Gerald Edmund "Gerry" Bahen (17 February 1929 – 24 April 2012) was a businessman and

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 ...

player and administrator who played for the

North Melbourne Football Club The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Kangaroos or colloquially the Roos, is a professional Australian rules football club. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AF ...

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) and the

South Fremantle Football Club South Fremantle Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Fremantle, Western Australia. The club plays in the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) and the WAFL Women's (WAFLW), commonly going by the nickname the ''Bulldogs ...

in the

Western Australian National Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WANFL), as well as representing

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

in three interstate matches. After the conclusion of his playing career, Bahen became involved in the entertainment and hospitality areas, also serving as a committeeman and vice-president of the South Fremantle Football Club.

Career

Bahen was born at Kiama Hospital, in

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

, Western Australia, on 17 February 1929, to Clem and Eva (née Beard) Bahen, and grew up in Claremont. His father played 158 games for the

Subiaco Football Club The Subiaco Football Club, nicknamed the Lions and known before 1973 as the ''Maroons'', is an Australian rules football club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). It was founded in 1896, and admitted to the WAF ...

, and was later a noted businessman as managing director of C. M. Bahen, Ltd. Bahen attended Aquinas College, and played nine reserves games for South Fremantle in 1949 before moving to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

for his job. There, he began playing with the Mentone Football Club in the

Federal Football League The Federal Football League (FFL), also known simply as the Federal League, was an Australian rules football competition in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. The competition was in existence from 1909 to 1981 and was regarded a ...

, before being recruited by the

in the

(VFL), with which he played eight games in the 1951 season before returning to Western Australia, where he began playing in South Fremantle's senior team. Bahen won premierships with South Fremantle in 1952, 1953, and 1954. Playing mainly off a half-back flank, he finished fourth in the

Sandover Medal The Sandover Medal is an Australian rules football award, given annually since 1921 to the fairest and best player in the West Australian Football League. The award was donated by Alfred Sandover M.B.E., a prominent Perth hardware merchant an ...

as the

fairest and best In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

player in the league in 1954, and also played at

centre half-back In the sport of Australian rules football, the half-back line refers to the positions of the 3 players on the field that occupy the centre half-back and left and right half-back flank positions. Centre half-back The role of the centre half-bac ...

's interstate game against

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. Bahen retired at the end of the 1956 season to concentrate on business interests. With his wife, Adrian, with whom he later had four children, Bahen took over the running of the P&O Hotel in

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

. He later joined the television station TVW as Film Manager in 1961, and later returned to the network to serve as Concessions and Bar Manager at the

Perth Entertainment Centre The Perth Entertainment Centre was an indoor arena and cinema complex in Perth, Western Australia, located on Wellington Street, Perth, Wellington Street at the northern edge of the Perth#cbd, Perth central business district. It was demolished a ...

from 1974 to 1977. Bahen remained involved with the South Fremantle Football Club, serving on the club's committee and for a short period as vice-president, as well as organising the Gerry Bahen Classic, an annual fundraising classic.2010 Gerry Bahen Classic
– South Fremantle Football Club. Retrieved 6 May 2012.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bahen, Gerry 1929 births 2012 deaths North Melbourne Football Club players People educated at Aquinas College, Perth Australian rules footballers from Perth, Western Australia South Fremantle Football Club administrators South Fremantle Football Club players 20th-century Australian sportsmen