Warning: This article contains the name and photograph of an Aboriginal person who has died.
Queensland rugby league legend Samson Neale Backo has died at Cairns hospital, aged 64.
He was admitted to hospital in April, diagnosed with the bacterial tropical soil disease, meliodosis. It's believed he contracted the disease while swimming in a creek after a hot day of riding on his well-loved Harley Davidson motorbike.
Backo, who was living with a implantable cardioverter defibrillator after severe heart surgery in 2023, had a pacemaker installed in Prince Charles Hospital in July.
He passed away on Sunday, in his hometown of Cairns, surrounded by family.
In a statement, his sisters Dolores, Charmaene, Kathrine and Jewel said he would be remembered as a loving and generous family man.
"He was a man with a huge generosity of spirit and was always thinking of others. Even as he lay in the Cairns Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, he made sure he sent a message of condolence to the family of a friend who had just passed," they said.
Just one example of the measure of the man.
The early years
Born at Ingham in 1961, Backo was raised in Bordelia and Halifax.
He was the son of well-respected Aboriginal advocate and campaigner for the 1967 referendum Dr Evelyn Scott AO.
Backo frequently recalled running around barefoot in Townsville dropping Yes campaign pamphlets in mailboxes.
He was deeply proud and inspired by his mother and regularly quoted the phrase 'we all belong to one race, the human race', which she had written on their walls of their home.
"Among the many things that Sam admired in our mother was how she instilled in her children a strong belief in the critical importance of a good education and her core belief that knowledge is power," his sisters said.
He was raised by his grandparents, Melba and Ishmael Backo and a community of 13 Aunties and Uncles.
"He loved these times enveloped by his large family and these were extremely happy days for him," his sisters recalled.
"He often reflected on the old-fashioned discipline that we experienced growing up into adulthood. He believed that this discipline was character building and helped him, and us, become better adults."
A supplied image obtained on Sunday, August 3, 2025 of Sam Backo celebrates on the bench with Peter Jackson (right) also from (left) Mark Coyne and Martin Bella during State of Origin 1990. Credit: Colin Whelan/PR Image
Rugby League Achievements
At seven, Backo played his first game of rugby league in the under10s league for Herbert Dolphins.
His talent saw him recruited by Fortitude Valley for the Brisbane Rugby League competition and poached by the Canberra Raiders for the NRL in 1983.
He spent six season in the Raiders jersey, scoring 15 tries across 115 matches.
At 188 centimetres and 115 kilograms, he became known as 'Slammin Sam', a league legend.
Sam Backo of the Kangaroos looks to offload during a rugby league first test match between the Australian Kangaroos and Great Britain at the Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, Australia. Credit: Getty Images/Getty Images
In 1985, he was National Aborigines Day of Celebration's Sportsman of the Year. In 1988, he was named Dally M Front Rower and became the first Australia to score tries in all three Ashes tests against England.
Eventually, Backo moved closer to home, joining the Brisbane Broncos. But, a knee injury ended his career at just 29.
He is remembered as a great, he won the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and in 2008, was named in the Australia Rugby League's Indigenous Team of the Century alongside Artie Beetson and Johnathon Thurston.
A staunch cultural man
Backo was a very proud and staunch cultural man who his sisters say "loved his people and took his cultural obligations very seriously".
"He was also a strong fighter for his people, the Warrgamay people and the South Sea Islander community, descended from Ni-Vanuatu and Solomon Islander people kidnapped as slave labour for the Queensland and NSW sugar industry," they said.
"Sam’s commitment to the struggles of First Nations peoples and South Sea Islander justice was developed at a young age and he reflected on the times we spent at Townsville meetings of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, in the early days of the modern Aboriginal struggle.
"He often recalled these truly remarkable memories as our family helped make Australian history."
While still playing with the Broncos, Backo took on a role working with Indigenous prisoners through Queensland Corrective Services Commission. Work that fulfilled his desire to give back to his people.
In 2017, after the death of his mother, the Queensland government and Hinchinbrook Shire Council had proposed a dedicated memorial plaque. Backo instead negotiated the plaque, which now sits in Halifax, to honour the Nywaigi, Warrgamay and Biyaygiri Traditional Owners.
In the same year, Backo was the Chair of the North Queensland Land Council. He was one of the 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates invited to Uluru for the first Constitutional Convention.
This meeting spearheaded the creation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
However, Backo told the ABC he intended to vote no in the 2023 Referendum citing major concerns about grassroots representation.
In August of 2021, the Native Title rights of Warrgamay People were recognised by the Australian Federal Court.
Backo played a significant role in this victory, helping the reclamation of 185,000 hectares of Country near Ingham, Cardwell, and Lucinda.
"This always was, and always will be Aboriginal land," he said at the time.
"This determination will give us the opportunity to hopefully benefit not only traditionally and culturally but also economically from our Country."
Health troubles
In 2023, whilst undergoing a double knee replacement, Backo suffered a severe heart attack.
Surgeons installed three stints before transferring him to Brisbane's Charles Hospital where he underwent quadruple bypass cardiac surgery.
It was a wake up call who told ABC News from his hospital bed at the time that he "didn't really have a clue" he had heart disease.
"They don't do a comprehensive health check until you're 65, and being Indigenous, our lifespan is less than non-Indigenous people," he said.
"If you're Indigenous and 45, or even younger, go and get your heart checked."
Since, he had advocated for health, insisting the importance of regular medical checks.
Sam Backo during Game 1 of the 1989 State of Origin series with a young Greg Alexander behind him. Credit: PR Image/AAP Image
"He was fiercely proud of his four sisters and loved them dearly," his sisters said.
"Despite his immense success as an athlete his proudest achievements were always his six children – Elaine, Jacob, Daniel, Luke, Sarah and Peter – and his grandchildren and great grandchildren."
His family thanked the medical staff at Cairns Hospital, naming the care of Dr Symon Smith ID Specialist, Dr Alison the ICU Specialist and the Cardiac Care Team. They also extended their thanks to the Prince Charles Hospital's Cardiac and Heart surgeons who cared for him during his time in Brisbane.
