SA’s football community mourning death of Fred ‘Chocka’ Bloch

The state’s AFL community is mourning the loss of a trailblazing legend hailed as “one of South Australia’s biggest football names’’.

Fred Bloch during training in 1966.

Local football legend Fred “Chocka’’ Bloch has been hailed as “one of South Australia’s biggest football names’’ following his death, aged 83.

There has been an outpouring of grief for the football trailblazer, who died on Monday following a long battle with dementia.

“He is arguably one of our biggest football names because of what he has done and the fact he knows just about everyone,’’ great friend and local football and cricket personality Malcolm Ashwood said.

“You could put him up there with Barrie Robran (triple North Adelaide Magarey Medallist) in terms of respect.

“Apart from being a fine footballer in his own right, ‘Chocka’ wrote the history book of the SA Amateur Football League, so he had connections with 94 clubs and his popularity was so widespread that in 24 hours I have been contacted by people living in 15-to-20 different countries enquiring about him. I have virtually not been off my phone or iPad.

“I was Chocka’s right-hand man at Adelaide Uni (footy club) for 33 years and he was such a loved and revered figure who was gregarious and probably mixed better with the worst player in the club than the best, which says a bit about him.’’

Footballer Fred Bloch

The Adelaide-born footy legend, University of Adelaide accounting lecturer, and senior administrator for the uni’s football club, was born on March 24, 1940, and died peacefully on Monday morning, surrounded by family members.

He was a key man behind the famous Bob Neil legend at Adelaide University.

Adelaide Footy League chief executive John Kernahan described Bloch’s death as “a sad day’’.

“I had the privilege of first knowing Fred through him being an old friend of my father, John, and then both as a player at the Adelaide Uni Football Club and in my role as CEO of the Adelaide Footy League,’’ Kernahan said.

“The most compelling attributes to ‘Chocka’ that resonate when pondering his impact is that he treated everyone equally, which is a rare quality.

“At Uni football club it didn’t matter whether you were an A grade or C8 player. At the league it didn’t matter whether you were a Division 1 or Division 7 club, he valued everyone.

“He is one of very few league life members and is held highly enough to have the Division 2 best and fairest medal named in his honour.

“It is a sad time at the league and the football and wider community in general. The volume of those re-connecting with the league in the past 24 hours has been overwhelming and is a testament to his standing within our community.

“We tend to use the description loosely these days but we have truly lost a great man.’’

Wedding of footballer Fred Bloch with Maida DuRieu in 1965.

North Adelaide vs Sturt match, Sept 1966. North captain-coach Don Lindner looks his customary high-leaping self as he reaches for the ball in front of Sturt's Bob Shearman. Behind is North's Fred Bloch. Picture: File

In a touching tribute posted to social media, the South Australian Footballer, Netballer and Sport group remembered Bloch as “one of the greatest football men.”

The organisation recalled he was a frequent “guest of honour at the Riverside Football Club End of Year Dinners’’.

“He was always on the head table as the special guest of honour. The stories he told captured the whole room for the 20 minutes he spoke,” they wrote in the statement.

“He had a charm and a wit that not many people have. He was warm and funny and spoke so eloquently.”

The organisation continued to say that Bloch was a well-known peacemaker for Riverside and Adelaide University, who came from “different sides of the cultural divide.”

“It was Fred Bloch who drove the friendships between the two clubs, who were different in just about every manner,” they wrote.

“When the two clubs played in a Division 1 game at Port Reserve it was always Fred in the club first and bringing University people with him for a beer.

“Football and Adelaide University has lost a true gentleman.”

Adelaide University Football Club also made a touching tribute, remembering the “beloved leader” who “forged the modern-day culture of the AUFC”.

West Adelaide footballer Robert Day (r) and Fred Bloch during state training at Adelaide Oval, May 14, 1963. Picture: Staff photographer Barry O'Brien

“He changed the lives of a generation of footballers with his irreverence and compassion,” they wrote.

“He inspired us to be more tolerant and kinder. He was a towering figure in the history of this 117-year-old club, a club he loved passionately.

“Chocka was the creative genius that turned a great football club into The World’s Greatest Football Club. When people notice how different The Blacks (Adelaide University Football Club) are to other clubs, it was Chocka who inspired it.”

Bloch went to Adelaide High School and was known as a “good student and a very good footballer.”

After finishing high school, he played football in Riverland town Berri before signing with SANFL club North Adelaide in 1961, where he played 77 games until 1967.

During this time, Bloch was best and fairest runner-up in 1964, despite only playing 12 games after sustaining a broken hand.

But he won the best and fairest trophy the following year.

Bloch’s contribution to Adelaide University Football Club saw him become a coach for the A2 side between 1968 and 1972, then A1 coach in 1980 for one year.

His reign at the club continued when he became an on-and-off again secretary between 1984 and 2001, taking his longest break from 1989-95.

From 1982 to 2006 he became a football co-ordinator and received one of the highest honours after being awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 1999 for services to young and Australian Football through his involvement with Adelaide Uni.