John Henry Baggott (20 July 1906 – 2 June 1995) 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 and coached in 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 ...

(VFL) between 1927 and 1940 for the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

, and South Melbourne Football Club.

Career in football

Baggott represented the

between 1927 and 1935. He was Richmond's leading goal kicker in his debut year of 1927 with 37 goals, and again in 1928 with 61 goals. In Round 9 of the 1928 season he kicked a then club record 12 goals against South Melbourne, the first Richmond player to ever hit double figures in goal-kicking in a game. He placed third in the League's best and fairest award, the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

in that same year, and was also named in the Victorian state representative team in both 1928 and 1929. Baggot represented the club in several Grand Finals, including the 1932 and 1934 Premiership teams. By that stage Baggott was playing as an attacking half-back flanker, and was named in Richmond's best in both these Grand Final victories. At the end of 1935 Baggott left Richmond to take on the role of captain-coach of the rival

, starting in the 1936 season. He wound up his playing career during the 1937 season, at which point he handed over the captaincy to

Keith Forbes Keith MacKenzie Forbes (28 May 1906 – 7 September 1996) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Coburg in the Victorian Football Association (VFA), and for Essendon, North Melbourne (as captain-coach), and Fitzroy in the Vict ...

, but continued coaching Essendon for several more seasons. An ongoing lack of success saw him replaced by legendary Essendon player and coach

Dick Reynolds Richard Sylvannus Reynolds (20 June 1915 – 2 September 2002) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Reynolds is one of four footballers to have won three Brownl ...

six games into the 1939 season. Baggott was then appointed as senior coach of the South Melbourne Football Club in 1940, but again achieved little success in with the Swans and was replaced at the end of that season. Baggott later returned to Richmond and played a key role in forming the club's 'Former Players and Officials’ Association'. In 1960 he was made a life member of the Richmond Football Club. In 2019 Baggott was posthumously inducted into the Richmond 'Hall of Fame', with the award being accepted on his behalf by his nephew.

Personal life

Baggott was born in

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

(now

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

) of Australian parents. The family returned to Australia while Baggott was a young boy. He was the older brother of

Ron Baggott Ronald Idris Baggott (16 January 1917—26 April 2013) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He later captain-coached Brunswick. He was the younger brother of Jack Baggott who ...

who played for the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

Footnotes

References

* Hogan P: ''The Tigers Of Old'', Richmond FC, Melbourne 1996

External links

* *

VIctorian Football League Interstate Team-(1928)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baggott, Jack 1906 births 1995 deaths Richmond Football Club players Richmond Football Club Premiership players Essendon Football Club players Essendon Football Club coaches Sydney Swans coaches Northcote Football Club players Dimboola Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Melbourne VFL/AFL players born outside Australia South African emigrants to Australia Two-time VFL/AFL Premiership players

Career in football

Personal life

See also

Footnotes

References

External links