Ronald Patrick Casey (28 December 1927 – 19 June 2000) was a

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 ...

-based

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 ...

administrator, sporting commentator and radio and television pioneer.

Radio roles

Casey was a Melbourne sporting commentator and radio presenter with station 3DB (now known as 3TTT) Melbourne from the late 1940s to the late 1970s. He started out as a panel operator at radio 3DB and overcame a speech impediment to replace Eric Welsh as 3DB's sports director. He became one of Victoria's and Australia's leading sports commentators on radio and television, especially in football,

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

and

harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australia ...

. His most famous radio broadcast was the 1968 call from Japan when

Lionel Rose Lionel Edmund Rose MBE (21 June 1948 – 8 May 2011) was an Australian professional boxer who competed from 1964 to 1976. He held the undisputed WBA, WBC, and ''The Ring'' bantamweight titles from 1968 to 1969, becoming the first Indigeno ...

defeated

Fighting Harada Masahiko Harada (born April 5, 1943), better known as Fighting Harada, is a Japanese former professional boxer. He is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the NYSAC, WBA, and ''The Ring'' undisputed flyweight titles from 1962 ...

for the world boxing title.

Television roles

Joining

HSV-7 HSV is a television station in Melbourne, Australia. It is part of the Seven Network, one of the three main commercial television networks in Australia, its first and oldest station. It launched in time for the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbou ...

in 1956, he served as host of HSV-7's '' World of Sport'' program for 28 years. He became studio manager of HSV in 1969 and was general manager from 1972 until 1987, when the station was sold to the

Fairfax Group Fairfax may refer to: Places United States * Fairfax, California * Fairfax Avenue, a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California * Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California, centered on Fairfax Avenue * Fairfax, Georgia * Fairfax, Indiana * Fa ...

. He served on the board of the Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations, chairing it for three terms.

Other

He served many years as president and chairman of his beloved

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 ...

. He was awarded the MBE in 1982 for his services to sport and journalism. In 1991 he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, and in 1996 was an inaugural inductee 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 the Media category. The

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

's media centre is called the Ron Casey Media Centre in his honour. Of Irish descent, Casey was a long-time member of the Celtic Club, and frequently attended major Irish-Australian events throughout his life.D. J. O'Hearn, ''Erin go bragh – Advance Australia Fair: a hundred years of growing'', Melbourne: Celtic Club, 1990, p.67.

References

External links

*
Harness Racing Victoria – Ron Casey

Friends of Cheltenham and Regional Cemeteries Inc.
* Listen to Ron Casey commentating whe
Lionel Rose won the 1968 World Title
o
australianscreen online
1927 births 2000 deaths Australian people of Irish descent Australian radio personalities Australian republicans Members of the Order of Australia Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire Australian television presenters Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees North Melbourne Football Club administrators Australian television executives Television personalities from Melbourne Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Australian rules football commentators {{Australia-tv-bio-stub