Courier Mail, Oct 13.

" Rugby leage is today mourning the loss of two true champions after Holman and fellow Kangaroo Dick Thornett passed away within a day of each other. A gritty 1950's halfback with Western Suburbs, Holman died on monday from a heart attck, aged 84. Yesterday, as obituaries for Holman were being written, news came that Thornett had died, also from heart complications, aged 71." Thornett was, at various stages of his life, a Police Officer, publican, and Kangaroo representative.He was one of just 5 Australians to represent their country in three sports, rugby union, rugby league, and water polo, notorious for parading around the Rome Olympic village , wearing nothing but togs @ team tie.

"Happy" Holman was a teetotaller who organised Kangaroo reunions for men like Thornett, and would also drag rugby league legends like Coote @ Beetson to Long Bay to visit prisoners held there. Men of League founder Ron Coote, said " He was a real gentleman, Keith was forever coaching kids, refereeing, helping others,he was a man who really cared."
Holman never forgot his humble upbringing, a child of the great Depression, raised in a tent in a Malabar shanty town, relying on handouts, hope and a canvas home. Holman new the kindness of Salvos, then the foster family who took him in, and, says Coote, " Keith had a kindness that only comes from deep within." Bob