‘A born entertainer’: Eddie McGuire leads tributes to Collingwood legend Lou Richards

WHETHER he was calling matches or sitting on a TV panel, Lou Richards found a way to captivate audiences making him footy’s most-loved entertainer.

LOU Richards was a champion footballer but he was also a born entertainer.

The Collingwood great loved a laugh and it was that sense of fun which turned him into a TV and media superstar.

Whether he was calling matches, sitting on a football panel, or handing out Bertocchi hams, Richards found a way to captivate audiences.

“Lou was a star on AM radio, FM radio, black and white as well as colour television and even film with The Club — such was his crossover appeal,” Eddie McGuire said.

Richards’ newspaper columns for the Sun News-Pictorial quickly earned him the nickname “Louie the Lip”.

He called the football alongside Ron Casey on radio’s 3DB and in 1959 joined Channel 7 where he shot to stardom as part of World of Sport.

The Sunday morning program was appointment viewing — especially the footy panel where Richards sparred with friend and Richmond great Jack “Captain Blood” Dyer.

Lou Richards and Pies captain Tony Shaw after the team won the 1990 Grand Final.

The pair also teamed with former Geelong champion Bob Davis for football preview show League Teams.

“Before Lou came along nobody had mixed football and entertainment,” long-time Seven colleague and producer Gordon Bennett said. “He was a forerunner.

“He had an outlandish way of doing things. He would constantly come up with fun ideas. This hadn’t been done before on serious football programs.

Eddie McGuire, pictured on Monday night next to Lou Richards’s statue at The Glasshouse. Picture Norm Oorloff

“Ron Casey would make sure he directed questions to Jack to get Lou going and Lou would always bite and not know he was being drawn in.

“Lou was funny but he also had a great football brain. He would often ask a question (of a player or coach) that no-one had thought of.”

Pies president Eddie McGuire has led tributes to his friend, the late Lou Richards.

Richards was the master of making outrageous dares like “I’ll cut Teddy Whitten’s lawn with nail scissors” and “I’ll jump off St Kilda pier” to back up his footy tips.

Richards had to sweep Collins Street with a feather duster and row then Geelong coach Billy Goggin across the Barwon River in a bathtub. Being labelled “The Kiss of Death” for his tipping only upped his notoriety.

No wonder he was appointed Court Jester to King of Moomba John Farnham in 1972 (crowned King himself in 1981).

A couple of legends. Max Walker and Lou Richards pioneered sport on TV in Australia.

Lou Richards was adored by the public.

In his younger (and later) years, Lou Richards was a loveable larrikin.

Richards’ antics made headlines and he transcended football’s traditional parochial team favouritism.

He blazed a trail for every other footballer who turned to a media career and worked alongside Sam Newman on World of Sport with Newman going on to a permanent place on Nine’s The Footy Show.

Other football identities who have followed in Richards’ wake are Footy Show regulars Billy Brownless and Shane Crawford.

“The fans all loved Lou,” Bennett said. “He was their hero. Even though he was a Collingwood player, people from all teams loved chatting to him.”

The man himself at the unveiling of his statute. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

In 1987, Richards switched to Channel 9 when Seven lost the football rights for a year. He was a regular on The Footy Show and the Sunday Footy Show with its Lou’s Handball segment.

“Lou mentored me,” former Footy Show host McGuire says. “As a young reporter he pulled me aside and gave me advice and looked after me every step of the way.”

Age didn’t weary Richards’ enthusiasm for entertaining TV viewers. It took until 2009 for poor health to stop his appearances on The Sunday Footy Show.

Every Monday, Richards would go to Nine to find out what the ratings were for The Sunday Footy Show.

He loved his football. He loved his television, radio and newspapers. And, in return, people loved Lou right back.