Donald Clarence Grossman (27 December 1920 – 5 August 2004) 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 with
South Melbourne in the
Victorian Football League (VFL).
A
Port Melbourne recruit, Grossman started his VFL career in 1940. He didn't play at all in 1943 due to his
Royal Australian Air Force
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colours =
, colours_label =
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, anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...
commitments. He appeared in all 22 games for South Melbourne in 1945 and featured prominently in the
"Bloodbath Grand Final", where
Carlton defeated South Melbourne in a spiteful encounter.
[AFL Tables: Don Grossman]
/ref> Starting in the back pocket
In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...
, Grossman, who would later be an amateur boxer, played as a ruckman and was reported for striking Carlton's Jim Mooring. He was found guilty and missed the opening eight rounds of the 1946 VFL season
The 1946 VFL season was the 50th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria.
The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 20 April until 5 October, and comprised a 19- ...
through suspension.
Grossman left South Melbourne in 1948 to take up an offer to captain-coach Warrnambool. He remained in that position for six years before switching to South Warrnambool
Warrnambool (Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (All ...
in 1954 and coaching them to a premiership in his first year. In 1951, while at Warrnambool, he won the Hampden Football League's 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 ...
award.[''Camperdown Chronicle ']
"Don Grossman Wins Maskell Cup"
21 August 1951, p. 2
Grossman remain in Warrnambool for the rest of his life. He was a contributor to the local newspaper on football related matters and was editing the history of the Warrnambool Football club when he died.
Books
* Evergreen Hampden :Fred R. Bond & Don Grossman 1979,
* Birth of the Blues
References
1920 births
2004 deaths
Sydney Swans players
Port Melbourne Football Club players
Warrnambool Football Club players
Warrnambool Football Club coaches
South Warrnambool Football Club players
South Warrnambool Football Club coaches
Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II
Australian rules footballers from Melbourne
People from Brunswick, Victoria
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