John Henry Baggott (20 July 1906 – 2 June 1995) 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 played and coached 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) between 1927 and 1940 for the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers or colloquially the Tiges, is a professional Australian rules football team competing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1885 in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria, Ric ...

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCrac ...

, and South Melbourne Football Club.

Career in football

Baggott represented the

between 1927 and 1935. He was Richmond's leading goal kicker in his debut year of 1927 with 37 goals, and again in 1928 with 61 goals. In Round 9 of the 1928 season he kicked a then club record 12 goals against South Melbourne, the first Richmond player to ever hit double figures in goal-kicking in a game. He placed third in the League's best and fairest award, the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

in that same year, and was also named in the Victorian state representative team in both 1928 and 1929. Baggot represented the club in several Grand Finals, including the 1932 and 1934 Premiership teams. By that stage Baggott was playing as an attacking half-back flanker, and was named in Richmond's best in both these Grand Final victories. He was a late withdrawal from the club's 1927 grand final team, suffering a side injury at training in the lead-up, after having played every game for the season. At the end of 1935 Baggott left Richmond to take on the role of captain-coach of the rival

, starting in the 1936 season. He wound up his playing career during the 1937 season, at which point he handed over the captaincy to Keith Forbes, but continued coaching Essendon for several more seasons. An ongoing lack of success saw him replaced by legendary Essendon player and coach

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 ...

six games into the 1939 season. Baggott was then appointed as senior coach of the South Melbourne Football Club in 1940, but again achieved little success in with the Swans and was replaced at the end of that season. Baggott later returned to Richmond and played a key role in forming the club's 'Former Players and Officials’ Association'. In 1960 he was made a life member of the Richmond Football Club. In 2019 Baggott was posthumously inducted into the Richmond 'Hall of Fame', with the award being accepted on his behalf by his nephew.

Personal life

Baggott was born in

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; ) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King ...

Colony of Natal The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies t ...

(Now part of

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

) to Australian parents. The family returned to Australia while Baggott was a young boy. He was the older brother of Ron Baggott who played for the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

Footnotes

References

* Hogan P: ''The Tigers Of Old'', Richmond FC, Melbourne 1996

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baggott, Jack 1906 births 1995 deaths Richmond Football Club players Richmond Football Club premiership players Essendon Football Club players Essendon Football Club coaches Sydney Swans coaches Northcote Football Club players Dimboola Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Melbourne VFL/AFL players born outside Australia South African emigrants to Australia VFL/AFL premiership players

Career in football

Personal life

See also

Footnotes

References

External links