Hector Alexander de Lacy (6 May 1900 – 1 November 1956) was a leading Melbourne-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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

writer, covering the

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 ...

for over 20 years from the 1920s.

Family

The son of Alexander George de Lacy (1872-1939), and Henrietta de Lacy (1875-1937), née Nicol, Hector Alexander de Lacy was born at

Collingwood, Victoria Collingwood is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Yarra local government area. Collingwood recorded a population of 9,179 at the 2021 ce ...

on 6 May 1900. He married Victoria Maud Lugton (1898-1979) in 1926. They had five children.

Journalist

H. A. de Lacy was the chief football writer for ''

The Sporting Globe ''The Sporting Globe'' was a newspaper published in Melbourne from 1922 until 1996. The first issue was published on 22 July 1922, and for the first four weeks it was published only on Saturday evenings; from 16 August 1922 it introduced a Wednesd ...

'' newspaper in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and was noted for the controversial and bold nature of his writings. His opinionated and unabashed style made him one of the most widely read sports journalists of his time and he was banned by several clubs for periods of time because of his articles. He campaigned in the 1940s for better payments to players, arguing that 3 pounds per week was inadequate for the time spent training, travelling and injuries. He was an ardent supporter of the

Victorian Football Association 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 ...

's throw-pass rules, which were in effect in that league during the 1940s. Aside from both VFL and VFA football, de Lacy also wrote about

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

, and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

Death

He died at

Sandringham, Victoria Sandringham is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Bayside local government area. Sandringham recorded a population of 10,926 at the 2021 census. History ...

on 1 November 1956.

Australian Football Hall of Fame

Hector de Lacy was posthumously inducted to 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 ...

in 1996, with his citation reading: :''Chief football writer on The Sporting Globe. Forthright and controversial, his style sometimes resulted in him being banned by clubs, but that did not deter him and he became one of the most widely read journalists from the 1940s.''

Notes

References

* Ross, John (1999), ''The Australian Football Hall of Fame: A Gallery of Football's Greatest'', Sydney: HarperCollinsPublishers. * Sandercock, Leonie (1981), ''Up Where Cazaly: The great Australian game'', London: Granada. 1900 births 1956 deaths Australian sports journalists Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees {{AFL-bio-1900-stub