DA's Australian Sports History

Gerald Patterson, the wonderful Australian tennis player of the 1920's passed away on 13 June 1967. We look back at his career and life. It was more than just tennis. Gerald was a war time hero being awarded the Military Cross for gallantry. He was the nephew of the Australian icon Dame Nellie Melba and father of racing car driver and businessman - Bill Patterson. Gerald won the Wimbledon singles...

We take a look back to 1965/66 and the premier domestic cricket competition in Australia - the Sheffield Shield. Four day matches with large crowds and Test players involved. It was an opportunity for the public to watch their star players in person. NSW had dominated the competition but Western Australia and South Australia were to have big seasons.. A talking point was the points scoring. The te...

We look back at Rugby League in Australia as at 1966. At that time the premier competition was the New South Wales Rugby Football League comprising ten teams - all from New South Wales. The mighty St George team were on a 10 consecutive premiership run - but how would they fare in 1966 with the retirement of Captain-Coach Norm Provan. It is a brief look at the league, the Grand Final and the four...

In 1966, the game of Australian rules football was very different. The premier competition was the Victorian Football League. Twelve teams based in Victoria all playing on a Saturday afternoon on suburban grounds. Grounds that were often muddy & wet. The game controlled by one umpires was a stop / start affair.. Players playing in set positions on the field. Drop kicks, flat punts and the coac...

Peter Thomson is remembered for his five British Open and three Australian Open titles. His legacy to the game of golf is however far greater. than just as a player. He took the game to all parts of the world where he excelled. He was an administrator, a journalist, commentator and course designer. Born in suburban Melbourne and raised in the post war era, he was a self taught player who first pla...

Dawn Fraser is considered Australian greatest Olympic champion and greatest female athlete. Dawn won gold medals in the 100m freestyle event at three successive Olympics. She made history as the first female to swim the event under one minute and held the world record for the event for 15 years. Famously, Dawn has also courted controversy. She was banned at age 12yrs through no fault of her own th...

Ron Barassi is a legend in Australian Rules football. No player / coach has a greater profile. No one has done more to change the game. No person has done more to promote the game. Ron Barassi played 254 games kicking 330 goals. He coached 515 matches. In that time he was part of six premierships as a player and four more as a coach. The father /son rule was created to enable Ron Barassi to play f...

Joyce Brown is remembered as the outstanding coach of the Australian Netball team (the Diamonds). Together they won multiple World titles. Joyce was also a fabulous player in her own right. She was the captain of the Australian team to win the first ever World Championship in England in 1963. She was also selected as a player in the Netball Team of the Century. But the influence of Joyce extends b...

Sid Patterson was an outstanding track cyclist winning two World Amateur titles in the Sprint & Pursuit disciplines and a further two World Professional titles in the Pursuit event. He won Australian titles on the track in twelve consecutive years. It was a time when track cycling was popular in Australia. Crowds would flock to such events and the main drawcard were Sid Patterson & Russell...

Cricket "purists" value test cricket over all other forms of the game. And of all the tests ever played, there is a strong argument to say the first test between Australia and West Indies at Brisbane in December 1960 is the greatest match of all. More the 1400 runs, twenty wickets and a match remembered for outstanding fielding exploits. Wins for either side looking likely at some stage or a draw....

Herb Elliott is rightfully considered one of Australia's greatest ever athletes. What is amazing is that he competed in one Olympic Games only, and had retired by 22 years of age. In that time, he ran 44 times in races over the mile or 1500m and was undefeated. In doing so, he set multiple world records. After athletics he went on to have a successful business career. Herb Elliott attributes much...

Kel Nagle is sometimes over looked when we talk of the great golfers that Australia has produced. This is an oversight. Kel Nagle won tournaments every year from 1949 to 1975. This included the British, Australian and New Zealand Opens. He also lost a play off for the US Open in 1965 in dramatic circumstances. With no golfing background, not having played the game until age sixteen and not picking...

John Devitt was a fine Australian swimmer winning gold medals in individual & relay events in both the Olympic & Commonwealth Games. He also set individual world record times and was part of relay teams that did likewise. After his swimming career ended, he continued to be involved with sport as an administrator. He was President of Swimming Australia and on the Executive of the Australian...

