In the modern sporting world of processes, execution, structures, diet analysis, sleep diaries and wellness reports, it's quite hard to imagine a character like cricketer Gary 'Gus' Gilmour.
Gilmour died aged 62 at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital on Tuesday due to ongoing health problems.
He played 15 cricket Tests and five one-day internationals, bursting onto the scene as a 23-year-old at the inaugural World Cup in 1975.
Gilmour snared figures of 6-14 to help Australia beat hosts England in the semi-finals.
In 2002, Wisden ranked it the best one-day international bowling performance.
But none of the above numbers encapsulates Gilmour.
The swing-bowling allrounder was the epitome of a natural sporting talent, having excelled at baseball, rugby union and cricket.
The latter was his passion.
As the sport was transformed with the advent of World Series Cricket, Gilmour was happy to be left behind.
"It's not a sport any more - it's like going to work. You know how some mornings you get up and don't want to go to work - that's how I'd feel playing cricket these days," he said in an interview with Fairfax Media in 2003.
"I'd clock on for a sickie."
It was the sort of attitude that rankled Kerry Packer, and one of many reasons he was so endeared by teammates.
Gilmour was part of Packer's coloured-clothes revolution, enough of a leading act to be spruiked for "wielding willow like an axe" in the Mojo Singers' jingle.
But Packer demanded a level of commitment seemingly beyond him.
Effectively given his marching orders after being asked to run three kilometres in 15 minutes, Gilmour fronted up for one last fitness test.
It came midway through a drinking session in Perth.
Cheered on by teammates, Gilmour trotted around Langley Park and passed.
"I always told Packer there were sprinters and stayers. A Golden Slipper winner never won a Melbourne Cup," he joked of the incident.
Gilmour's only Test century came in 1977 when he and Doug Walters had been propping up the bar at the team hotel the night prior.
They blasted a partnership of 217 runs in 187 minutes at Christchurch's Lancaster Park.
It remains Australia's best seventh-wicket Test stand, and a reminder of times gone by.
At the end of his playing career, Gilmour was anything but a public figure.
He returned to the headlines only in 2005, when former captain Ian Chappell led a band of former teammates in raising money for a much-needed liver transplant.
It was a second lease on life that did not go to waste, with Gilmour raising awareness of organ donation and calling on the government to make organ donation compulsory.
Gilmour is survived by his wife Helen, daughter Brooke Drelincourt and sons Ben and Sam.
Earlier this year, Gilmour's son Clint died of brain cancer.
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