Outside Football

Introduction

Footballers have come from a diverse range of backgrounds. This page attempts to bring to light the links to their lives outside of football.

The Australian Dictionary of Biography

The Australian Dictionary of Biography is based at the Australian National University in Canberra and provides biographies of a range of famous and important Australians. There are many links to football, from Prime Ministers to Restaurateurs .

List - Footballers in the Australian Dictionary of Biography

WW2 - Died on Active Service

Many young men joined the Armed Services in the First and Second World Wars. Football provided many recruits who sadly died on Active Service. The list shows the impact of the war on football clubs.
List - Footballers who died on Active Service WW2

Occupations

Before the 1970's and 1980's most football players were not highly paid. Most had to have work outside of football. The side effect of this was that workplace football teams could be very competitive.

Sporting Globe 13May1939 p5 Arthur Olliver Footscray

The Age 16-Apr-1952 p11

List - Fireman
List - Police

Other Sports

Many footballers played other sports especially though the summer months. Sometimes players had to choose between competing options.

List - First Class Cricketers - Played Football in Victoria
List - First Class Cricketers - Played all their football outside Victoria

List - Track Sprinters

Lists of VFA Umpires and interstate Umpires are unfortunately not included.
Reference_ VFL Umpires