Wilbur T. "Bill" Mohr (29 June 1909 – 29 March 1971) was an

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 ...

er who represented St Kilda in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL) during the 1930s.

Early life

Mohr was born and raised in

Wagga Wagga, New South Wales Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, m ...

where he attended school at Wagga Demonstration and Wagga High schools. He played at Federal Football Club with his brother where his father was president before being recruited with his brother to the

St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club's name originates fro ...

Career

Playing as a half-back flanker initially, Mohr later became one of the league's greatest full-forwards; he kicked 101 goals in 1936 (the first St Kilda player to kick more than 100 goals in a season) and was the VFL Leading Goalkicker in that year. Mohr st kilda card

Mohr possessed an ability to kick straight from any angle, and he was one of the best exponents of the

drop kick A drop kick is a type of kick in various codes of football. It involves a player intentionally dropping the ball onto the ground and then kicking it either (different sports have different definitions) 'as it rises from the first bounce' ( rugby ...

. He was appointed captain of St Kilda in 1937, and was the club's leading goalkicker in every season from 1929 to 1940. It was announced that at the start of his final season,

1941 The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, wa ...

, he would play in defence. But in May that year, after having only played one game for the season, Mohr announced his retirement, saying that he felt he could not reach form and that it was also time to make way for a younger player. In 1947,

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club, in the Australian Football League *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington United Kin ...

champion

Dick Reynolds Richard Sylvannus Reynolds (20 June 1915 – 2 September 2002) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Reynolds is one of four footballers to have won three Brownlow ...

, in an article for the now-defunct Melbourne newspaper '' The Argus'', wrote about Mohr that:

'' ewas handicapped because he played with a team that had few successes. He was a clever position player, grand trier, and a remarkably straight kick.''

In 1955, in an interview with ''The Argus'', former

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at the 2021 ...

champion

Laurie Nash Laurence John Nash (2 May 1910 – 24 July 1986) was a Test cricketer and Australian rules footballer. An inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame, Nash was a member of South Melbourne's 1933 premiership team, captained South Melbou ...

echoed similar sentiments about Mohr:

''Bill Mohr was hampered by playing with a comparatively weak St. Kilda combination. In a stronger team he might easily have qualified for a higher place in full forward rankings. An extremely heady player, he was an accurate kick and dependable mark.''

Posthumous honours

Mohr was one of the first players inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the 1996 AFL season, centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media pe ...

in 1996. In St Kilda's Team of the Century, he was named on the half-forward flank to accommodate

Tony Lockett Anthony Howard Lockett (born 9 March 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Nicknamed "Plugger", he played as a full forward, full-forwar ...

at full-forward.St Kilda Team of the Century
/ref>

References

External links

Profile
at Australian Football {{DEFAULTSORT:Mohr, Bill 1909 births 1971 deaths St Kilda Football Club players Trevor Barker Award winners VFL Leading Goalkicker Medal winners Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian rules footballers from Wagga Wagga 20th-century Australian sportsmen