Part 2 of 70 — Chapter 1: Introduction
This article forms part of the serialised republication of Panthers, Passion & Politics – The Roger Cowan Years.
Writing any book that attempts to record contested events is a daunting prospect.
Although the main purpose of this book is to document some important phases in the life of Panthers (the business), it is impossible to do it justice without also including some of the history of a CEO who served it for 40 years.
What was challenging about this story was that there are so many versions of Roger Cowan in people’s minds.
That was no surprise to him.
He says he came to the realisation many years ago that within each person there is a multiplicity of personalities. Each of us appears different in the eyes of everyone who knows us. A mother looks at her son and sees a very different person to the one his wife sees — or his mates, or his teacher. Cowan’s view of Ron Mulock would be poles apart from that of Mulock’s sons or friends. The same would apply to Mulock’s view of Cowan.
The task of setting a background for this book through an understanding of its characters is fraught with difficulty. It can only be completely reliable where indisputable facts are available. Many beliefs are based on opinions and will have to remain just that. Nevertheless, telling this story is important for two major reasons.
Firstly, the Panthers journey is interesting on a number of levels. Its growth, in many ways, runs parallel to that of the club industry in NSW. Standards and systems initiated at Panthers have been adopted by the industry, and sometimes even by government. The fact that one man was at the helm for forty years through that growth is also quite unusual in this country.
Secondly, and just as importantly, was the need to delve as deeply as possible into a story that must be told because of what it reveals about government and justice in NSW.
I first heard of Roger Cowan around 30 years ago1 through two of my sons who were best mates with his youngest son, Phillip. My boys would often spend time at what they called the ‘round house’ — Roger’s and Phyllis’s residence on a hill overlooking the river at Emu Heights near Penrith. Roger was a ‘good bloke’, they told me. Roger and Phyllis Cowan still live in that same ‘round house’ that my sons used to visit. From my sons’ descriptions, it hasn’t changed all that much.2
I knew that Roger was secretary-manager of the Penrith League Club in Station Street, where I used to attend the odd concert. That was the extent of my knowledge. As a shop assistant in Penrith and later, when selling advertising, I watched the little local club grow and saw in 1984 the birth of Panthers World of Entertainment on Mulgoa Road in Penrith.
I did not meet the man until 1989 when I began work in the marketing department of Panthers. The atmosphere I encountered was unlike anything I had come across in 20 odd years in the workforce. I had always had a passion for writing but had been too busy working and raising kids to do much about it. Suddenly, writing became part of my working life. The Panthers environment was one that allowed people to develop their talents – to grab the ball and run with it.
In that situation you come to believe that anything is possible.
In 1992, around my 50th birthday, I knocked on Roger Cowan’s office door (it really was always open). I told him I had decided to apply for university and if accepted I would like to keep my job but reduce my hours significantly. We came to an agreement but after I got my degree, I moved on and became a journalist/editor in a small publishing company. Panthers continued to grow.
On visits back to Penrith, I would wonder at what was happening on Mulgoa Road. The club had now become the hub of a thriving business district.
When I visited Bathurst — or Newcastle — I found Panthers there also.
On an overseas trip, in 2003, I met an American couple who told me they had stayed at Panthers on a recent visit to Australia.
A seed was growing in the back of my mind – there is a good story here and somebody should write it one day.
In 2004, I began to read headlines that alarmed me. They were telling me things that I did not believe. Later, I heard an interview in which Roger Cowan said that one day he might write a book. Early in 2005 I contacted him. If he thought a book was worthwhile, but was unlikely to write it himself, I would like to try. I knew there were writers who were more experienced – and already published — who would have been more attractive options, but there was no harm in asking.
Roger’s answer was positive. He would tell his story. His only stipulation was that I would do the research, leave no stone unturned, talk with ALL the players and write as honest and objective a story as was possible with the time and the resources available. Some of the research was easy. Many people wanted to talk — even some from 40 years ago – and they had interesting tales to tell. Others declined, which was a pity.
As an author, I was starting from a certain position. I was also determined to present a balanced picture and try to sort out the myths from reality. The myths and stories were in abundance. Some played a big role in the events that unfolded.
