A keen student of cricket history, Steve Waugh once considered instilling the attitude among his teammates. He started with Brendon Julian, quizzing him on Stan McCabe.
The response was prompt: "Isn't he the guy out of Jake and the Fatman?"
Julian was referring to the CBS crime series, where Fatman went by the name Jason Lochinvar McCabe. "End of quiz," sighed Waugh.
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It was a shame that Julian had not bothered to know about McCabe.
Most batsmen are happy to play as many as one all-time great innings. McCabe played three, at Sydney in 1932-33, at Johannesburg in 1935-36, and at Trent Bridge in 1938.
Of these, the second is not talked about as much, for it was not played in an Ashes. However, it was certainly the most remarkable, even the most bizarre of the three.
Dudley Nourse had already lit up the stage with 231 in less than five hours. Doing anything better seemed unlikely, especially when a side was set 399.
But when Brown fell early, McCabe arrived and raced to 59 by 4.55 PM. At that point Fingleton and McCabe had a mid-pitch conference.
McCabe: I can hardly see the ball.
Fingleton: No foolin'?
McCabe: Well, you mightn't think so, but I've got my work cut out to see it. We have all day tomorrow. This is a good start. I think we had better give the light a go.
So off they went. And with 314 to get on the final day, McCabe returned and launched a ferocious onslaught.
When Fingleton was bowled round the legs (the pitch was deteriorating rapidly), Australia became 194/2. McCabe had scored 148 of these.
Fingleton later recalled: "I had made 40 in a hard struggle to keep out shooters and big and sudden breaks which made McCabe's innings at the other end seem like a crazy dream to me."
A dust cloud held up play. Bob Crisp, who could generate serious pace, was making the ball lift off a length on an uneven pitch. And now dark clouds loomed in the horizon, followed by lightning and thunder.
But surely that wouldn't stop McCabe? By lunch he was 159 and Australia 217/2. The new ball was taken in the second session, but it hardly mattered. Australia reached 250 in 199 minutes.
At this stage everyone else were finding it difficult to spot the ball, but who cared? McCabe 189, Australia 274/2, three hours of cricket left...
At this stage South African captain Herby Wade had to opt for the only option available to him: he appealed for light under the claim that the conditions were too dangerous to field.
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Of course, the other two innings were perhaps as spectacular. When Larwood and Voce bowled at frightening pace in Sydney, the 22-year-old told his father "If I get hit, Dad, stop Mum from jumping the fence" and strode out to score 187 not out, taking blow after blow in the process. During his stay at the wicket his teammates combined to score 91.
And at Trent Bridge, McCabe walked out at 111/2. By the time he fell for 232, Australia had added only 300.
This was the innings during which Bradman summoned his entire team to the balcony: "Come and look at this. You will never see the like of this again."
One must remember here that the Catholics in the side (McCabe, O'Reilly, O'Brien, Fingleton, Fleetwood-Smith) were not on great terms with the Freemason Bradman. And Bradman was known for bearing grudges.
But it did not matter this time, for "Napper" was putting on a display the kind of which even Bradman had never seen this before. After all, he had not been there for the previous two.
When an exasperated Ken Farnes, after being hit around the ground by McCabe, blurted out: "What do I do next?"
"Well, you could run down and get his autograph," quipped O'Reilly from the non-striker's end.
Stan McCabe was born on 16 July 1910.