Murray Bridge

Distinguished and Famous people from Murray Bridge

🚣 James McRae

James McRae grew up in Murray Bridge and developed his rowing with the local club. He progressed to three Olympic Games, winning bronze in the men’s quadruple sculls at London in 2012 and silver at Rio in 2016. A world championship title in 2011 had already demonstrated the crew’s ability at the highest level. Murray Bridge’s rowing club supported the years of training behind those international results. His international career continued a much older local rowing tradition, giving a new generation its own athlete to follow down the course.

🏉 Chad Wingard

Chad Wingard was born in Murray Bridge and played for Imperials before reaching the AFL. At sixteen he kicked five goals in the club’s 2009 River Murray Football League premiership victory, an emphatic way to introduce a teenager to a senior grand final. He was a talented basketballer, captaining South Australia’s under-sixteen side. Port Adelaide recruited him in the 2011 national draft, and in 2013 he earned All-Australian selection and the club’s John Cahill Medal. He later played for Hawthorn. Local football was a substantial foundation for his career, with the basketball interest providing another strand to his sporting childhood.

🚣 The Murray Cods

The Murray Cods were the Murray Bridge rowing crew that represented Australia in the men’s eight at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Their nickname brought a distinctly river-town identity to an international sporting occasion. The club’s success included King’s Cup victories in 1920, 1922 and 1923, establishing that its achievements reached well beyond local competition. Although the Olympic campaign did not produce a medal, the crew became an enduring part of the town’s sporting memory. Their story also gives rowing a collective cast: it depended on a boatload of people learning to pull together, not simply on one celebrated individual.