“My outlook on life is if you can’t give everything 100 per cent you don’t get involved,” he said.

Many Albury-Wodonga sporting clubs, community groups and athletes continue to benefit as Les, 79, lives out this creed each day.

Since 1958, Les has served the Ovens and Murray Football and Netball League as either player, official, coach, trainer, property steward, announcer, Critic editor, historian or reunion organiser and often several of those roles at once.

A professional runner for six years in his 20s, Les coached Border athletes from then to now and also led the NSW track team at the Australian blind athletics championships between 1988 and 1991.

Beyond sport, he’s been a longtime welfare officer for the Albury-Wodonga National Servicemen’s Association, a Relay for Life committee member and a founding member of the Albury-Wodonga business luncheon.

Late last month, the Rotary Club of Albury North awarded Les the Paul Harris Fellow to recognise nearly 60 years of community service.

Taken by surprise, Les was moved when his three daughters, Kerrie, Cheryl and Debbie, also appeared at the function to celebrate the honour with him.

“You don’t look for recognition,” he said.

“You do it because you love it; you’re giving people an opportunity in life, that’s what it’s all about.”

Les met The Border Mail at his North Albury home of 46 years, in between packing up from his usual memorabilia display at Wednesday’s Ovens and Murray Hall of Fame night and the regular training and fitness sessions he leads several days each week. 

But of all Les’ present commitments, he most values the time he spends twice a day at BUPA Aged Care Wodonga feeding his beloved wife Lyn, who has Alzheimer's disease.

“She’s my first priority,” he said. 

“She may not know who I am, but I know who she is.”

Les met Lyn when they both worked at the former Adelyn clothing factory on Wodonga Place and the couple married in 1961.

Born in Wodonga, Les and his family moved around for his butcher father’s work and lived in Benalla during Les’ teen years.

A casual conversation with a friend’s “Uncle Dick” converted the Richmond supporter into a Bombers fan when the stranger turned out to be Essendon legend Dick Reynolds, who gave Les a club footy jumper.

“And then we got burned out about four months after that in the long weekend in January and I lost it,” Les said. 

“But I’ve always barracked for Essendon since.” 

That 1955 house fire devastated the O’Briens, with Les only discovering the disaster upon returning from a day at tennis.

“There were about 200 people out the front, Mum and Dad in their pyjamas and a shell of a house,” he recalled. 

“I had nothing, I had my shorts, my tennis clothes and my tennis racquet, that’s all I had left.” 

Les stayed in Benalla working as his parents moved back to Albury, sometimes riding his push bike between the two centres on weekends to visit.

But then he too moved to the Border and stayed during a career that ended with 21 years managing Big Chief’s Trading Place, a sheepskin products business.

Les can still recite, accents and all, the radio ads he voiced for Big Chief’s, a talent that would also have served him well in his musical theatre days.

Alongside his profession sat his sporting endeavours. 

A natural runner, he enjoyed success at the Stawell Gift carnival and has coached Australian senior and junior representatives as well as helping numerous sportspeople improve their stamina.

“Don’t matter what you play, what sport, fitness is everything,” Les said.

“And co-ordination, body co-ordination, I do a lot of work with that.”

Those who have sampled his coaching certainly remember the experience.

“Tough, very tough, he never lets up,” Albury United Soccer Club president Marty Chambers said.

“You go to pull out for some reason, you go to sit down and he’s always telling you to get back up ready to go again. 

“He doesn’t get fired up as such, he’ll just tell you how it is; if he sees wrong, he’ll let you know.”

But Les did not just preach commitment, he lived it.

“He’s always come forth and put his hand up to do so, he never says no to a task,” Marty said. 

“He always tries his hardest.”

As Albury Athletics president Bernie Cannan observed, Les did not have too many weeks off given his involvement with various codes and clubs.

“He spreads himself pretty thin by the time he catches up with everyone,” Bernie said.

The veteran coach continued to build a good rapport with the young athletes he trained.

“The fact he was a pretty good runner himself, he gets a bit of respect from them straight off,” Bernie said.

“He keeps them moving, yeah, but it’s also a fun session as well.”

Marty said Les was something of a grandfather figure for today’s youngsters, who enjoyed his extensive knowledge of the region’s sportspeople.

“A lot of the kids, they want to hear stories about idols around here or good runners or good soccer players or good footy players even,” the president said.

“Les could tell you everything.”

Ovens and Murray Football and Netball League chairman Graeme Patterson said his organisation remained grateful to Les.

“His contribution has just been continuous and the dedication is just quite extraordinary over that lengthy period of time,” Graeme said.

“His personality leads itself to volunteering within the sporting community; a very likeable and affable person and very well respected too.”

In addition to his wife’s illness, Les’ own good health has wavered at times over the years, for example, a heart attack and surgery in 1991, ongoing prostate cancer treatment through tablets, knee problems and a stroke several years ago.  

“They reckon the only reason I got over it is because I’ve been massaging all those years and the muscles were nimble,” Les said.

He thanked his family for their ongoing support of him and Lyn during the difficult times.

So, no thoughts of easing off his schedule?

“I’ve tried to and the doctors are telling me too but I find it hard, I mean, when you’ve done it all your life,” he said.