Born Jubbulpore, India
15 April 1937
The youngest of five international-level hickey-playing brothers, Julian Pearce was, in a way, the odd man out, proving to be an outstanding defender. His brothers were all brilliant forwards.
The youngest of five international-level hickey-playing brothers, Julian Pearce was, in a way, the odd man out, proving to be an outstanding defender. His brothers were all brilliant forwards.
His Olympic efforts brought a sixth place for Australia in Rome (1960), a bronze medal in Tokyo (1964), and a silver medal in Mexico City (1968). He shared his first and last Olympic successes with Eric and Gordon, while only Eric accompanied Julian to Tokyo. Cec and Mel had been in the Australian team that toured New Zealand in 1952 and Gordon and Eric joined Mel in Melbourne for the 1956 Olympics.
The family had settled in Perth in 1947, with father Cecil and elder sons Cec and Mel getting off the boat at Fremantle en route to Victoria – and staying. Mother Gladys and the other three brothers arrived in 1948.
Julian captained the WA Colts team in 1958 and followed the precedent set by Eric by graduating to the State senior side the same year – to be part of a national championship, victory. Julian represented WA again in 1959-60-64-65-68.
The Olympic year of 1960 was Julian’s first taste of international hockey and he followed up with a tour of India in 1962 for a special 10-nation tournament – the forerunner of today’s World Cup championships.
Tall and solidly-built, he was regarded as one of the finest defenders in the game, fearless and skilful as he often set up attacks for his brothers downfield. WA hockey certainly benefited from the Pearce family’s influence and on Julian’s graduation to the State team in 1958, he joined all four brothers in the squad. They competed alongside each other just once, in the national championship of that year.
A regular A-grade player with Trinity, Julian retired from the Australian scene after a tour by a Japanese team in 1970, but continued to play at club level until 1976.
After a break of just over four years, he returned to coach Trinity, helping his old club side to regain A-grade status in the mid-1980’s. In all, Julian played 60 matches for WA and 45 for Australia.