George Coulthard, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

George Coulthard

Australian sportsman

Date of Birth: 01-Aug-1856

Place of Birth: Camberwell, Victoria, Australia

Date of Death: 22-Oct-1883

Profession: cricket umpire, cricketer, Australian rules footballer

Nationality: Australia

Zodiac Sign: Leo


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About George Coulthard

  • George Coulthard (1 August 1856 – 22 October 1883) was an Australian cricketer and Australian rules footballer. Born and raised on a farm outside Melbourne, Victoria, Coulthard led the Carlton Football Club to premiership success in the fledgling Victorian Football Association (VFA), and was a key member of the Victorian side that dominated the first intercolonial matches.
  • A fast, versatile and highly skilled footballer, Coulthard was, in the opinion of many of his contemporaries, the greatest player yet seen in the Australian game.
  • However, his football career ended in controversy in 1882 when he received a season-long suspension—then the most severe punishment ever handed down by the VFA—for brawling and using "bad language" during play.
  • Recognised today as the game's "first bona fide superstar", he was an inaugural inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.As a professional cricketer, he played at club level for Melbourne, represented Victoria in five first-class intercolonial matches, and made one Test appearance for Australia, against England in 1882.
  • He also umpired some of the earliest Tests, and is perhaps best known in cricket for triggering the sport's first international riot when he dismissed New South Wales batsman Billy Murdoch during an 1879 match in Sydney against Lord Harris' English team.
  • Coulthard was co-officiating the game with Edmund Barton, later the first Prime Minister of Australia. Coulthard's sporting exploits made him a household name throughout the Australian colonies.
  • Off the field, he ran a tobacco and sporting goods store in Lygon Street, Carlton, and was involved in several notable events: he survived a shark attack in Sydney Harbour, fought bare-knuckle boxing champion Jem "The Gypsy" Mace, and, based on a dream he allegedly had, convinced thousands of punters to back a horse with long odds in the Melbourne Cup (the horse finished close to last).
  • Coulthard is also credited with being Australian football's first "man in white", for he umpired an 1880 match in the now-traditional all-white uniform to stand out from the players.
  • He died of tuberculosis, aged 27, after suffering from the illness for over a year.
  • He was survived by his wife and baby daughter.

Read more at Wikipedia

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