To celebrate the life of Lou Richards, Collingwood Media has compiled an archive of quotes that help tell his story in his own words.

Growing up in Melbourne during the 1920s…
“Sport was a matter of survival in those days. You might win on the field but you rarely escaped unscathed.”

His football development in the sub-district competition…
“It was the toughest football I ever played and it still makes me wince to think about it. To make matters worse, I fancied myself as a good player and had no worries about telling anyone within earshot.”

Never underestimate the AFL’s power…
“Believe it or not, I'm told the AFL has arranged to put Christmas Day back a week if the Qualifying Final is another draw. I knew the league was powerful, but boy!”

Premiership success in 1953…
“We felt that if we could beat them (Geelong) down on their own ground we could beat them at any time.”

“I won’t need the luck, Fred. You’ll need it. Anyone who comes near us today will get their head kicked over the grandstand,” (As said to Geelong captain Fred Flanagan).

The thrill of Grand Final day…
“You run down the race and the crowd around you yell. Then you brace against the streamers, they hold you for a second, then you’re through, and the roar you heard on the way down doesn’t count against the roar from them all as you step on to the field. Those streamers remind me of breaking through the sound barrier.”



Captaincy…
“I said to my brother, when it comes to the nominations for the captaincy, you nominate me. So Ronnie nominated me for captain and there was deathly silence in the room, and no one seconded it. I didn’t become captain that year! But I made it my business that I would do a bit of PR for myself the next year and I became captain.”

This is what happens when Richmond doesn’t visit Victoria Park for several years…
“There's a chance the players will forget and go to the MCG by mistake."

On John Wren…
“I walked past Wren, and Jock McHale said ‘Great game, young Richards’ – it wouldn’t matter if you were 45, he’d still call you young Richards – and Wren said ‘Good game, son, good game,’ and I thought, Oh, this is it, this could be something coming my way. I went back to my locker, which in those days was just a nail on the wall. I had seven showers that night, walking past John Wren, but he never noticed me!”

On retirement…
“It was the end of 15 years at the club, 15 of the happiest years of my life. When you are running around in front of 25,000 to 30,000 people, naturally you get a tear in your eye.”

A 178-point win over St Kilda in 1979…
“It was the most one-sided football match I have ever seen. I will simply add that I have never seen a worse performance by a St Kilda side and I have seen the Saints put in some shockers over the years. It was horrible, ugly, awful...except for Collingwood supporters who savoured every excruciating minute of the debacle.”

Meeting a legend…
“It (meeting Muhammad Ali) was the greatest thrill of my life.”

Essendon prepares to play Collingwood in the 1990 Semi-Final after having three weeks without a game…
“As soon as the ball is bounced, I reckon 18 of them (Essendon players) will try and eat it, that's how hungry they will be."”

Glory in 1990…
“Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust, The Colliwobbles are buried, And once again - it's them against us.”

On his love for wife, Edna…
“I never heard her say a bad word against someone. She would think the world of people I didn't think much of. She saw the best in everyone. It was a great partnership. We understood each other.”



Advice for young footballers in the 1990s…
“It doesn’t last forever, and whatever they make out of football, they should store away. Whether they want to go into business later on or buy a lovely home and have a nice bank to invest in… but I can’t stress upon the kids playing today, it doesn’t last forever.”

In the commentary box…

The ’77 draw…
“The kick by Picken ... there’s a mark here ... to someone ... It’s ‘Twiggy’ Dunne who’s got it. By golly, it could be a drawn game.”

Lethal Leigh breaks the post…
"Talk about a he-man!”

Country footy…
“They couldn't beat the Manangatang thirds!”

And a few nicknames to boot…
Richards coined the famous nicknames of the following stars of the 1970s and 1980s:

- Lethal (Leigh Matthews)
- The Flying Doormat (Bruce Doull)
- The Macedonian Marvel (Peter Daicos)
- Superboot (Bernie Quinlan)
- Hungry (Kevin Bartlett)
- The Galloping Gasometer (Mick Nolan)

What they say about Lou…

As we reflect on the life and times of of Lou Richards, Collingwood Media has filed a list of words used by those who knew him well.

“He invented football as entertainment. Millions of fans, for more than 50 years, loved and laughed about their football because of him. Has any man in football history done more for the game? A champion on the field, Lou Richards became a superstar off it. No one person can claim to have done more for the game, or for Collingwood, than Lou Richards,” – Eddie McGuire.

“He was always firing you up, telling you to get up if you were hurt and urging you on from start to finish,” – Thorold Merrett.

“He was a trailblazer, a trendsetter. He started it for all of us, there's no doubt about that,” – Sam Newman.



“Lou was the best captain I ever played under,” – Des Healey.

“I grew up in Kyabram and Lou Richards was the biggest thing in life – in the paper, on the radio – he was the king," – Garry Lyon.

“Lou Richards has had a profound and enduring influence on our code, both with a football in his hands and also, at the end of his playing career, with a microphone and a pen,” – Mike Fitzpatrick.

“Not many people can claim to have been crowned ‘King’, honoured by the Queen and classified as a living treasure by the National Trust, all in the space of a year. Pretty heady stuff for a knockabout kid reared in the back streets of one of Melbourne’s toughest working-class suburbs. Those three honours emphasise just how important Lou Richards has become to the people of Melbourne,” – Stephen Phillips.

“We wondered how Liz
Could choose for our Lou
A gong to which he could really aspire.
We were all in a tizz
Till we finally knew
He’s the Mouth of the British Empire,” – A Sun reader in 1982.

“Louie was a terrific captain, always giving you lots of encouragement,” – Neil Mann.

“Lou was a giant figure in our game for more than 50 years,” – Andrew Demetriou.

“I’m honoured to have met the man. I’m wearing his old number. There are lots of players who have worn the No. 1 and Lou’s probably at the top of them. It’s a real honour to meet him and to have had a good laugh at him, because he’s got a great sense of humour,” – Alex Fasolo (No. 1: 2012-current).

“Let’s forget the red tape, the percentage quotas and the debate surrounding his eligibility, let's just make Lou Richards a Hall of Fame legend right now,” – Glenn McFarlane.

“He was the first person who crossed all boundaries in football. He was an entertainer, an ex-player, a businessman, he was radical, he was cheeky, he had the whole mix… I don’t think there’s been anyone bigger since,” – Mike Sheahan.

“If we lost the day before, I probably wouldn't even have been watching. If we'd won, I'd laugh at anything. He was marvellous at it. He was genuinely funny. With Jack Dyer and Bob Davis, they were unique as a trio,” – John Kennedy.

"Lou hasn't got any enemies but his friends don't like him," – Jack Dyer (in jest, of course!).

“And it came to pass that a great pestilence descended upon the ancient city of Melbourne, and none of its inhabitants were untouched,” – The opening line of League Teams, featuring Lou, Bob Davis and Jack Dyer.