John Schultz (born 28 September 1938) is a former

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 represented in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He had been a champion high-jumper at

Caulfield Grammar School Caulfield Grammar School is an Independent school, independent, co-educational, Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican, International Baccalaureate, day school, day and boarding school, located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1881 as ...

, winning the senior

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

at the 1955 Associated Grammar Schools Combined Athletics Meeting (as had South Melbourne's Jim Taylor in 1948). He also played for the school's First XVIII, a team which also contained other future VFL players,

Ron Evans Ronald Barry Evans AM (7 July 1939 – 9 March 2007) was an Australian rules footballer, Chairman of the Australian Football League (AFL) from 1998 to 2007, as well as President of the Essendon Football Club from 1988 to 1992. Education E ...

of Essendon and

Ron Cabble Ronald James Cabble (born 10 February 1938) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Family The son of William James Cabble (1903-1960), and Ruby Fleetwood Cabble (1905-2003), n� ...

of Hawthorn.

VFL career

Schultz was recruited by Footscray from country side

Boort Boort () is a town in Victoria, Australia, located next to Lake Boort, in the Shire of Loddon. The town is known for its native birdlife. Boort is a local Aboriginal word meaning "Smoke from the hill". Main sources of employment are retail, ...

, having previously played briefly with

Caulfield Grammarians Football Club Caulfield Grammarians Football Club, is an Australian rules football club based in Caulfield East, Victoria. The club, composed of Caulfield Grammar School alumni is, along with Old Melburnians, the (equal) second oldest consecutively competi ...

in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (he broke his arm at the opening bounce of the first Caulfield Grammarians' practice match of the 1956 season). Schultz was considered a "gentle giant", known as much for his fairness as for his brilliance. An effective knock ruckman, he was acclaimed for good tackling, elegant marking and hard, fair bumping. Roy Wright, another "gentle giant" and Brownlow medallist, helped him early in his career: "after lining up on Roy Wright in one of my first matches, he came to the dressing rooms after the match and gave me a few hints on things I did and didn't do right". Compared with others of his day, Schultz had exceptional stamina and he seemed to be able to run just as quickly at the end of a match as he had at its beginning. Schultz won the Brownlow Medal in 1960 (when only 21 years old) by one vote from 's Kevin Murray. He was Footscray'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 ...

player five times (1960, 1962, 1964–66). Schultz played for Victoria 21 times, and was an All-Australian in 1961. In

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

, Footscray, playing a fast game using the soon-to-be-outlawed " flick pass", won through to their second Grand Final, this time against , who were playing in their first Grand Final. On a hot day, in front of over 100,000 spectators, the Hawks, dubbed Kennedy's Commandos for their fanatical approach to fitness, overran the Bulldogs in the second half to claim their first VFL premiership. Schultz played as an amateur. He played his entire

VFL 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 ...

with the great Ted Whitten as his captain, and retired in 1968, aged only twenty-nine, to help manage the family grocery business. His younger brother Robert, also from Caulfield Grammar School, played two senior games for Footscray in 1963.

Post-VFL career

Fittingly for a man who was known for his fairness and never once reported, Schultz later served on the league tribunal. He once said, "I love nothing more than seeing someone shake another player's hand after a tough game – that's the ultimate in sportsmanship." In 1996 Schultz 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 ...

with the following citation: :''Rucking giant who never let the side down. Set the standard for the modern ruckman''. In 2002, Schultz was named 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 ...

of the Footscray/Western Bulldogs Team of the Century. Schultz is still heavily involved at the Bulldogs, serving as a mentor to the playing group. He was given the honour of handing the Premiership cup to

Easton Wood Easton Phillip Wood (born 4 September 1989) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL). He grew up in Camperdown, Victoria while attending Geelong Grammar School. He was ...

, Luke Beveridge and Robert Murphy after the Western Bulldogs won the

2016 AFL Grand Final The 2016 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between and the at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 1 October 2016. It was the 121st annual Grand Final of the Australian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football ...

Personal life

Schultz lives in Shoreham, a town on the Mornington Peninsula. He was married to Elaine, who came from

Durham Ox The Durham Ox (March 1796 – 15 April 1807) was a steer who became famous in the early 19th century for his shape, size and weight. He was an early example of what became the Shorthorn breed of cattle and helped establish the standards by which ...

, the town next to Boort, until she died in 2013.

Footnotes

References

*
"New Boys" join the 200 club, ''The Age'', (Tuesday, 3 December 1968), p.25.

External links