Lou Richards
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| Personal Info | |
|---|---|
| Birth | March 15, 1923, Collingwood, Victoria |
| Recruited from |
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| Playing Career¹ | |
| Debut | 1941, Collingwood vs. , at |
| Team(s) | Collingwood (1941-55)
250 Games |
| ¹ Statistics to end of 1955 season | |
| Career Highlights | |
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Lewis Thomas Charles "Lou" Richards (born March 15, 1923) is a former Australian rules footballer, who played 250 games with the Collingwood Football Club between 1941 and 1955.
[edit] Playing career
Born in Collingwood, Victoria, Richards' passion for Collingwood grew out of family connections – he followed in the footsteps of his grand father Charlie H. Pannam (shortened from Pannamopolis after migrating to Australia from Greece), and uncles Albert, Charles jnr and Alby Pannam, all former Magpie players. His brother Ron Richards also played for the club. The Richards/Pannam dynasty made Collingwood the only club to have been captained by three generations of the one family. As a family they played over 1200 games between them.
Richards played in the front pocket position wearing the #1 guernsey. He was captain for four years. He captained Collingwood to the 1953 premiership, when the club had undergone its first ever flag ‘drought’ of 17 years.
[edit] Post-playing career
Once Richards retired from football he began managing Melbourne hotels of which the most famous was the Phoenix Hotel in Flinders Street. He also began a long career in the media, beginning as a sport journalist for The Argus and later the Sun News-Pictorial where he gained the nickname of 'Louie the Lip'. He was a very popular commentator on both radio and television with his great mate Jack Dyer.[1] He also appeared on the popular World of Sport program. In the 1990s and 2000s, he made regular appearances on both The Footy Show and the Sunday Footy Show. He is currently involved in handing out sponsor's prizes and continues to liven up the set with his classic humour and running of Lou's Handball, a handball game between two AFL players. Some running jokes on the show include his send up of Telefunken electronic products.
In 1996 Richards was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
In 2004, due to his Greek heritage, Lou Richards was named captain of the Greek Team of Century.
