Carlton footy champ George Coulthard was a footy and cricket star

George Coulthard kicked goals for Carlton, triggered a cricket riot and survived a shark attack before his untimely death.

Sketch at the football match, Carlton v. Geelong, showing George Coulthard running with the ball. Picture: State Library of Victoria

Carlton football great George Coulthard packed a lot into his short life, including inciting an international cricket riot that saw him cross paths with a future Australian prime minister.

As well as being a Carlton premiership player, Coulthard also both played and umpired Test cricket, all before his life was cruelly cut short at the age of 27.

Coulthard is the subject of a new episode of the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters, with reference librarian Andrew McConville from the State Library of Victoria:

Aussie rules was born in 1858 as a way for cricketers to keep fit during winter, and less than 20 years later the game’s first bona fide star emerged.

Mr McConville describes the life of the “brilliant athlete” as one of triumph and tragedy.

“He was one of those players who really captured the imagination and really helped to establish Australian football as the dominant part of Melbourne’s, Victoria’s and Australia’s popular culture that it still holds today,” he says.

Coulthard, who was born in Melbourne after his parents migrated from England, was dealt far more than his share of tragedy.

He was about 10 when his father died, and around 17 when his mother died.

Seven of the eight Coulthard siblings died of tuberculosis between the age of 20 and 30, including George in 1883.

George Coulthard pictured on the front page of the Australian Pictorial Weekly in 1880.

George Coulthard was a premiership player for Carlton in the late 1800s.

But Coulthard packed more into his 27 years than most could manage in several lifetimes.

“It’s most unusual for a player to excel at both football and cricket,” Mr McConville says.

“There’s not a lot of them that have, but George was one of them.

“And more unusual was that he umpired a Test match (at age 22) before he actually played in a Test match.”

His sporting successes made him a household name around Australia, and his fame only grew after he allegedly survived a shark attack near Shark Island in Sydney.

The story goes that Coulthard was sitting on a boat with his coat tails trailing in the water when he was pulled overboard by a huge shark that dragged him under the water – until he kicked his way free.

VFA football captains 1884, with George Coulthard in the centre. Picture: State Library Victoria

But Coulthard is best known for unwittingly instigating the first international riot in cricket while umpiring a match in Sydney between England and NSW in 1879.

Coulthard ruled Sydney hero Billy Murdoch run out, a decision which caused most of the 10,000 spectators to invade the ground and start a riot.

His co-umpire at the match, who stepped in to resolve the issue, was a young political hopeful named Edmund Barton — who became our first PM 22 years later.

Coulthard was one of the inaugural inductees into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996.

Listen to the interview about George Coulthard with Andrew McConville in the In Black and White podcast on iTunes, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.