Jimmy Bates

Jimmy E Bates
Personal information
Date of birth 25 June 1910(1910-06-25)
Date of death 6 October 2009(2009-10-06) (aged 99)
Original team Nathalia
Position(s) Wing
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1933 Essendon 1(0)
1 Playing statistics to end of 1933 season .

Jimmy E. Bates (25 June 1910 – 6 October 2009) was an Australian rules footballer for the Essendon Football Club in the Victorian Football League.

Bates played just one game in the VFL. Recruited to the Essendon seconds from Nathalia, Bates filled in as a wingman replacing Tom Clarke who was ill with the flu, and played his only league game on 6 May 1933, against St Kilda at Windy Hill. In Bates' own words: "I played one game, had one kick and got paid three quid."[1] Unhappy with his performance, Bates retired from football immediately after the game, and returned to his favoured sport of competitive running, winning the Keilor Gift in 1939.[2]

Before his death on 6 October 2009, Bates was the oldest surviving VFL/AFL player.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Oberhardt, Mark: Your sport questions answered, The Courier-Mail, 22 July 2007.
  2. ^ BATES, Jimmy E., Essendon Football Club.

External links