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Ted Whitten

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Hard to believe it's been 18 years since that lap of honour and state funeral.
 
Amongst AFL fans, is he widely known as the best ever?

Like Sir Donald Bradman is widely known and accepted as the best every cricketer?
 

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DynamiteShifty said:
was Ted also an umpire later on?

Very emotional scenes. I think I've picked the right club.
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Ted was an umpire most of his career.

He had so much charisma he influenced the umpire like a Subiaco crowd.

Once v South Melbourne he met Bobby Skilton for the toss (Skilton was one of Whitten's best friends and a pall bearer at his funeral). Skilton tossed the coin and without even calling, Whitten run off pointing to the end with the wind. All the players went to their positions and it was all too hard for the umpire to call everyone back in and do it again so they didn't bother.
 
DynamiteShifty said:
Amongst AFL fans, is he widely known as the best ever?

Like Sir Donald Bradman is widely known and accepted as the best every cricketer?
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Hard to compare eras but most of those who were around to see him tend to believe he was the best ever. Although there seems to have been some fairly recent backlash and I'm not really sure why.
 
lateniter said:
Ted Whitten was recognised by everyone as Mr Football and we were lucky we had him. Who could forget his last lap around the MCG with Ted Jnr? There was hardly a dry eye in the house, says it all really....
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sure wasnt, i was there myself in the crowd waling like a baby
 
threenewpadlocks said:
Although I'm fairly young, I have raid a fair bit about him.

Started off as a skinny FF/CHF and lined up at CHF in our 54 flag. Moved to CHB after he kept getting injured. But he pretty much could play anywhere, except rover and wing, and even pinched hitted in the ruck. When we were a dud team in the early 60's he'd often line up on the opponents best player or wherever he though he could be most effective. In the 61 Grand Final he rucked roved.

His best feature was his clean hands and overhead marking, was the best mark in the league. Was agile, versitle, and a skillful yet athletic player.

He was a great coach as well. He took a team from second bottomin 1960 to a Grand Final in 61 (when he himself was the only player in our history to play in both Grand Finals) by utilising the flick pass, invented by Fitzroy Coach Len Smith. It was basically a handball with a open palm, but you could flick it left, right or in front which is why it was deadly. It was outlawed some time in 1961 (not sure when exactly but before the grand final). He took one of the worst teams, undersized and old, into the grand final by himself (and the only time we've won a preliminary final in our history).

that's it basically, if you have any more questions or if I missed something tell me please
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Ted always blamed Melbourne captain Ron Barassi and coach Norm Smith (Len's brother!) for pressurising the league into outlawing the flick pass

Melbourne had dominated the competition since 1955 and had plenty of clout with the League

It was a massive surprise when we knocked them out in the 61 PF

But we ran out of legs in the GF
 
Here's a "fun fact" :

Ted actually trained with Collingwood as a 17 year old, but was told to "come back when you've grown up".

He despised Collingwood...
 
childeric said:
Ted always blamed Melbourne captain Ron Barassi and coach Norm Smith (Len's brother!) for pressurising the league into outlawing the flick pass

Melbourne had dominated the competition since 1955 and had plenty of clout with the League

It was a massive surprise when we knocked them out in the 61 PF

But we ran out of legs in the GF
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Melbourne is our finals bunny then, I didn't realise we beat them in the 61 PF also......We need them in the finals at the same time when we're there. Might take a few years though :p. Really want to get 1 up on Geelong come finals time, they've always beat us when it's mattered :mad: .
 
courtjester said:
Cheers mate. So where did he actually line up most of the time? CHB? CHF?
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Most of the time at CHB but played lots of roles, as others have said.

Was also CHB in our team of the century.
 
Remember a game against St Kilda at the Junction oval 1964 I think was my 2nd or 3rd game .It was blowing a gale straight down the ground, Teddy played CHF with the wind and CHB against it. We were 6 goals up at 3/4 time The ball would be kicked into their forward line and up would go Teddy and mark the ball. He must of done this at least 6 times and of course we got and won just. As a young kid I was lust in awe of this man.He was Mr Football.
 

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I'm moving into a new apartment (first home) in a little while and just purchased a canvas coupon that I'm going to get made up to put on the wall. I really wanted it to be a photo of Ted or something old school Footscray. Does anyone have any high quality photos of Ted? I would really love one of his "inspire me" speech in his last game. Think it would look great.
 
