Ray Montgomery (1929 – 1 August 2009) 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 ...

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

. Montgomery umpired in the

West Australian National Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(now known as the West Australian Football League) and 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 ...

Working life

He began his working life as a coach builder for the

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

at the

Midland Railway Workshops The Midland Railway Workshops in Midland, Western Australia, were the main workshops for the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) for over 80 years. History The first railway workshops in Western Australia were located at Fremantle an ...

. After going to teacher's college he became an art teacher, becoming an Arts Master at Churchlands College.

Playing career

Montgomery played football at school and in the Temperance League before playing reserve grade for

Swan Districts The Swan Districts Football Club, nicknamed the Swans, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The club is based at Bassendean Oval, in Bassendean, an eastern suburb ...

. His playing career was brought to an end by a cracked

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

Umpiring career

Montgomery commenced umpiring football with Metropolitan Juniors in 1949.

WANFL

Montgomery joined the WANFL umpiring panel in 1950 and was soon umpiring league football, making his debut in a match between

East Fremantle East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

and

Fremantle Oval Fremantle Oval, also known by naming rights sponsorship as Fremantle Community Bank Oval, is a stadium in the centre of Fremantle, Western Australia, located on Parry Street. It currently has a capacity of 17,500 with terracing and a members ...

in Round 4 of the 1952 season. In 1959 Montgomery officiated in his first

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

, between

East Perth East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from ...

and Subiaco at

Subiaco Oval Subiaco Oval (; nicknamed Subi) was a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Subiaco. It was opened in 1908 and closed in 2017 after the completion of the new Perth Stadium in Burswood. Subiaco Oval was the high ...

. During Round 1 of the 1956 season Montgomery reported Jack Sheedy for using abusive language towards him, to which Sheedy responded at the tribunal by

swearing Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, rud ...

on a

bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

that Montgomery had reported the wrong player. Despite the theatrics, Sheedy was found guilty of the charge. In 1963 he made a complaint to the WANFL over an incident that occurred after he had umpired a match between

and South Fremantle at

East Fremantle Oval East Fremantle Oval (known under a sponsorship agreement as New Choice Homes Park and nicknamed "Shark Park",) is an Australian rules football ground located in East Fremantle, Western Australia. The ground was opened in 1906, and underwent a la ...

. He alleged that as he was walking out of the ground, a player drove a car toward him, attempting to run him over. He retired in 1972 having umpired 308 WANFL league matches including five grand finals.

VFL

While studying art at the

Melbourne Technical College RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scienc ...

Montgomery umpired two league matches during the 1965 Victorian Football League season.

Later life and legacy

Montgomery was responsible for redesigning the Swan Districts logo after Swans coach Haydn Bunton, Jr. suggested it needed livening up. After retiring Montgomery took up bowls and was a member of the Manning Bowls Club for over three decades. The award for best WAFL field umpire is named the Ray Montgomery Medal in his honour. In 2002 Montgomery was named as one of three field umpires in the WANFL Umpires Association Team of the Half Century. In 2004 he was inducted into the

West Australian Football Hall of Fame The West Australian Football Hall of Fame was created in 2002 to recognise and enshrine those who have made a significant contribution to Australian rules football in Western Australia. People eligible for inclusion are players, coaches, umpires, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montgomery, Ray Australian Football League umpires West Australian Football League umpires West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees 2009 deaths 1929 births