Walter John "Wally" Foreman (5 January 19482 November 2006) was an Australian sports administrator and commentator for

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

Radio program "Grandstand" based in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia.

Life

Born in

Kalgoorlie, Western Australia Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surrounding ...

but raised in

Bruce Rock Bruce Rock is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt (Western Australia), Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, approximately east of Perth and southwest of Merredin, Western Australia, Merredin. It is the main town in the Shire of Bruce Rock. His ...

, Foreman worked in the sports media for more than 30 years. He started his career in the media when he was a journalist at the '' West Australian'' newspaper in 1972 and joined the

Sports Department in 1975. He left the ABC briefly to work in TV for Channel 9, before taking up a position with the ABC in Adelaide. During his career, he covered a wide range of domestic and international sporting events including four

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

, five

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

, the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

tennis tournament, World Cup athletics,

Hockey World Cup The Men's FIH Hockey World Cup is an international field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation. The tournament was started in 1971. It is held every four years, bridging the four years between the Summer Olympics. ...

tournaments and the

Pacific Conference Games The Pacific Conference Games were a quadrennial Athletics (sport), athletics competition, held between 1969 and 1985 and contested by Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. Each of the five nations hosted an edition of the comp ...

. He was a familiar voice throughout

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, having commentated on

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

football, NBL basketball and various national championships. Foreman was appointed to become the inaugural director of the

Western Australian Institute of Sport The Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) is an elite sports institute set up in 1983 by the Government of Western Australia to support athletes in Western Australia. The founding director was Wally Foreman who held the position for 17 ye ...

(WAIS) in 1984 and held the position for more than 17 years. In the lead up to the Sydney Olympic Games, he was involved in the development and implementation of the Olympic Athlete Program and acted as a consultant to both the

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and

Tasmanian Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th ...

government with regards sports institutes being established in these states. He resigned as WAIS director in 2001 and returned to work within the

Sports Department in Perth. In 2003, he was appointed as a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

for his services to sport and was named Western Australia Citizen of the Year (Sport) in 2000. In 2000 he has also awarded the

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, off ...

(ASM). He was married to Lyn Foreman, who is head coach (track) at the WAIS and is a national athletics champion, and had two sons. Foreman suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

on 31 October 2006 and died in

on the afternoon of 2 November 2006. His funeral service was held at

Challenge Stadium Perth High Performance Centre (Perth HPC) is a sports complex in Perth, Western Australia. The venue is located in the suburb of Mount Claremont, approximately west of Perth's central business district. Venue facilities include an Olympic-sta ...

and was attended by an estimated 3000 people, including the

Premier of Western Australia The premier of Western Australia is the head of government of the state of Western Australia. The role of premier at a state level is similar to the role of the prime minister of Australia at a federal level. The premier leads the executive br ...

Alan Carpenter Alan John Carpenter (born 4 January 1957) is a former Australian politician who served as the 28th Premier of Western Australia, from 2006 to 2008. From Albany, Carpenter graduated from the University of Western Australia, and worked as a journ ...

, sports stars

Graham Moss Graham Frank Moss (born 14 May 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and for the Claremont Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). A L ...

Dennis Lillee Dennis Keith Lillee, (born 18 July 1949) is a retired Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation".

and

Justin Langer Justin Lee Langer (born 21 November 1970) is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer. He is the former coach of the Australia men's national team, having been appointed to the role in May 2018 and leaving in February 2022 and became ...

, media colleagues

Dennis Cometti Dennis John Cometti (born 26 March 1949) is an Australian retired sports commentator, player and coach of Australian rules football. In a career spanning 51 years, his smooth voice, dry humour and quick wit became his trademark. Until his retir ...

George Grljusich George Ned Grljusich (15 January 1939 – 6 November 2007) was an Australian sports journalist, commentator and former Australian rules footballer. Born in Wiluna, Western Australia, he played 12 games of football for the South Fremantle Foot ...

and Glenn Mitchell. His biography, ''The Legend from Bruce Rock: The Wally Foreman Story'', was released on 29 July 2017 by FFPress. It was written by his son, Glen Foreman, to Glen's daughter Charlotte, who would have been Foreman's first grandchild.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foreman, Wally 1948 births 2006 deaths Australian rules football commentators Members of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal Sportsmen from Western Australia Australian radio personalities People from Kalgoorlie People from Bruce Rock, Western Australia Western Australian Institute of Sport alumni Australian tennis commentators 20th-century Australian sportsmen