Walter Henry "Dick" Lee (19 March 1889 – 11 September 1968) 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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...

in the (then)

Victorian Football League 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 ...

(VFL).

Family

The son of long-term Collingwood trainer Walter Henry Lee (1863–1952), and Isabella Lee (1867–1929), née Turnbull, Walter Henry Lee was born in Collingwood on 19 March 1889. He married Zella Dixon in 1927.

Football

Lee was one of the first great forwards in Australian Football with an ability to win the ball on the ground or in the air. He was considered one of the finest practitioners of the

place kick The place kick is a type of kicking play commonly used in American football, association football (soccer), Canadian football, rugby league, and rugby union. Gridiron football Place kicks are used in American football and Canadian football for ...

in the game, a reputation which followed long after the skill disappeared from the game. In 1912, Lee had a cartilage removed from his knee; and, according to his (then) team captain,

Dan Minogue Daniel Thomas Minogue (4 September 1891 – 27 July 1961) was an Australian rules footballer, who played with three different clubs in the (then) Victorian Football League (VFL), and who was the coach of five different VFL clubs. Family The ...

, writing in 1937, Lee was the first senior VFL footballer to have that operation. His last kick in his last match for Collingwood scored Collingwood's final goal in its six-point loss to Fitzroy in the 1922 VFL Grand Final.

Death

He died at

Northcote, Victoria Northcote () is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Darebin Local government areas of Victoria, lo ...

, on 11 September 1968.

Honours

Life Member

He was made a life member of the Collingwood Football Club in 1918.

Australian Football Hall of Fame

In 1996, Lee was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

Team of the Century

In 1998, he was selected on the half-forward flank in the Collingwood team of the Century.

Footnotes

References

* Brown, Alf
"Dick Lee hits our football: Too little training: Too little stamina: Too many rules", '' The Herald'', (Saturday, 8 May 1954), p.17.
* de Lacy, H.A.
Dick!—Dick-e-e-e!'", ''The Sporting Globe'', (Saturday, 21 June 1941), p.6.

de Lacy, H.A. "Football's Greatest Mark: Dick Lee Has My Vote, ''The Sporting Globe'', (Saturday, 16 July 1949), p.2.

de Lacy, H.A., "Dicky Lee 'gamest man to pull on a football boot' ", ''The Sporting Globe'', (Wednesday, 6 May 1953), p.3.

Hobbs, Greg, "Famous High Flying Forward Dies", ''The Age'', (Thursday, 12 September 1968), p.28.
* Ross, J. (ed), ''100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported'', Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. : especially "Dick Lee the first high flying Magpie – a new kind of full forward", p. 111. * Thorp, Vic (as told to H.A. de Lacy)
"Full Forwards He Has Met: Dick Lee Greatest of the Great, ''The Sporting Globe, (Saturday, 21 June 1938), p.5.

External links

* * * ttps://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/players/dick-lee Dick Lee 1906–1922: ''Collingwood Forever''.
AFL Hall of Fame

''Boyles Football Photos'': Dick Lee.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Dick 1889 births 1968 deaths Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents Collingwood Football Club players Collingwood Football Club Premiership players Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees VFL Leading Goalkicker Medal winners Three-time VFL/AFL Premiership players People from Collingwood, Victoria