Henry John "Harry" Beitzel (6 April 1927 – 13 August 2017) was an Australian football umpire, print, radio and television sports broadcaster and media personality best known for his contribution to

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 ...

Early sporting life

Harry attended Melbourne's University High School. He along with fellow schoolboy (future cricket test captain)

Neil Harvey Robert Neil Harvey (born 8 October 1928) is an Australian former cricketer who was a member of the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963, playing in 79 Test matches. He was the vice-captain of the team from 1957 until his retirement. ...

developed their skills for both football and cricket. Both boys were left-hander batsmen and together share many high scoring partnerships. Both boys joined the Fitzroy Cricket Club and Beitzel won the second grade batting averages. While Harvey's cricket blossomed, Beitzel's seemed to stall. Beitzel played football with Fitzroy seconds in 1944 and he was part of the premiership team. The following year because Australia was still at war he joined the Australian Navy.

Umpiring career

Harry became interested in umpiring so he joined the VFL umpires' class in 1946 and billeted out to regional Victoria, the NSW Riverina and games in Tasmania for three years. He umpired his first senior game of VFL in the - match at the end of

1948 VFL season The 1948 VFL season was the 52nd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 17 April until 9 October, and comprised a 19- ...

which made him the youngest senior umpire at the time. Beitzel officiated in 182 senior games (including the 1955 Grand Final) from 1948 to 1960. After an operation on his

achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus (h ...

, Beitzel regained fitness and intended to continue umpiring, but instead took up a role in the media for the 1961 season. He joined radio station 3KZ as a replacement for Jack Mueller.

Media career

Beitzel later covered football for

3AW 3AW is a talkback radio station based in Melbourne. It broadcasts on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station. The station is owned and operated by Nine Entertainment Co. Hist ...

for twenty years with

Tommy Lahiff Thomas 'Tommy' 'Turk' Lahiff (31 July 1910 – 8 December 1996) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Essendon, South Melbourne and Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and for Port Melbourne in the Victorian Football A ...

and was known for his saying "Are you there? Tommy". He later joined 3AK and the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

radio stations, as well as writing for the ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

'', ''

The Truth The Truth may refer to: Film * ''The Truth'' (1920 film) starring Madge Kennedy * ''The Truth'' (1960 film) or ''La Vérité'', a French film by Henri-Georges Clouzot starring Brigitte Bardot * ''The Truth'' (1988 film), a Hong Kong trial crim ...

'', ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...

'' and ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

''. He also worked on television for the

and the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

. His innovations included the introduction of

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

during broadcasts of matches, as well as comprehensive previews and reviews of games. In 2005, Beitzel rejoined 3AW as a semi-regular contributor to

Rex Hunt Rex James Hunt (born 7 March 1949) is an Australian television and radio personality, and a former Australian rules football player. He was also a veteran Australian rules football commentator known for his habit of making up quirky nicknames ...

's pre-match show. For some years, Beitzel has filed his Footy Week section each week with the ''Melbourne Observer'' newspaper.

International rules football

Beitzel is also credited with pioneering the development of the composite rules sport

International rules football International rules football ( ga, Peil na rialacha idirnáisiunta; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed ...

. He drew inspiration from watching the 1966 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final on television, and in 1967 sent an Australian side – "The

Galah The galah (; ''Eolophus roseicapilla''), also known as the pink and grey cockatoo or rose-breasted cockatoo, is the only species within genus ''Eolophus'' of the cockatoo family. Found throughout Australia, it is among the most common of the c ...

s" – to play the game against an Irish side. He followed this the next year with The Australian Football World Tour, a six-match series with games played against Irish teams in Ireland, the UK and the United States. The 1968 Galahs also played exhibition matches of Australian rules throughout the tour, including a game in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Honours and recognition

In 2000, Beitzel was inducted into the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

's Media Hall of Fame. In 2006, he 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 ...

as a media inductee.

Imprisonment

Beitzel became the face for "English soccer pools" in Australia. In October 1994, Beitzel was sentenced to 18 months jail, with a minimum of eight months to be served, after pleading guilty to obtaining financial advantage by deception over matters related to his work for a lottery organisation. Beitzel's downfall was that he introduced lottery winners to a fraudulent financial advisor who took all their money. He served his sentence initially at

Pentridge Prison HM Prison Pentridge was an Australian prison that was first established in 1851 in Coburg, Victoria. The first prisoners arrived in 1851. The prison officially closed on 1 May 1997. Pentridge was often referred to as the "Bluestone College", " ...

and then at the open, minimum-security Morwell River Prison Farm. Beitzel strenuously denied that he had ever intentionally committed a crime.

Personal life

The son of former and player Arnold Beitzel. Beitzel had three daughters and a son. As of 2014 he lived in Sydney with his second wife, Karolyn. Beitzel had been ill since 2014, after losing sight in one eye and suffering a fall, he also had heart problems. He died on 13 August 2017, aged 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beitzel, Harry 1927 births 2017 deaths 3AW presenters Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian sports journalists Australian rules football commentators Australian Football League umpires International rules football Australian television presenters People convicted of fraud Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Radio personalities from Melbourne People from Fitzroy, Victoria People educated at University High School, Melbourne