Jack Ernest Pollard

OAM OAM may refer to: *Oamaru Aerodrome, New Zealand * Object access method *Observatorio Astronómico de Mallorca, an observatory in Spain *U.S. Office of Alternative Medicine, whose duties have been taken over by the National Center for Complementary ...

(31 July 1926 – 25 May 2002) was an Australian sports journalist, writer and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

historian.

Early life

Born in Sydney on 31 July 1926, Pollard began his journalism career in 1943 as a copy boy at Sydney's '' Daily Telegraph'' newspaper. At the age of 18, he was called up to the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

, serving from 1944 to 1947 and finishing with the rank of sergeant. A foot injury sustained during an army rugby game saw him sit out nine months at Holsworthy Barracks. The injury may have saved Pollard's life as the other men of his assigned platoon were later killed in action in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

Journalism career

From 1945 to 1947, Pollard lived in post-war Japan working as a sports editor for the armed forces newspaper there. He returned to Sydney briefly, then moved to England, where he worked as a horse racing writer for a newspaper in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

. In 1948, he started work as a correspondent for the

Australian Associated Press Australian Associated Press (AAP) is an Australian news agency. It was established by Keith Murdoch in 1935. AAP employs around 80 journalists who work in bureaus in all states and territories of Australia except the Northern Territory. It a ...

in London which included a regular column, sometimes serious, other times humorous. He covered many major sporting events, including the 1948 Summer Olympics, ten

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is pl ...

and the 1948 tour of England by

Don Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman, (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. Bradman's career Test cricket, Test batting average (c ...

Australian cricket team The Australia men's national cricket team represents Australia in men's international cricket. As the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, playing in the first ever Test match in 1877, the team also plays One-Day International (ODI) ...

Publishing career

Pollard returned to Sydney in 1956, where he worked as a sports reporter with the ''Telegraph'' before starting his own publishing company in 1959, Jack Pollard Publishing, which specialised in books on sport and leisure topics.''The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket'', Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, p. 423. Pollard was a prolific writer and editor, who produced a large number of sporting reference books, including a definitive five-volume history of Australian cricket, encyclopaedias on

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

, horse racing and a series of popular fishing guides. He also wrote biographies for several sports stars including tennis players Lew Hoad and Rod Laver, cricketer Keith Miller and umpire Lou Rowan, golfer Bruce Devlin, rugby league players Ken Thornett and Johnny Raper, and

VFL 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 ...

player

Peter McKenna Peter McKenna (born 27 August 1946 in Brunswick West, Victoria) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented Collingwood and Carlton in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1960s and 1970s. He also represented Devonport ...

.Jack Pollard
Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

Books on cricket

Although Pollard's works included all Australian sports, it is his cricket writing that is considered an important part of his legacy. Books include such topics as: * The history of Australian cricket * Cricket statistics * The "Australian way" of playing cricket

Retirement

Pollard retired from publishing in 1981 to concentrate on writing. He died on 25 May 2002, after suffering a stroke upon his return to Sydney from a research trip in

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 me ...

Honours

*1983: English Cricket Society's Jubilee Award *12 December 1990: General member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame *8 June 1992: Medal of the Order of Australia for service to sports journalism and sporting historyPOLLARD, Jack Ernest
, '' It's an Honour'' (Australian Government). The

Jack Pollard Trophy The Australian Cricket Society is a fraternity of cricket lovers with branches in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania. It was established in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1967. Ricky Ponting serves as patron. Activities Guest ...

is awarded annually by the

Australian Cricket Society The Australian Cricket Society is a fraternity of cricket lovers with branches in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania. It was established in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1967. Ricky Ponting serves as patron. Activities Guest ...

for the leading Australian cricket book published over the previous 12 months.

References

External links

Resources for Jack Pollard
at

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

*Author biography
Jack Pollard

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard, Jack 1926 births 2002 deaths Journalists from Sydney Australian sports journalists Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Australian cricket writers Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian Army soldiers