Bill McSpeerin

Bill McSpeerin
McSpeerin in 1899
Personal information
Full name William Joseph McSpeerin
Nickname(s) The Shark
Date of birth 25 September 1874
Place of birth Carlton, Victoria
Date of death 3 June 1943(1943-06-03) (aged 68)
Place of death Brunswick East, Victoria
Position(s) Rover
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1894-1896 Fitzroy (VFA) 43 (15)
1897–1904 Fitzroy 126 (93)
Total 169 (108)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1904.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

William Joseph McSpeerin (25 September 1874 – 3 June 1943) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).[1]

Family

The son of James McSpeerin (1846-1909),[2] and Catherine McSpeerin (1842-1890), née Reid,[3] William Joseph McSpeerin was born at Carlton, Victoria on 25 September 1874.

He married Mary Anna "Marie" Rau (1876-1961) in 1906.[4]

Football

A rover, McSpeerin debuted with Fitzroy when the club was still in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) and was a member of their 1895 premiership side. When the Victorian Football League was formed in 1897, McSpeerin was a key member of the team and appeared in 10 out of 14 games that season, including one match against St Kilda where he reportedly ran the entire length of the oval to kick a goal.[5][6]

McSpeerin ("never a burly man, but tough as leather and supple as whipcord"[7]) became one of the leading players of the early VFL years, playing in Fitzroy premierships in 1898 and 1899, being appointed club captain in 1901, and in 1903 becoming the first Fitzroy footballer to play 100 VFL games.

McSpeerin retired at the end of the 1904 VFL season, his last game being Fitzroy's Grand Final win over Carlton.

1899 team of "champions"

At the end of the 1899 season, in the process of naming his own "champion player", the football correspondent for The Argus, Reginald Wilmot ("Old Boy"), selected a team of the best players of the 1899 VFL competition:

From those he considered to be the three best players — that is, Condon, Hickey, and Pleass — Wilmot selected Pat Hickey as his "champion player" of the season.[8]

Death

He died at East Brunswick on 3 June 1943.[9][10][11]

Notes

  1. ^ Holmesby & Main (2014), p. 566.
  2. ^ Deaths: McSpeerin, The Argus, (Tuesday, 30 March 1909), p.1.
  3. ^ Funeral Notices: McSpeerin, The Argus, (Friday, 1 August 1890), p.1.
  4. ^ Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria, Marriages Registration no.869/1906.
  5. ^ Atkinson, p. 36.
  6. ^ 'Markwell', "Football Notes: Hollow Defeat", The Australasian, (Saturday, 10 July 1897), p. 21.
  7. ^ 'Old Boy', "Football: Fitzroy's Fighting Forces", The Australasian, (Saturday, 1 June 1940), p. 14.
  8. ^ 'Old Boy', "Football: A Review of the Season", (Monday, 18 September 1899), p. 6.
  9. ^ Deaths: McSpeerin, The Argus, (Friday, 4 June 1943), p.2.
  10. ^ Former Player's Death, The Age, (Friday, 4 June 1943), p.4.
  11. ^ Rowell, Ted, "Great Man Gone", The Sporting Globe, (Saturday, 12 June 1943), p.4.

References

  • Atkinson, G. (1982) Everything you ever wanted to know about Australian rules football but couldn't be bothered asking, The Five Mile Press: Melbourne. ISBN 0 86788 009 0.
  • Donald, Chris (2005). Fitzroy: For the Love of the Jumper. Pan Australia. pp. 22–23. ISBN 9781877029189.
  • Holmesby, Russell & Main, Jim (2014), The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: every AFL/VFL player since 1897 (10th ed.), Melbourne: Bas Publishing. ISBN 978-1-921496-32-5
  • Pennings, Mark (2016), Origins of Australian Football: Victoria's early History: Volume 4: Tough Times: Victorian Football loses its Way, 1891 to 1896, Brunswick, Victoria: Grumpy Monks Publishing. ISBN 978-0-646-93604-8
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bill McSpeerin.
Stub icon

This Australian rules football biography of a person born in the 1870s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.