Lou Richards was the heart and soul of Collingwood

A SELF-proclaimed megastar, Lou Richards’ football career hasn’t been as widely appreciated as it should have been — except for black and white fans with long memories or a sense of history.

AS a player, captain and commentator, Lou Richards embodies the Collingwood spirit.

(This article appeared in the Sunday Herald Sun as part of Collingwood’s 125-year special)

———

LEWIS Thomas Charles Richards, quite literally, bled for Collingwood.

That’s appropriate given the legend universally known as Lou has DNA coursing through his veins stretching back almost to the birth of the football club that made him famous.

“I am a Magpie and proud of it,” Richards once said.

“I’ve never been anything else. Come to think of it, I’ve never ever thought of being anything else. Who would want to be?”

Through the decades, he has willingly worn the bumps and bruises along the way.

He spent his early years growing up on the mean streets of a suburb wracked by the Great Depression, then played 250 combative and often cocksure games in black and white.

MIKE SHEAHAN: LOU WAS KING OF VICTORIA AND LOVED BY ALL

‘COLLINGWOOD PERSON’: EDDIE McGUIRE’S EMOTIONAL TRIBUTE

LEGEND: LIFE AND TIMES OF LOU RICHARDS

IN PICTURES: LOU’S REMARKABLE LIFE

Now in the private twilight years of what has been an exceptional public life, Richards still demonstrates the fierce determination, liberal dose of cheek and good humour that have been part of his charm across his 94 years.

“Lou is a big part of the DNA of Collingwood’s history,” president Eddie McGuire said this week.

“There have been so many great names in the history of the Collingwood Football Club, early heroes like (Bill) Strickland, (Bill) Proudfoot, (Dick) Lee, to the likes of (Jock) McHale, the Coventrys and the Colliers. All of them have been a part of that unique Collingwood DNA. They have been great players, they have been mercurial, they have been great fun.

“But Lou just epitomises everything about Collingwood. No one loves Collingwood any more than Lou, and it is fair to say that Collingwood people love Lou as much as anyone.”

Lou Richards was a proud Magpie.

Richards played his first game in black and white 76 years ago — he got whacked by a Carlton opponent and realised he would one day have to give one back — and he has been retired from the game for more than 60 years.

Most Collingwood supporters young and old, and even those fans without a black and white persuasion, know Richards’ story, and his long links to the club’s history.

His maternal grandfather, Charlie Pannam, joined Collingwood in only its third season of existence — in 1894 — and no fewer than five of his relatives wore the famous black and white stripes.

Incredibly, in the first 65 seasons of the club’s history, only 19 of them elapsed without one or more of a Pannam or a Richards playing a role with the team. Collectively, they played 928 games for the Magpies.

McGuire said of Richards’ connection to his community: “He lived in the shadows of Victoria Park, where his grandfather, his uncles and his brother played; he went to Collingwood Tech, and he met (his wife) Edna at the Collingwood Town Hall.

“He has always been fiercely loyal to Collingwood. It’s always been in his blood and still is.”

Lou Richards was a lovable larrikin.

Richards’ impact on Australian football is so often seen through the prism of his media life. He was a self-proclaimed megastar, always entertaining the football-mad public.

At times his claims were so wild and so wondrous that his football career hasn’t been as widely appreciated as it should have been — except for black and white fans with long memories or a sense of history.

Maybe he was partly to blame himself, for he turned exaggeration into an art form so often that it was difficult to separate fact from fiction.

But Richards’ on-field deeds as a tenacious rover with a penchant for goals and an inspirational premiership captain should never be underestimated.

One of his teammates, Thorold Merrett, said: “He was always firing you up, telling you to get up if you were hurt and urging you on from start to finish.”

One of the game’s most respected journalists, Alf Brown, described Richards as “always doing something ... If he was not playing cleverly, he was arguing, sniping, bumping, gesticulating, but it was always something rebounding to Collingwood’s benefit.

PIE MEMORIES: COLLINGWOOD GREATS ON CLUB’S FINEST MOMENTS

COLLINGWOOD 125th BIRTHDAY SPECIAL: BEST 25 PIES PLAYERS

At his best, Richards was a brilliant rover. He was fast, clever, adept at the famous Collingwood short game, an elusive loose man, and ‘big little man’ (170cm) with indomitable courage”.

Born and raised in Abbotsford, he was a product of his environment. “Sport was a matter of survival,” he would say. “You might win on the field, but you rarely escaped unscathed.”

The kid called “the Ant” once kicked six goals at Collingwood Tech and was chaired from the field by his classmates.

Collingwood is in Lou Richards’ blood.

His uncle Alby, a black and white star in his own right, invited Richards to Victoria Park and Lou was a member of the club’s 1940 reserves premiership team. After the game, legendary coach Jock McHale walked over to him and said: “Well played, son. You’ll be a Collingwood player.”

He played his first VFL game in Round 6, 1941, as an 18-year-old, recalling: “I didn’t get a kick in the entire first half. Didn’t even remember most of the first quarter. Things improved after halftime.”

But his career was underway, and he was living out a childhood dream: “To a youngster reared in the Magpie nest and steeped in the tradition of the most famous football club in Australia, it was bliss.”

Richards was a black and white fixture for the next 15 years, a rover who had inherited his family tradition of snagging a goal and getting into a verbal or sometimes physical scrap. That passion and sense of family responsibility sometimes got him into trouble.

The one time he was suspended, in 1943, came when his teammate and uncle Alby had been decked by Fitzroy big man Bert Clay (193cm).

Lou said: “I went to push Bert, maybe my fist was closed when my arm straightened and connected. I couldn’t have reached his navel standing on my toes, but still got two weeks (suspension). Still, that was the only time I got caught. I became a fair player after that ... well, (more) cunning anyway.”

Lou Richards and wife Edna.

Collingwood champion Bob Rose rated Richards among the best three rovers he had ever seen. He didn’t win a Copeland Trophy, but was placed on three occasions. He did win The Herald’s player of the year in 1947, and represented Victoria.

But it was as skipper where he found his calling. He was elected captain in 1952, but the high point of his four years in the role came in 1953 when he led the Magpies to their first flag in 17 years.

Just as he was all those years earlier at Collingwood Tech, Richards was chaired from the field that day, having played his role, with his younger brother Ron one of the club’s best players.

“I don’t think I have felt anything like that elation,” he recalled.

He played until late in the 1955 season when he retired after playing his 250th game. He was afforded a farewell lap before a game against Fitzroy at Victoria Park.

“It brought tears to my ears,” Richards said of his connection that day, and forever after.

Incredibly, he was appointed coach of the club’s reserves in 1956, but before he had even taken a training night, he was enticed into the rapidly expanding sports media market.

He took on the role with relish, just as he had done as a Collingwood rover, and launched himself into the homes of football fans via the television, radio, and his newspaper columns as if he was part of the family. In so many ways, he still is.