H. C. A. Harrison
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Henry Colden Antill Harrison (16 October 1836 – 2 September 1929) was a notable early Australian rules football player and administrator. He was named Champion of the Colony (the forerunner of the Brownlow Medal) five times between 1862 and 1869.
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[edit] Early life and work
Harrison was the son of John Harrison, a sea-captain who became a grazier, was born at Picton, New South Wales. About the end of 1837 his father decided to go to the Port Phillip District, and took up land on the Plenty River about 20 miles (32 km)from Melbourne. Some years later a move was made to about the present site of St Arnaud. About the end of 1850 Harrison's father, being broken in health, removed to Melbourne. His son had already been sent at the beginning of the year to the Diocesan Grammar School, the forerunner of the Melbourne Grammar School. After a short experience on the gold-diggings, the boy entered the Victorian customs department at the end of 1853, and remained in it for 35 years. He was transferred to the titles office in 1888 and afterwards became registrar of titles. He retired on a pension in 1900 and died at Kew, a suburb of Melbourne, on 2 September 1929, having nearly reached the great age of 93. He married his cousin Emily Wills in 1864 and was survived by four daughters. His autobiography, The Story of an Athlete, was published in 1923.
[edit] Athlete
Harrison did not discover he was a good runner until he was 22 years of age, but soon afterwards he became the finest amateur runner of his period, and his matches against L. L. Mount of Ballarat caused much public interest. He does not appear to have been a first-rate sprinter, his time in the hundred was usually about four yards over evens. His 440 yards (400 metres), on a grass track of the period, in 50¼ seconds was, however, a fine performance.
[edit] Football
He had already been known for some time as a cricketer and footballer, with his cousin Tom Wills he had arranged a game of football in 1856. Some 10 years later he drafted a set of rules which were adopted at a meeting of delegates from the existing Melbourne football clubs held on 8 May 1866. These rules have since been modified and extended, but the essential difference between the Australian and the present Rugby and Association games was provided for from the beginning. Rule 8 read: "The ball may be taken in hand at any time, but not carried further than is necessary for a kick, and no player shall run with the ball unless he strikes it against the ground every five or six yards." Harrison was successively captain of the Richmond, Melbourne and Geelong clubs, and then of Melbourne again. He retired from football in 1872 at the age of 36. He once stated that he considered that the reason of his being able to stay so long was that he did not begin his athletic career until he was over 20.
He was elected a member of the committee of the Melbourne Cricket Club in 1871, and was a vice-president from 1892 until his death. When the Victorian Football Association was formed in 1877 he was elected vice-president, and in 1905 he was chairman of the first Australian Football Council. He was a handsome, well-built man of slightly under six feet, everywhere held in the highest esteem. He was always recognized as the "father of the Australian game of football" which has become the most popular game of its kind in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, but is only played to a limited extent in New South Wales and Queensland. The above text is from the D.A.B. reference listed below.
[edit] Alternate view of role in founding rules
Although Harrison was an early member of the pioneering Melbourne Football Club — and he and Wills were named much later as the joint official "Fathers" of the game — Harrison's role in developing the code has often been overstated. Contrary to some accounts, he was not involved in writing the Melbourne rules of 1859. Harrison led the committee which drafted the Melbourne rules of 1866, but he did not devise the requirement to bounce the ball while running, which was the major innovation of the 1866 rules[citation needed].
Following his retirement, he was president of the Melbourne Football Club from 1897 to 1906.
The H.C. Harrison Medal (awarded to the best player in Division 2 at the AFL U18 National Championships) is widely thought to be named in his honour (however it is named after longtime NTFL administrator Hunter C. Harrison).
A building, "Harrison House" in Spring Street, Melbourne, was named after him. It was purchased by the VFL in the 1920s to become their new headquarters[1], but later sold and demolished in the 1980s despite appeals from various heritage organisations of its historical significance.
[edit] Reference
- Serle, Percival. (1949). "Harrison, Henry Colden Antill". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
[edit] External links
- This article incorporates text from the public domain 1949 edition of Dictionary of Australian Biography from
Project Gutenberg of Australia, which is in the public domain in Australia and the United States of America.
