Australia’s wild history in America’s game started with an outlaw
Friday is not year zero. Australians have been playing this game, and occasionally rewriting it, since the 1890s.
The Kangaroo Kicker
It all started when Pat O’Dea left Melbourne in 1895 to find his brother. Andy O’Dea had taken the rowing coach’s job at the University of Wisconsin and brought the Yarra Yarra stroke to Madison with him.
Pat, from Kilmore and lately of the Melbourne and Essendon (located in East Melbourne then) Football Clubs, brought a boot.
He was Wisconsin’s fullback from 1896 to 1899 and captained the side in his last two seasons. Back then, the fullback was the quarterback and major scorer; there was no forward pass and the value of a drop-goal was more than that of a touchdown.
Against Northwestern in 1898, in a blizzard, he drop-kicked a 62-yard drop goal.
He is credited with a punt of roughly 110 yards (the field was longer then).
The American papers called him the Kangaroo Kicker, and he became a genuine celebrity at a time when the sport was amateur and still arguing about what it wanted to be.
The yellow journalism at the time also reported that he had shacked up with Dame Nellie Melba.
He then coached Notre Dame, of all places, in 1900 and 1901. He qualified as a lawyer.
And in 1919, indicted over an investment dispute, he disappeared, leaving a note saying he had gone to the “great beyond”.
He stayed gone for 17 years. He read the American papers whilst in hiding in the northern California town of Westwood; one article said that he had been killed in World War I.
He resurfaced in 1934 when Wisconsin decided to induct him into its Hall of Fame. In 1962, the year he died, he entered the College Football Hall of Fame and was honoured by President John F Kennedy. He remains the only Australian in it.
When the oval and the gridiron met
The trip in the other direction took a war. In 1943, Sporting Globe writer Ern Cowley worked out that the American servicemen stationed here could throw but could not kick, while the locals could kick but were not permitted to throw.
The result, Australian rules but with a forward pass you were allowed to mark.
It was called Austus, from Aust and US. Thanks to Trevor Ruddell of the MCCLibrary, I got to hold one of the original match programs. Thankfully, it is safely stored in their archives for those who are both lucky and interested to enjoy.
The first Austus match was at Punt Road Oval on 18 July 1943 and the Americans won it 8.4 (52) to 5.8 (38). YouTube has footage for those that would like to see the hybrid game.
A fortnight later an Australian side stacked with VFL players buried them. More games followed, including in Geelong.
On 20 January 2019 I sat down with the late Terry Fulton, who won flags with Geelong in 1951 and 1952 running the wing alongside Bob Davis.
Bob Davis (pictured being chaired off the MCG) is a revered figure in Aussie rules. Dennis Bull
In 1943 he was 13 years old, and he was one of the local kids who got to watch the Americans and Australians play Austus in his own town. Paraphrasing the late legend, “it was really something, but somehow it was everyone’s game which meant it was nobody’s game. Still, I enjoyed it.“
Austus survived the war but did not survive the peace. The Americans went home and went back to their gridiron, and Australians on the southwest side of the Barassi line went back to their game.
The trickle that became a pipeline
After O’Dea, there was first Edward “Carji” Greeves, the first Brownlow Medallist, who spent 1928 and 1929 at my alma mater, the University of Southern California. He is listed everywhere as a rugby (not Aussie rules) player that then became a coach for USC; yet, thanks to Col Hutchinson (the great historian of Geelong and the AFL) who shared the following with me, he can be seen in three photographs suited up and playing for the Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Next, Colin Ridgway, an Olympic high jumper, played three games for the Dallas
Cowboys in 1965 and was the first Australian in the NFL.
Colin Scotts came out of Sydney rugby union to become the first Australian offered an NCAA scholarship and the first drafted to the NFL.
“I was the one that really broke the ice, and it was 23 years before anybody got drafted after me. I was certainly ahead of my time,” Scotts told nine.com.au.
Colin Scotts, with his then girlfriend Monique, was a modern trailblazer. Kenneth Stevens/Fairfax Media
Scotts went on to acknowledge those that have played since: “To see the punters and the Jordan Mailatas now, these players that are dominating and getting the opportunity… I feel like I played my part to break the ice, to show that it could be done.“
Darren Bennett went from Melbourne to San Diego and made the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 1990s.
Ben Graham, recipient of Geelong’s best and fairest (Carji Greeves Award)captained the club and then became the first Australian to play in a Super Bowl. The story of Graham’s Super Bowl season was truly incredible.
“The 2008 season was an extraordinary roller coaster, starting my fourth season at the New York Jets, cut after week two, re-signed for week three, cut again after week four, signed to play one game for the New Orleans Saints inLondon, signed with the Arizona Cardinals for week 13 before going on a run to Super Bowl 43,” he told nine.com.au.
In reflecting on playing in the Super Bowl, he went on to say, “whilst Jordan Mailata and Michael Dickson have achieved the ultimate, I am forever proud to be the first.“
Australian punters Ben Graham #7 of the New York Jets and Sav Rocca #6 of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2007. Getty Images
Sav Rocca followed him. These three were part of the era of AFL direct to the NFL.
Nathan Chapman turned the trickle into an industry. Prokick Australia takes Australians, mostly from Aussie rules, and sends them to American colleges, where they collect a scholarship, an education and a shot at the NFL. It is now the most reliable pathway any Australian has into American sport.
The traffic runs both ways. Jordan Mailata went from the South Sydney and Canterbury Bankstown’s systems to left tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles and a Super Bowl ring.
The game itself
Australians have been playing gridiron here since the 1980s, in leagues most people have never heard of, largely on grounds shared with other sports. I’m a fan and the game continues to grow beyond that of the punter position.
The NFL first arrived in August 1999, when Denver beat San Diego 20-17 at Stadium Australia in front of 73,811, the league’s first game in the southern hemisphere.
Fred Warner #54 of the San Francisco 49ers catches the ball during a Melbourne media session. Getty Images
Understand what that was: an exhibition. A pleasant one, watched by a lot of people, with nothing whatsoever at stake.
Friday is different. Friday counts.
Pat O’Dea had to leave Melbourne to find the game. On September 11, the game
comes to Melbourne.