Long before I ever went to work at Panthers, I had heard the stories. The man was a visionary. Well, that was pretty obvious — look what was growing on that big cow paddock on Mulgoa Road I used to pass as a kid, on the way to Wallacia in my school holidays.
There were stories about how he’d bought that land himself and sold it back to the Club at some outrageous profit. And rumours that said you don’t cross Roger Cowan, because ‘he’ll get you’.
That larger-than-life character was very far from what I found when I joined the Panthers marketing team in 1989. This was a very approachable man who not only listened — he also heard what you were saying. I found Roger Cowan a fair and honest person with an absolute passion for Panthers.
But old mythologies linger.
Someone from my own family was horrified that I was writing this book and took every opportunity to tell me what an evil person this man was. Who told you this stuff? I asked. Let me talk to them. Show me. If there’s something out there, I want to hear it. When I was eventually put in touch with one of the sources of her information, he said, I’ve got nothing bad to tell you about Roger. He was always fair in his dealings with me.
Rumours are passed on and accepted by many as truth. People said to me:
Jennie, I would love to talk to you — but I’m not about to tell you anything about Roger. He gets people. My response was, OK, give me an example. Give me the name of someone he’s “got”. Let me contact them and see whether they’ll talk to me.
Quite a few said, I don’t have any examples, but I’ve heard plenty of stories. A couple said, why don’t you speak to so-and-so, he can tell you lots of stories about Roger; or talk to Joe Bloggs, he hates Roger Cowan!
So, I spoke to those people. And yes, some may have had a beef with Roger at some time but in each of them there was high respect, regard and, in some cases, real affection for the man. They are some of the characters in this tale.
Roger Cowan has some real enemies, and a couple of them did speak to me. Their stories are told in the book. They are certainly not part of the mythology. Myths have ogres and dragons and assorted bogey men but as we tell our children, they can’t really hurt you. Enemies can.
When Roger first took over as Panthers CEO, he had a plan to work in every job in the club for a set amount of time. Could have been two or three weeks — maybe a month — but he did it because he didn’t want to ask the employees to do any job that he wouldn’t, or couldn’t do, himself. He did it all, things like cleaning, picking up glasses, bar work, poker machines, etc.
More than one person who worked at the Club in those early days offers this story as fact; they were there and saw it happen.
Cowan’s version differs:
I often worked with staff in informal ways, but it is an exaggeration to say I did every job as part of any plan. For instance, in the early days I did some cleaning so that I could know what reasonable times could be allocated to different tasks.
This is how myths grow. From the mouths of people who were there, they are believable. They are usually based on some element of fact and the facts are embellished as the story grows. This principle applies to the negative stories as well as the positive ones.
In a 1999 article in the Leadership Victoria Journal, Rod Myer observed that our tall poppy syndrome results from feelings of inadequacy, and envy of successful people. They then think that those high-fliers “couldn’t have done that without help or money or stomping on people or doing something underhanded”.
The story that Cowan profited from selling the Mulgoa Road land is an example. It has never been sold3. A government official remembers being involved in an investigation:
I saw the documentation. It showed that within a matter of days, or maybe even on the same day, the property was sold at a huge profit. Of course, the word going around at the time was that Roger Cowan had benefited from that.
In fact, neither Cowan nor any other intermediary bought or sold the land. Cowan says the story relates to the site of the original club in Station Street. And yes, there was a huge profit, but not for him or Panthers. This story will be told later.
Roger Cowan walked away from Panthers in 2005 with many friends, a few sworn enemies and a trail of myths and stories. He also left a legacy. The tiny club he walked into in 1965 is now a giant enterprise that is a positive part of the lives of multitudes of people.
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- Panthers, Passion and Politics was first published in 2007. At the time of this republication, nearly fifty years have passed since the author first heard of Roger Cowan.
↩︎ - The family home was sold in December 2011, following the events covered by this book.
↩︎ - Portions of the Mulgoa Road property have since been sold to a developer. The sale occurred after Roger Cowan’s retirement. Stage 1 of the residential development has been completed, with Stage 2 underway at the time of this note.
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Panthers, Passion & Politics - The Roger Cowan Years 