In an era before the drop punt, Ted was a master of the torp and he could roost it 60+ metres without any trouble. His handpassing (even the non-flick variety) was also perfection. As I recall, Ted was a star both in the kicking and handball competitions on World of Sport for many years.
Ted stood about 184cm but played like an agile monster tall if we compare him to today's players. His forte was that he could play anywhere because of his strength and skill. We've probably not seen a more complete player before or since.
 
I attended the wake for EJ at the club, following the funeral.

I spoke to Ted's brother Don and he told be how astounded he was at the support shown on the streets of Footscray as the funeral motorcade entered Hopkins St from the Dynon Road. (The funeral, incidentally, held at St Pauls's cathedral, attracted as many people as Weary Dunlop's, perhaps more.)

He said he was very moved by the number of Vietnamese people lined up three and four deep in front of the Market and the surrounding businesses. He said that they probably knew little of football but knew that this man was someone special in the community. The motorcade continued up Barkly St and into Gordon St and up Geelong Rd. Don said there were people all along the route, clapping and cheering. He was overcome by the sheer love and respect for his brother.

I was also at the MCG during his last lap with Ted junior. What can I say? All around me people were weeping unashamedly for this one-off man. We are so lucky he was ours.
 
Yeah have to agree with much of this.
I would describe EJ as ..the ultimate natural footballer, and yes the Bradman comparisons are right on the money.
As a player, he was in a class all of his own.

He could play pretty much anywhere, and still be better at any of those roles than blokes who played there week in and out.

And yes he was one of the only players that the League changed the rules of the game in an attempt to drag him back to the standard of the rest of the competition. He was THAT much better than the rest.

Did he have an element of mongrel in him? Yep, but in an era where you needed often to be tough just to survive. Often however that mongrel came out in an effort to protect his teammates, particularly the youngsters under his stewardship.
He was always totally loyal.

Much as I loved watching EJ play football, my fondest memories are of a hero who took, and had the time, to chat to a skinny little kid who liked to climb up on his back fence, and look at, and call out to him, on occasions when he worked across the laneway.
 
paulveed said:
Much as I loved watching EJ play football, my fondest memories are of a hero who took, and had the time, to chat to a skinny little kid who liked to climb up on his back fence, and look at, and call out to him, on occasions when he worked across the laneway.
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That's a great read mate. You've definitely got a way with words.
 

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GoDoggies said:
I'm moving into a new apartment (first home) in a little while and just purchased a canvas coupon that I'm going to get made up to put on the wall. I really wanted it to be a photo of Ted or something old school Footscray. Does anyone have any high quality photos of Ted? I would really love one of his "inspire me" speech in his last game. Think it would look great.
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Ended up with this

uploadfromtaptalk1425874910982.jpg
 
GoDoggies said:
I'm moving into a new apartment (first home) in a little while and just purchased a canvas coupon that I'm going to get made up to put on the wall. I really wanted it to be a photo of Ted or something old school Footscray. Does anyone have any high quality photos of Ted? I would really love one of his "inspire me" speech in his last game. Think it would look great.
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GoDoggies said:
Ended up with this

View attachment 114747
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Nice pic GoDoggies. Good luck with the move and your first house. Where about's are you moving to?
 
eastdog said:
Nice pic GoDoggies. Good luck with the move and your first house. Where about's are you moving to?
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Thanks mate. Brunswick area, not far from Sydney Road. Was having a good look at Footscray with all the nice new apartments there but it's just too expensive.
 
GoDoggies said:
Thanks mate. Brunswick area, not far from Sydney Road. Was having a good look at Footscray with all the nice new apartments there but it's just too expensive.
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Nice. Yeah the inner north (Thornbury, Northcote etc) and west (Footscray, Yarraville etc) are becoming very desirable now. It would cost id imagine quite a bit to buy a house near the WO :)
 
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Watched Whitten at the end of his career from about 67-70, and i have never seen anyone with the presence on a ground as him, every set of eyes were glued to him, whether it was to see him whack some bloke or to take a grab over the top of the pack, he could kick the ball a mile and always seemed to be a play in front of everyone else.
Seemed like every second kid in the Western Suburbs had a Footscray jumper with the number 3 permanently tattooed into their back,and every kid at every local club was wearing white elastic wrist and ankle bands.
Everyone wanted to know him or speak to him and would dine out for months when EJ would respond without a clue of their name with "G'day knackers!"
 

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