Jack Brabham, later to be Sir Jack Brabham was Australia's first Formula One drivers champion. He would win the title on three occasions in a long and successful career. His greatest achievement however was not just winning the drivers title but doing so in car which he designed and built. He was the only person in the history of Formula One to have won the driver and constructors title in the sam...

The "Golden Boy" in the "Golden Era of Australian Tennis" was Lew Hoad. Born in the same month as Ken Rosewall in a neighbouring suburb of Sydney, the two would become best friends, rivals and double partners. Together they would win all of the major singles and doubles titles as well as the Davis Cup victories. Lew Hoad defeated Tony Trabert of the USA in the 4th rubber of the 1953 Davis Cup fina...

At age 17 years at the Melbourne Olympic Games, Murray Rose competed in three swimming events. He won then all. In 1960 at Rome, Murray repeated the gold medal performance in the 400m freestyle event. Although having broken two world records in the lead up to the 1964 Tokyo Games, Murray Rose was not selected to swim for Australia. He attended the Games as a commentator. In 1983, he was voted Aust...

The Golden girl of Australian athletics was a shy, unassuming teenager from Western Sydney. Inspired by her teacher (a former Olympian), Betty Cuthbert discovered running. And she had a special talent. Betty would win races at school, in inter club meetings and then nationally. So much so that at age 18 years, Betty was selected to run the 100m & 200m events for Australia in the 1956 Melbourne...

Neville Sellwood was a champion jockey in the 1950's. He won six jockeys premierships in Sydney. In doing, so he rode champion horses Todman & Tulloch. The focus of today's episode is his win aboard Toparoa in the 1955 Melbourne Cup defeating the champion Rising Fast. A race that he may not have won if ............. Neville Sellwood rode winners overseas including an English Derby. Cruelly, wh...

John Landy. A champion athlete, a champion person. The second man to break four minutes for the mile - a feat that was once considered impossible to achieve. That set up a match race at the 1954 Vancouver Empire Games against Roger Bannister of England. A race where both runners were to run under the four minute mark again. But John Landy is remembered just as much for his sportsmanship. It was ep...

Clive Churchill was one of the greatest Rugby League players of all time. He captained the South Sydney Rabbitoh's, NSW and the Australian Kangaroo's. For South Sydney, he played in five premiership teams and coached another four flags. He played in the famous test match of 1950, where Australia broke a drought of series losses against the Great Britain Lions dating back 28 years. Amazingly .........

Merv Wood is one of Australia' finest ever Olympians having competed in four Olympic Games. It would no doubt have been more had the Olympic Games not been cancelled in 1940 & 1944, when Merv would been at his best. He has won Gold, Silver & Bronze medals at different Olympic Games. Twice Merv was given the honour of being the flag carrier for Australia at the opening ceremony of the Games...

Russell Mockridge was a two times gold medalist at the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952. He won both his events on the one day. Yet he may never have competed at those games, having been deselected by the Australian Olympic Federation. It was only after Sir Hubert Opperman made representations in Parliament and the City of Geelong posted a bond, that Russell was allowed to compete. In a tragic episo...

Majorie Jackson broke world records and won Olympic & Commonwealth Games gold medals in sprints & relays, but that is only part of her story and legacy. Marjorie was much adored for her reserved and humble nature. This was particularly so in her home town of Lithgow where the locals supported and encouraged her, including building her a cinder track on which she could train. She married fe...

Today we revisit Australian tennis in the late 1940's and early 1950's via the feats of Frank Sedgman. Our main focus is the year 1951. With our recency bias we often don't stop to recall that Frank won 22 Grand Slam titles (including doubles & mixed doubles) in a five year period. He won the Grand Slam of doubles with Ken McGregor and twice won the "triple crown" at a Grand Slam event - that...

Dick Reynolds played and/or coached the Essendon Football Club (the Bombers) in the Australian Rules Football competition - then known as the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1930's, 40's & 50's. With 3 Brownlow medals, 7 Essendon FC best & fairest awards and 4 premierships, he is properly remembered as one of the greatest players of all time - some would say the best. He was ski...