Jim Adamson (1 August 1905 – 22 August 1991) 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 with

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...

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) for over a decade. Adamson made his debut for North Melbourne in 1929 and became a regular in the side throughout the 1930s. He was one of their most consistent and reliable performers during the insipid years of the 1930s. Hard, fast and vigorous, Adamson was known as one of the safest defenders in the game and for years has held North's back line together. He was club captain in 1937. In 1940 he became the caretaker Captain-coach of the team when his predecessor, Len Thomas, decided to enlist after seven games into the season. In 1940 he also won North's

Syd Barker Medal The Syd Barker Medal is awarded to the North Melbourne Football Club player who has been judged the best and fairest of the footy season. The award has been given out continuously since 1937. Before then it was known as the Syd Barker Memorial Tr ...

, and in doing so at the age of 35 became the second oldest

best and fairest 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 ...

winner for any club in the league's history. The only player older was 36-year-old

Cyril Gambetta Cyril Leonard Gambetta (1 August 1899 – 20 August 1974) was an Italian-Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Due to having suffered from polio as a child he had badly bowed legs which gave ...

of St Kilda.

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* * 1905 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) North Melbourne Football Club players North Melbourne Football Club coaches Syd Barker Medal winners 1991 deaths {{AFL-bio-1905-stub