H. C. A. Harrison
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Henry Colden Antill Harrison (16 October 1836 – 2 September 1929) was an athlete and Australian rules footballer who played a leading role in pioneering the sport. Harrison's cousin, champion cricketer
Tom Wills Thomas Wentworth Wills (19 August 1835 – 2 May 1880) was an Australian sportsman who is credited with being Australia's first cricketer of significance and a founder of Australian rules football. Born in the British penal colony of New ...
, captained an early incarnation of the Melbourne Football Club in 1858, and the following year co-wrote its laws―the basis of Australian rules football. Within a year, Harrison joined him in promoting the new code, and quickly emerged as a leading player, celebrated for his speed, strength and courage. He oversaw an 1866 revision of the code that formalised the
running bounce A running bounce, or simply bounce, is a skill in the sport of Australian rules football (necessitated by the Laws of the Game) and some variants where a player, bounces (or touches) the ball on the ground in order to run more than the maximum di ...
, and captained Melbourne and Geelong before retiring from playing in 1872, after which he took on several important administrative roles, including the vice presidency of the newly formed
Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
(VFA) in 1877, and the chairmanship of the first Australian Football Conference in 1905. He also won fame as the champion amateur runner of Victoria, remaining undefeated for nine years in both sprints and hurdles. By the 1880s and well into the mid-20th century, Harrison was widely regarded as the "Father of Australian Football"—a title that has since been disputed as a result of more in-depth scholarly analysis of football's origins, which shows that Harrison joined the game after its codification, and that football's early development was largely a collaborative process. Nonetheless, Harrison remained for many years the sport's "most formidable voice", and the honorific title of "Football's Foster Father" has been applied to him by some modern historians. The Harrison Stand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, as well as Harrison House―the former headquarters of the
Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
(VFL)―were named in his honour in 1908 and 1930, respectively. Harrison and Wills were the only pioneer figures to be inaugural inductees of the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996, and in 1989, both were inducted into the
Sport Australia Hall of Fame The Sport Australia Hall of Fame was established on 10 December 1985 to recognise the achievements of Australian sportsmen and sportswomen. The inaugural induction included 120 members with Sir Don Bradman as the first inductee and Dawn Fraser th ...
.


Early life and professional work

Harrison was born at 'Jarvisfield', near
Picton, New South Wales Picton is a small town in the Macarthur Region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Wollondilly Shire, in south-western Sydney. The town is located approximately 90 kilometres south-west of Sydney, close to Camden and Campbelltown. It is a ...
, the son of John Harrison, a sea captain who had become a grazier, and his wife Jane, ''née'' Howe. In about 1837, the family moved to the
Port Phillip District The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria. In September 1836, NSW Colonial Sec ...
, and took up land on the
Plenty River The Plenty River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the north-eastern Greater Melbourne region of the Australian state of Victoria. Course and features The Plenty River rises in the forested slopes of Mount Disapp ...
about 20 miles (32 km) from
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
. Some years later, they moved to the present site of St Arnaud. In 1850, Harrison's father, being broken in health, moved to Melbourne. Henry had already been sent at the beginning of the year to the Diocesan Grammar School (the forerunner of Melbourne Grammar). After leaving school, he spent a short time in the
Victorian goldfields The Goldfields region of Victoria is a region commonly used but typically defined in both historical geography and tourism geography (in particular heritage tourism). The region is also known as the Victorian Golden Triangle. Description I ...
, H. C. A. Harrison entered formal employment at the Victorian Customs Department at the end of 1853. He married his cousin, Emily Wills, in 1864 and they had four daughters. Harrison remained with Customs for 35 years, before transferring to the Titles Office in 1887. He became Registrar of Titles in 1889, retiring in 1896. His autobiography, ''The Story of an Athlete'', was published in 1923. Harrison died at
Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...
, in Melbourne, on 2 September 1929, at age of 92.


