Henry John "Harry" Beitzel (6 April 1927 – 13 August 2017) was an

Australian football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

umpire, print, radio and television sports broadcaster and media personality best known for his contribution to

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

Early sporting life

Harry attended Melbourne's University High School. He along with fellow schoolboy (future cricket test captain)

Neil Harvey Robert Neil Harvey (born 8 October 1928) is an Australian former cricketer who was a member of the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963, playing in 79 Test matches. He was the vice-captain of the team from 1957 until his retirement. A ...

developed their skills for both football and cricket. Both boys were left-hander batsmen and together share many high scoring partnerships. Both boys joined the Fitzroy Cricket Club and Beitzel won the second grade batting averages. While Harvey's cricket blossomed, Beitzel's seemed to stall. Beitzel played football with Fitzroy seconds in 1944 and he was part of the premiership team. The following year because Australia was still at war he joined the Australian Navy.

Umpiring career

Harry became interested in umpiring so he joined the VFL umpires' class in 1946 and billeted out to regional Victoria, the NSW Riverina and games in Tasmania for three years. He umpired his first senior game of VFL in the - match at the end of 1948 VFL season which made him the youngest senior umpire at the time. Beitzel officiated in 182 senior games (including the 1955 Grand Final) from 1948 to 1960. After an operation on his

achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcane ...

, Beitzel regained fitness and intended to continue umpiring, but instead took up a role in the media for the 1961 season. He joined radio station 3KZ as a replacement for Jack Mueller.

Media career

Beitzel later covered football for 3AW for twenty years with Tommy Lahiff and was known for his saying "Are you there? Tommy". He later joined 3AK and the ABC radio stations, as well as writing for the ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a Conservatism, conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the American Rupert Murdoch, Murd ...

'', ''

The Truth The Truth may refer to: Film * ''The Truth'' (1920 film) starring Madge Kennedy * ''The Truth'' (1960 film) or ''La Vérité'', a French film by Henri-Georges Clouzot starring Brigitte Bardot * ''The Truth'' (1988 film), a Hong Kong trial cri ...

'', ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Tele ...

'' and ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

''. He also worked on television for the ABC and the

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. His innovations included the introduction of

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

during broadcasts of matches, as well as comprehensive previews and reviews of games. In 2005, Beitzel rejoined 3AW as a semi-regular contributor to Rex Hunt's pre-match show. For some years, Beitzel has filed his Footy Week section each week with the ''Melbourne Observer'' newspaper.

International rules football

Beitzel is also credited with pioneering the development of the composite rules sport International rules football. He drew inspiration from watching the 1966 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final on television, and in 1967 sent an Australian side – "The

Galah The galah (; ''Eolophus roseicapilla''), less commonly known as the pink and grey cockatoo or rose-breasted cockatoo, is an Australian species of cockatoo and the only member of the genus ''Eolophus''. The galah is adapted to a wide variety of m ...

s" – to play the game against an Irish side. He followed this the next year with The Australian Football World Tour, a six-match series with games played against Irish teams in Ireland, the UK and the United States. The 1968 Galahs also played exhibition matches of Australian rules throughout the tour, including a game in

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Honours and recognition

In 2000, Beitzel was inducted into the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

's Media Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame as a media inductee.

Imprisonment

Beitzel became the face for "English soccer pools" in Australia. In October 1994, Beitzel was sentenced to 18 months jail, with a minimum of eight months to be served, after pleading guilty to obtaining financial advantage by deception over matters related to his work for a lottery organisation. Beitzel's downfall was that he introduced lottery winners to a fraudulent financial advisor who took all their money. He served his sentence initially at Pentridge Prison and then at the open, minimum-security Morwell River Prison Farm. Beitzel strenuously denied that he had ever intentionally committed a crime.

Personal life

The son of former and player Arnold Beitzel. Beitzel had three daughters and a son. As of 2014 he lived in Sydney with his second wife, Karolyn. Beitzel had been ill since 2014, after losing sight in one eye and suffering a fall, he also had heart problems. He died on 13 August 2017, aged 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beitzel, Harry 1927 births 2017 deaths 3AW presenters Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian sports journalists Australian rules football commentators Australian Football League umpires International rules football Australian television presenters People convicted of fraud Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Radio personalities from Melbourne People from Fitzroy, Victoria People educated at University High School, Melbourne Australian sportspeople convicted of crimes