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Lou Richards

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For the American musician, see Lou Richards (Hatebreed). For the American actor, see Lou Richards (actor).
Lou Richards
Personal information
Full name Lewis Thomas Charles Richards
Date of birth (1923-03-15) 15 March 1923 (age 101)
Place of birth Collingwood, Victoria, Australia
Original team(s) Abbotsford
Height / weight 170cm / 73kg
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
Victoria 3 (9)
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Lewis Thomas Charles "Lou" Richards, MBE[1] (born 15 March 1923) is a former Australian rules footballer who played 250 games for the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) between 1941 and 1955. Richards married Edna Lillian Bowie in 1948; the couple had two daughters.[2]

Playing career

Born in Collingwood, Victoria, Richards' passion for Collingwood grew out of family connections – he followed in the footsteps of his grandfather Charlie Pannam (shortened from Pannamopoulos after migrating to Australia from Greece), and uncles Charles and Alby Pannam, both former Magpie players. His brother Ron Richards also played for the club. The Richards/Pannam dynasty made Collingwood the only club to have been captained by three generations of the one family. As a family they played over 1200 games between them.

Richards played as a rover, resting in the forward pocket.

He was captain of the club for four years, including Collingwood's 1953 premiership team.

Post-playing career

After his retirement from football, Richards managed a number of Melbourne hotels, including the well-known Phoenix Hotel in Flinders Street, whose regular customers included journalists from the nearby Herald and Weekly Times.[3]

Richards also had a long career in the media, beginning as a sport journalist for The Argus and later The Sun News-Pictorial where he gained the nickname of "Louie the Lip". He was a very popular commentator on both radio and television with his great mate Jack Dyer.[4] He also appeared on the popular World of Sport program. In the 1990s and 2000s, he made regular appearances on both The Footy Show and the Sunday Footy Show.

As a football tipster, Richards was known as a Kiss of Death and regularly backed-up his tips with famous dares: "I'll cut Teddy Whitten's lawn with nail scissors" or "I'll jump off St Kilda pier."[3]

In 1972 Richards was appointed Court Jester to King of Moomba Johnny Farnham and was the King of Moomba himself in 1981.[5]

In 1989, he released a memoir, The Kiss of Death: Memoirs of a Sporting Legend;[6] an updated version was released in 2012, entitled Lou: My Wonderful Life.[7]

Richards' wife, Edna, was admitted into care with dementia in 2005. She died, aged 87, in March 2008. At the end of 2008, Richards retired from hosting the handball segment on the Sunday Footy Show, and subsequently made only occasional public appearances.

Honours

Richards was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1981, received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000, and was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001.[1][8][9] In 1996 Richards was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame and in 2004, he was named as the captain of the Greek Team of the Century, due to his Greek heritage. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2008.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b "Richards, Lewis Charles Thomas, MBE". It's an Honour. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  2. ^ Lucy Beaumont, (13 Feb 2005), The Age, 'The two (or three) of us' accessed on 9 Sep 2007 at: [1]
  3. ^ a b Scott Palmer, 'Top 10 characters of the '70s' (4 Jul 2007), accessed on 9 Sep 2007
  4. ^ Jack Dyer : Richmond Football Club : Tigers
  5. ^ Craig Bellamy, Gordon Chisholm, Hilary Eriksen, Moomba: A festival for the people. (17 Feb 2006) PDF pp 17–22
  6. ^ Richards, Lou; Phillips, Stephen (1989). The Kiss of Death: Memoirs of a Sporting Legend. Milsons Point, New South Wales: Hutchinson. ISBN 9780091695019.
  7. ^ Richards, Lou; Phillips, Stephen (2012). Lou: My Wonderful Life. Slattery Media Group. ISBN 978-1-921778-78-0.
  8. ^ "Richards, Lou Thomas: Australian Sports Medal". It's an Honour. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  9. ^ "Richards, Lewis Thomas: Centenary Medal". It's an Honour. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  10. ^ "Lou Richards OBE". Sport Australia Hall of Fame. Retrieved 16 December 2013.

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