complete when Eddie went back to the Copper Smelter on the Anode wheel and then a convertor operator.

He was there when, in 2019, his family’s world was turned upside down when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

In true Eddie style, he faced adversity with dignity and courage and while many were ready to write him off, he kept the reaper at bay. He was able to spend another six years with Gina and the boys and his wide group of friends.

He was branded ‘Coco Pops' by his friends’ children and was in his element with the young ones when they visited.

Cards were a family tradition and when Eddie was diagnosed, it became even more important when his travelling was restricted. More chairs were added over the years in the family’s little kitchen, with all welcome.

Eddie was a big movie buff and would pull the mattresses out on the loungeroom floor and rent movies for a movie marathon with the boys and Gina. The boys in the family would forever be using movie quotes and whenever Star Wars went on, they drove Gina crazy by quoting the whole movie instead of just watching.

A passionate Queenslander, State of Origin nights were loud and boisterous in the small family lounge. He loved the Cowboys and Storm and before they were kicked out, the North Sydney Bears.

Saturday night football was special especially when his good mate, Clinton Munns (Munnsie), came over. The games would end but the night did not. They would play songs from their 80’s heydays and sing along and laugh as they recalled past adventures.

In those early days Gina’s brother Felix played for Red Devils and Gina supported him and his friends but Eddie kept at it.

“It took years to convert her but Rebels eventually got her.”

The boys joined Eddie in the blue and red but it was always just a social outing for Gina; until she turned 40.

“Gina’s really unco,” Eddie reckons, “Softball was a social outing for her, but she thinks she had a midlife crisis when she turned 40."

“There was a heap of ladies watching their kids and partners play and they decided one day they’d put a team in. Gina said, ‘well, now I’ll play because I’m playing with beginners.’ She had the best time,” Eddie recalled.

“I remember Gina coming down in her uniform and Kim Coghlan saw her and started clapping and laughing. People said what are you laughing at? 'Gina’s playing softball,' she replied.”

Nearly everybody thought Gina had been a player at some stage, but though she had been down at Softball every weekend for 20 years, she had never set foot on a diamond.

Softball is what brought the couple together and it seemed, in some ways, preordained.

“One day at Gina’s parent’s house for dinner, Felix walked out with a Gladstone Softball hat on and I asked who he swapped hats with to get it. He said he didn’t know but I used to always put my name under the flap at the front and when we looked it was my cap.

“It was really freaky but it was meant to be.”

Eddie’s Aunties all took their husband’s names when they married and his uncles carrying the Tyson name all have girls. Eddie’s brother, David, has a girl and if she marries and her children take their father’s name, it leaves Christopher and James as the last with the chance to carry on the Tyson name.

“The Last of the Mohicans,” said Eddie, “No kids yet, but I hope they do for Gina’s sake and theirs. If they don’t, well that’s life.”