Grahame Thorne

Grahame Stuart Thorne (born 25 February 1946) is a former All Black rugby player, rugby union commentator, Member of Parliament and municipal councillor. He was born in Auckland, New Zealand.

Rugby union

A centre and second five-eighth, Thorne represented Auckland at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks, from 1967 to 1970. He played 39 matches for the All Blacks including 10 internationals. In the early 1970s he lived in South Africa and played for Northern Transvaal and Natal. In 2014, he featured on a list of the top 100 All Blacks.

Grahame's sons Bruce and David also played rugby union. Bruce played for Transvaal and the Junior Springboks and David played club rugby in Nelson.

Sports broadcasting career

After his playing career, Thorne worked as a sports commentator for Television New Zealand, often appearing alongside Keith Quinn. He achieved notoriety in 1983 when he appeared presenting the sports news with his hair in a perm, inspiring headlines, irate phonecalls, and “curls are for girls” banners at rugby games. TV archive website NZ on Screen described the scene as "a key moment in Kiwi fashion history."