Wellington College old boy, Ken Gray was honoured by the school when he was chosen for the '63 All Blacks tour to Europe.
He had not made the same impact on the school's rugby coaches during his time in the school playgrounds and had failed to register in the school 1st XV.
When he left school, Gray started to make an impact for his Paremata club where his size, natural strength and lineout ability made him a formidable lock for his club and province before he switched to loosehead prop.
When Gray was picked for the All Blacks he made his test statements on the tight-head side of the scrum where his contributions received glowing acclaim from the Herald's rugby scribe TP McLean.
Gray's contributions added to the power of men like Colin Meads, Wilson Whineray and Kel Tremain until he decided to quit the game late in '69 because he was opposed to the tour of South Africa the following season.