Collingwood President Eddie McGuire, 1958 premiership captain Murray Weideman and football-slash-television stars Sam Newman, Garry Lyon and Billy Brownless led a panel discussion with MC Stephen Phillips, reflecting on the life and times of the 89-year-old affectionately known to all as ‘Louie the Lip’.
Over more than half a century, Lou Richards has made an immense contribution to the game of Australian Rules Football.
Lou: My Wonderful Life captures Richards’s journey from knockabout kid reared in the backstreets of Melbourne’s toughest working-class suburbs, to Collingwood premiership captain in 1953, followed by a successful post-football multi-media career.
First introduced to Collingwood by his Uncle Alby Pannam in 1940 and inspired by legendary coach Jock McHale, Lou Richards played 250 games for the black-and-white over 15 seasons, kicking 452 goals. Captain for four years, Richards was a gifted rover, renowned for his courage and tenacity; attributes that saw him represent Victoria in 1947 and 1948.
An inspiration on the field, Lou: My Wonderful Life also captures Richards’s transition into the media following his retirement in 1955. Over five decades ‘Louie the Lip’, as he is affectionately known, forged a successful career in newspapers and television, most notably in the Sun newspaper, on World of Sport, The Footy Show and The Sunday Footy Show.
Honoured for his services to sport with an MBE in 1982 and inducted in the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996, Lou Richards is one of the game’s all-time greats and his story is fully documented in Lou: My Wonderful Life.
An updated version of the 1989 bestseller The Kiss of Death: Memoirs of a Sporting Legend, this new edition contains a foreword by Collingwood president Eddie McGuire and 16 new pages of photographs from the Richards’s family archives. Written in collaboration with accomplished sports journalist Stephen Phillips—who met Lou Richards on his first day as a cadet reporter on the Sun in 1970—Lou: My Wonderful Life offers a new insight into the life of one of football’s greatest legends.
Lou: My Wonderful Life by Lou Richards with Stephen Phillips is available at the Collingwood Superstore at the Westpac Centre, and can be ordered by calling 03 8412 0026.
Collingwoodfc.com.au has published a photo gallery from the launch. All photos are courtesy of Shane Barrie, a photographer and Collingwood member.
Lou Richards is joined by his 1953 premiership teammate Murray Weideman and Collingwood President Eddie McGuire.
Lou Richards and Murray Weideman.
Murray Weideman and 1953 premiership teammate Ron Richards, Lou's younger brother.
No matter where he goes, Lou always has an audience.
