Nicknamed 'The King' and also 'The Emperor of Lang Park,' Wally Lewis represented Queensland in thirty-one State of Origin games from 1980 to 1991, and was captain for thirty of them. He also represented Australia in thirty-three international matches from 1981 to 1991 and was national team captain from 1984 to 1989. Lewis is perhaps best known for his State of Origin performances, spearheading Queensland's dominance in that competition throughout the 1980s and winning a record eight man of the match awards.

Lewis was born in Hawthorne, Queensland in 1959. His father, Jimmy, played first grade rugby league at wing or fullback for Brisbane clubs Wests and Souths, later becoming coach of the Wynnum-Manly club. Lewis attended Brisbane State High School during the 1970s. In 1977 while still in high school, Lewis also played representative rugby union as a Centre, touring Europe and Japan with the Australian schoolboys team alongside the likes of Tony Melrose, Michael O'Connor, and all three Ella brothers, Mark, Glen and Gary, all of whom went on to represent the Australia national rugby union team, while O'Connor would become a dual international when he played alongside Lewis for the Kangaroos.

Following his return to Australia from the 1977 Schoolboys tour, Lewis faced discrimination in the Queensland Rugby Union fraternity due to his rugby league background. After being told he would no longer be selected for any representative teams if he continued to play league, he immediately decided his future lay with rugby league, playing in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership with Valleys Diehards from 1978. Also in 1978, Lewis (and another young Brisbane based lock from Wests named Paul Vautin) turned down an offer to play in the famed Sydney premiership with the North Sydney Bears. While Lewis would remain in Brisbane in 1979, Vautin would go on to sign with 1978 Sydney premiers the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.

In 1979 Lewis made his senior début for Queensland from the bench in games played under the old State of Residence rules, and also played for a Brisbane representative side against the touring Great Britain Lions. With former Australian halfback halfback Ross Strudwick now captain-coach of the Diehards, Lewis helped Valleys to premiership victory over the Wayne Bennett-coached Souths Magpies side in the BRL Grand Final at Lang Park. Playing in the centres for the Magpies that day was a 19-year-old cadet policeman who would become a long serving Queensland and Australian teammate of Lewis in the coming decade, Mal Meninga.

Lewis made the run-on side for Queensland in the inaugural State of Origin match in 1980 at lock forward alongside his hero Arthur Beetson who at the age of 35 was playing in his first ever game for his home state. The following year a second State of Origin match was played, and captain-coach Arthur Beetson was a late withdrawal due to injury. In what proved to be a master stroke, Beetson coached the team from the sidelines and handed the captaincy over to 21-year-old Lewis who had moved from lock to play Five-eighth. His form for Queensland in both the two games played under the old residence system, and the one Origin game in which he scored one of four Qld tries, saw him selected to make his his Test début for Australia in 1981, playing five-eighth in a 43–3 win over France at the SCG.

Lewis played for English First Division side Wakefield Trinity for a short spell during the 1983–84 Rugby Football League season and he remains a favourite of Trinity fans, who named their fanzine Wally Lewis is Coming. Trinity won 5 of 10 games during Lewis's stay, including a win over St. Helens in which Lewis scored a hat-trick. Back in Australia, Lewis left Valleys and ultimately signed with the Wynnum-Manly Seagulls after initially considering an offer from Past Brothers.

Lewis was man-of-the-match for Game II of the 1985 State of Origin series, becoming the second player, after Mal Meninga in Game 1 1982, from the losing team to win the award. He then played in Wynnum-Manly's 1985 BRL grand final loss to a Souths Magpies team which included Gary Belcher, Mal Meninga and Peter Jackson. The Australian side toured New Zealand that year, winning the test series 2–1. The New Zealand tour was an unhappy one though, with coach Terry Fearnley, who had just led New South Wales to their first ever State of Origin series win, not getting along with captain Lewis or the other Queensland players and seemingly favoring NSW players, especially tour vice-captain Wayne Pearce.

Several New South Wales Rugby League premiership clubs had attempted to lure Wally Lewis south during the 1980s, including the Bob Fulton coached Manly-Warringah which came closest to contracting him in 1986. However, the QRL, fearing they were going to lose Lewis (easily their biggest star) and possibly his Wynnum-Manly, QLD and Australian teammate Gene Miles to Manly soon after losing Souths players Gary Belcher and Mal Meninga to the Canberra Raiders, blocked the move to Sydney and Lewis stayed with the Seagulls. In 1988, Lewis finally got to play in the Sydney premiership when he was signed by the Brisbane Broncos as inaugural captain of the side upon their inception in 1988, leading the new club to a 44–10 win over defending NSWRL premiers Manly at Lang Park in their first ever game. Lewis was the Broncos' top try-scorer in their first season and also later had the honour of scoring the club's first hat-trick.

Lewis won another man-of-the-match award in the second game of the 1989 State of Origin series. Lewis scored a famous try in the second half of the game played at the SFS, when he went on a 40-metre cross field run to the line where he outpaced a much younger Laurie Daley, and held off NSW fullback Garry Jack's tackle over the last 10 metres to score in the corner. From there Lewis was captain of the Australian team for their mid-season tour of New Zealand. At the end of the 1990 season, due to salary cap restrictions, Lewis was not made a large enough offer to keep him at the Broncos, with Bennett citing the need to retain younger talent.

Following the souring of his relationship with the Broncos, Lewis was unwilling to move to Sydney for family reasons and in 1991, he joined the Gold Coast Seagulls and was appointed as captain by coach Malcolm Clift. He won his eighth and last man-of-the-match award in the first game of the State of Origin series that year, before playing both his last match for Queensland and Australia by the end of the season. He captained and coached Gold Coast during the 1992 NSWRL season but again finished the season in last place. Lewis also coached the Queensland State of Origin side in 1993 and 1994 but never won a series.

Wally Lewis is remembered for his creative, playmaking football and great on-field confrontations, most notably one in the 1991 State of Origin series with Mark Geyer. The Wally Lewis Medal has been awarded to the Queensland player of the series in State of Origin from 1992 to 2003. Since 2004, it has been awarded to the player of the series from either side. A bronze statue of Wally was raised at the entrance to Lang Park - now Suncorp Stadium and stands as a testament to his unwavering commitment to Queensland Rugby league.