Athlete

Harrison did not discover he was a good runner until he was 22 years of age, but soon afterwards he became the finest amateur runner of his period, and his matches against L. L. Mount of Ballarat caused much public interest. For nine years he was Victorian champion 'pedestrian', defeating all comers in sprints and over hurdles and steeples.Ian Turner, 'Harrison, Henry Colden Antill (1836–1929)
, '' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Vol.4, Melbourne University Press, 1972, p.353 Retrieved 21 January 2009
He recorded a time of 50¼ seconds over 440 yards (400 m), on a grass track.


Football and cricket

Harrison's cousin
Tom Wills Thomas Wentworth Wills (19 August 1835 – 2 May 1880) was an Australian sportsman who is credited with being Australia's first cricketer of significance and a founder of Australian rules football. Born in the British penal colony of New ...
began to codify Australian rules football in Melbourne, in 1858. Wills' game spread across Australia and is today the most popular sport in the country. Some sources state that Harrison was involved and/or that he took part in the drafting of the first set rules, by the Melbourne Football Club (1859); Wills and Harrison were later recognised as the "Fathers" of Australian rules. However, there is no hard evidence that Harrison was involved in the development of Australian rules during the 1850s. On 8 May 1866, Harrison chaired a meeting of club delegates in order to draft a revised set of rules, and his changes were unanimously agreed upon. A major development in these revised rules was Rule 8, which read: "The ball may be taken in hand at any time, but not carried further than is necessary for a kick, and no player shall run with the ball unless he strikes it against the ground every five or six yards." The
running bounce A running bounce, or simply bounce, is a skill in the sport of Australian rules football (necessitated by the Laws of the Game) and some variants where a player, bounces (or touches) the ball on the ground in order to run more than the maximum di ...
was adopted to curtail the speed of the fastest players, in particular Harrison. Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes and fan of Australian rules football, remarked: "I thought it was very sporting of Harrison, as the fastest runner of his day, to introduce the bouncing rule, which robbed him of his advantage."'The best game' says Conan Doyle
''Australian Football''. Retrieved 26 February 2015. Harrison was successively captain of the
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, Melbourne and Geelong clubs, and then of Melbourne again. Harrison was elected a member of the committee of the
Melbourne Cricket Club The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia. The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, ...
in 1871, and was a vice-president from 1892 until his death. Harrison retired from football in 1872 at the age of 36. He once stated that he considered that the reason of his being able to stay so long was that he did not begin his athletic career until he was over 20. When the
Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
was formed in 1877, Harrison was elected vice-president, and in 1905 he was chairman of the first Australian Football Council, and was officially granted life membership to the council. Following his retirement, Harrison was
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of the Melbourne Football Club from 1897 to 1906.


Legacy

In 1908, a newly completed grandstand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), designed by William Pitt, was named after Harrison. It was demolished in 1936 to make way for the Southern Stand. Harrison continues to be honoured at the MCG with the H. C. A. Harrison Room, located in the Ponsford Stand. A building on
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, Melbourne was purchased by the VFL in the 1920s to serve as their new headquarters, and was named Harrison House in his honour. It was sold and demolished in the 1980s despite appeals from various heritage groups for its preservation. The Harrison Medal, which is awarded to the best player in Division 2 at the
AFL Under 18 Championships The AFL Under-19 Championships (for sponsorship reasons, the NAB AFL Under-19 Championships) is an annual Australian national underage representative championship in Australian rules football tournament. It is seen as one of the main pathways ...
is often mistakenly thought to be named in his honour. It is, however, named after longtime NTFL administrator Hunter C. Harrison.


References

*


External links


Australian Football Hall of Fame – Administrators"Father of Football" (portrait), ''The Argus'', (Thursday, 17 November 1927, p.15, col.E.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Henry Colden Antill 1836 births 1929 deaths Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees VFA/VFL administrators Melbourne Football Club founders Melbourne Football Club presidents Melbourne Football Club (pre-VFA) players Australian rules footballers from New South Wales Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia)