DR MARK: Mark Irwin in his 60-year-old original All Blacks' jersey. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER 231014SP17
Twenty five matches in the black jersey, seven of them tests, selected to row at the 1956 Olympics, a 15 handicap golfer at 15, Wanganui Collegiate head boy and heavyweight boxing champ times two, school choir tenor, double Blue Otago University; then there's his medical degree.
Gosh, who could possibly have achieved so much? It's Mark Irwin, who dedicated more than 40 years to Rotorua as a GP and anaesthetist.
We're not yet done with 'Doctor Mark's' super stats: At 20, he was the youngest prop to play for the ABs, a record yet to be toppled.
His test debut was against the Aussies in 1955, his final one against the 'Boks five years on; respected rugby writers confirm the man we're meeting is regarded as one the oval ball's mid 20th century legends.
Not that Mark will concur, he belongs to the strong, silent type of sportsman (his kids reckon he's never talked to them about his glory years), however with some stern prompting on our part, aided and abetted by his wife Lynne, a well of memories is unstoppered.
Mark Irwin's one of a rare breed of those chosen to represent their country in two codes.
'Represent' is the operative word for despite his Olympic rowing selection, he didn't make it to the Melbourne games; not through any fault of his but because weeks out from the 1956 games rowing administrators pulled the plug on their eight competing.
No one's ever established why; Mark suspects it was a 'money thing', but he's not the kind who dwells on the "what might have beens" rather, he's of the "get over it, get on with it" mindset.
He's always been sporty; growing up beside Gisborne's Wainui beach he's on record as owning New Zealand's first surfboard; it's now an Aussie collector's museum piece.
He reckons it was 'the big beast' that gave him the upper body strength necessary for his physically demanding codes of choice.
By the time he was 10 he'd decided to become a doctor.
"Dad was a dentist who did a lot of extractions, I'd be in the surgery with him, fascinated."
Before he could realise his med school ambitions he had his secondary education to complete. Mark makes no mention of his academic years at Collegiate, we draw the obvious conclusion their outcome was sufficiently sound to get him into 'doctoring'.
He played his first rugby game at 5 and by the 5th form was in Collegiate's 1st XV.
He started rowing at 12. "I thought I'd play cricket but didn't go very well so rowing it was, I'd play rugby to get fit for the summer and row to get fit for the winter."
In 1952 Mark was in the number five seat when Collegiate won its first Maadi Cup.
Boxing also occupied his last two school years, taking out the heavyweight title in each.
Rugby and rowing went with him to Otago University where his first year was spent studying towards a science degree. "I had to score high enough marks to get into med school."
He remained on the water for four seasons, securing his rowing Blue in 1955 "but rowing got a bit too much so I just played rugby and buried myself in my books".
After his All Blacks call-up the books went into storage for a spell; he had a tour of South Africa to attend to, not that he played in every game. A car crash "somewhere near Natal" ruled him out of several, the late Eric Anderson was also in the car. When Mark arrived in Rotorua they played together for Old Boys.
But back for a look from the inside of that 1960 South African tour. "We were paid 10 shillings ($1) a day, given a blazer and travelling rug, that was it."
Matches weren't without natural hazards. "We were packing an Ellis Park scrum when this tarantula came out of the ground . . . they just moved the scrum."
On the homeward leg of what was then a three-day journey, an unexpected bonus came the team's way. "Our plane developed engine problems forcing it to put down in Mauritius; we were there two weeks, on the upside we played golf, on the down we weren't getting paid."
During the 'Boks notorious 1956 New Zealand tour Mark was a marked man, a South African knee to his ribs in the first test put him out of the series.
With med school behind him, he spent time at Christchurch, Gisborne and Rotorua hospitals. In 1962 he went into practice with the late GPs Ian McPhail and Dick Sill, coupling the job with anaesthetic work at Rotorua Hospital and the privately-run St Andrews "and various doctors' surgeries around town".
A lot of Rotorua babies came into the world with Mark Irwin at the business end of the birthing process, "a very satisfying part of my work".
For some time he coupled farming with medicine. "One day I'd played really bad golf [by then he was on a '3 or 4' handicap], was angry with myself and thought there must be more to life than golf and medicine."
He bought 100 acres (40 hectares) on the Tauranga Direct Rd "growing venison, sheep, cattle, planting trees, balancing it with medicine, I loved it".
That was until "wonky" hips, vascular problems and severe septicaemia forced this fellow famed for his super fitness back into town and to walk with a crutch.
Regardless, he continues to play golf, Lynne says he's "indestructible, bullet proof".
A good number of former Springboks and Wallabies will be saying "hear hear" to that.