John Dalton "Jack" Clancy (13 July 1934 – 23 March 2014) 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, playing for
Fitzroy Football Club in the
Victorian Football League (VFL).
Born in
Melbourne, Clancy attended Christian Brothers' College, St Kilda and then the
University of Melbourne and, as a 191 cm ruckman, played for
University Blacks in the
Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA), until recruited by Fitzroy for the
1957 VFL season
The 1957 VFL season was the 61st 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 21 September, and comprised an ...
.
Clancy made his senior debut for Fitzroy in Round One that year as 20th man against reigning premiers,
Melbourne, spending the whole game on the bench and was dropped back to the reserves. Years later, at a lunch to make his 50th year with the Blacks, then Fitzroy coach
Bill Stephen said he never saw a man sitting on the bench as impressively as Clancy.
[ Six weeks later, playing for Fitzroy reserves against 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 ...
reserves team, Clancy injured his knee[ where he injured his other knee during the 1960 VAFA season.][
Clancy played and coached for many years with University Reds (now Fitzroy Reds) and was named at centre half-forward in the club's team of the 20th century.
Following his retirement from football, Clancy played cricket into his fifties,][ including many social matches for the Parkville Peoples' XI and in the traditional Writers v Artists and Meanjin v Overland fixtures.
In his professional life Clancy was head of Humanities/Communication Studies at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology where he pioneered courses in cinema and semiotics. He also became secretary of the Friends of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and attended the annual celebrations of Karl Marx's birthday.][
Clancy was married to the renowned translator, Dr Patricia Clancy, a former senior lecturer in ]French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
at Melbourne University. Together they had two children; Dr David Clancy, a geneticist at the University of Lancaster in England and Rob Clancy, a television producer and journalist.[Clancy, R. "Super Rules for a group of fools", ''The Sunday Age'', Sports Section, p. 11.]
Clancy died after a long illness in Melbourne on 23 March 2014.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clancy, Jack
1934 births
Fitzroy Football Club players
University Blacks Football Club players
Australian rules footballers from Melbourne
2014 deaths
People educated at St Mary's College, Melbourne