Kevin Murray - Fitzroy Legend

I watched a show on Fox Sports Thursday night on the merger of Fitzroy and Brisbane in the mid 1990's. It told of Fitzroy's (and many other clubs') financial strife in the decade prior to the merger, and of Brisbane's early difficulties after entering the fledgling national competition. It was a tumultuous time as the VFL transitioned to the AFL with growing pains.

There were many interviews with  prominent people including Ross Oakley, Jonathan Brown, Alistair Lynch, Robert Walls, Greg Miller and so on, but the person most impressive to me was the man who was the face of Fitzroy when I was a kid. Kevin Murray.

The VFL in the early 1960's was very much Melbourne suburban with Geelong the distant family member, the away trip to Geelong dreaded by Melbourne teams due to the long bus ride to play there, almost comical today nearly 60 years on. I have a football magazine publication of 1962 in which an article talked about the future and possible changes. It had the byline "Fitzroy vs Fremantle?" Absurd to me at the time.

The face of the VFL in the early sixties were the captains or star players from each team - Ron Barassi, Ted Whitten, Bob Skilton, Graeme Arthur, Kevin Murray, Verdun Howell and John Nicholls come to mind. Kevin "Bulldog" Murray was Fitzroy's star player who represented Victoria regularly and was highly regarded as a gentleman from the rough school; hard, tough and wiry but totally fair.

Kevin Murray kicked off the Fox sports show on the merger talking about his childhood growing up in Fitzroy, selling footy records on Saturdays at both the Fitzroy ground and Collingwood's Victoria Park, both in close walking distance from home. His father was a member of the Fitzroy 1944 premiership team. His two brothers played reserve and U19 footy with Fitzroy. Kevin lived and breathed footy and Fitzroy all his life. He spoke of his career and the pain of losing so many games through lean years and the agonies of Fitzroy's financial demise. He passed Jack Dyer's then record number of games, this despite going to East Perth for two years as captain coach in the mid sixties, where he won a best and fairest and took East Perth to a losing grand final. He supported the merger with Brisbane and was a public spokesperson for it, arguing that Fitzroy's history, colours, theme song, would be preserved along with the name "Lions". Other interviewees said without Kevin getting behind it they doubted Fitzroy people would have got on board and enjoyed the huge success of the 2001-2003 triple premierships.

I was moved by Kevin's story, his humility, his integrity. I have not met the man, but he looms large as one of my favourite people. I was moved to blog post.

Kevin won the 1969 Brownlow medal. He has worn it around his neck every day since, such is his pride, and his desire to share it with whomever he meets that may like to see it, especially Fitzroy people and kids. He was 31 years old when he won it, after being runner up in the early sixties.

I remember when Kevin won his Brownlow I was in Lorne with Rickyralph and we listened to the count on radio. I checked Wikipedia and found that the count was on September 6, which would be right as it was held the Monday night after the the last round, not the Monday before the grand final as it is now. It was a popular win the football world such was the admiration for Kevin Murray and the fact that he'd finished second and third previously, and was hot favourite in 1962 but came nowhere when bolter Alistair Lord bobbed up (Wikipedia is wonderful).

It occurred to me that Ralphie, whose birthday is late September, would not have had is driving licence, which he got on his 18th birthday I think, as he would have been 17 on September 6. So we must have hitchhiked down there in the September school holidays. He was still at Caulfield GS doing year 12 and I was at Camberwell GS repeating year 11 after being expelled from Caulfield late in 1968.

This restrospection made me wonder where did we sleep, if we did not have a car. I then remembered that numerous times when we went down there we slept in the pavilion structure that was on the beach front. I can't remember if we had sleeping bags or just stretched out on the benches but it must have been cold. Ralphie would probably remember, his memory of our youth is far better than mine.

I also recall listening to Lionel Rose beating Fighting Harada for the world bantamweight championship in Japan, on the radio at Lorne. Was at night I think. Wikipedia tells me that was Feb 27, 1968, so we must have been hitching and roughing it again. I would have been 15 nearly 16 and Ralphie 16.

It seems like a different world now, almost unbelievable is our past, like a different life. But seeing and hearing Kevin Murray as an 80+year old man, who has had strokes and heart attacks, still honourable as he was then, make me realize that yes my adolescence did happen, somehow Ralphie and I survived, helping each other.

Kevin "Bulldog" Murray is still a great role model.