Teddy Rankin Explained

Teddy Rankin
Fullname:Edwin Walter Rankin[1]
Birth Date:11 March 1872
Birth Place:Geelong, Victoria
Death Place:Geelong, Victoria
Originalteam:Riversdale (GDFA)
Height:178 cm
Weight:74 kg
Statsend:1910
Years1:1891–1896
Club1:Geelong (VFA)
Games Goals1:88 (14)
Years2:1897–1910
Club2:Geelong (VFL)
Games Goals2:180 (35)
Games Goalstotal:268 (49)

Edwin Walter "Teddy" Rankin (11 March 1872 – 31 July 1944) was an Australian rules footballer, originally with Riversdale, who began playing with Geelong in the VFA in 1891, and later played in the Victorian Football League (VFL).[2]

Family

The son of Walter Rankin (1849–1930), and Sarah Rankin, née Austin, Edwin Walter Rankin was born in Geelong, Victoria on 11 March 1872.

Brothers

Two of his brothers played for Geelong Football Club:[3] Tom Rankin (1881–1958), 47 games (1904–1906), and Samuel John Rankin (1872–1958) (who was never selected in the VFL team's First XVIII).

Spouses

Rankin married Louisa Jane Johns in 1892, which lasted until her death in 1906. He married Adelaide Isabel Hyde (1885–1971) in 1909.

Children

Two of his sons from his first marriage, Bert Rankin (1893–1971) and Cliff Rankin (1896–1975), were captains of the Geelong Football Club (1925–1927 and 1923 respectively); and both were selected to play for Victoria in 1923.

A son from his second marriage, Doug Rankin (1915–1987), also had a brief but successful career with the club, playing just nine senior games in two seasons (1938–1939).[4]

Grandchildren and great-grandchildren

The O'DonnellsEileen O'Donnell (née Rankin) was the daughter of Teddy and Adelaide Rankin and the sister of Bert, Cliff and Doug Rankin. In April 1937, Eileen married Leo O'Donnell, and they moved into Anderson Street, East Geelong. Eileen and Leo had two sons, Ian and Graeme O'Donnell. Graeme played for Geelong and North Melbourne during 1960s. He was also the father of both Gary O'Donnell and Shelley O'Donnell. Gary played for Essendon between 1987 and 1998 and Shelley is a former Australia netball international.[5] [6] [7]
  • Georgie RankinGeorgie Rankin, an AFL Women's player with Geelong is the great-granddaughter of Teddy Rankin.[8] [9]

    • Football

    Described as a skilful rover, who ran with a stoop,[10] and was noted for his football nous, accurate kicking and stamina,[11] [12] Rankin was recruited from the Riversdale Football Club in the Geelong and District Football Association (GDFA) by the Geelong VFA team in 1891.[13]

    He played his first match for Geelong's senior team was against South Melbourne on 27 June 1891,[14] when he replaced injured wingman Charlie Wheatland in the selected side.[15] He was one of Geelong's best players.[16]

    After 88 games in the VFA, Rankin was a member of the inaugural Geelong VFL side that played Essendon on Saturday, 8 May 1897.[17] His career spanned 20 seasons of football for Geelong, and during the VFL part of it (1897, 1899–1910), he played 180 games, being captain for 15.[2] He missed the 1898 season due to typhoid, but returned to the side in the next year and appeared in every season until his retirement, though by then in the backline.[18]

    Rankin retired during the 1910 season at the age of 38, with his career total of 268 games remaining a club record until it was broken by John "Sam" Newman in Round 4 of 1979. [19] [20] At the time, Rankin's 268 games was also second in elite Victorian football behind his longtime Geelong teammate Peter Burns (305 games, 216 in the VFA and 89 in the VFL), and fourth in elite Australian rules football behind the South Australian Jack "Dinny" Reedman (319 games), David "Dolly" Christy (317, 132 in the VFA and 185 in the WAFL, would pass Reedman later that year and retire during 1912 with 345 games), and Burns.

    Rankin represented Victoria three times, and in 1903, won the Geelong Best and Fairest award, as well as becoming the first Geelong player to reach 100 VFL games in the Second Semi-Final.

    During his prime, Rankin declined offers to transfer to a number of other clubs. He was an advocate of amateurism, arguing against the emerging practice of player payments.[21]

    1899 team of "champions"

    At the end of the 1899 season, in the process of naming his own "champion player", the football correspondent for The Argus, Reginald Wilmot ("Old Boy"), selected a team of the best players of the 1899 VFL competition:

    From those he considered to be the three best players — that is, Condon, Hickey, and Pleass — Wilmot selected Pat Hickey as his "champion player" of the season.[22]

    Touching the ball on the ground

    Many credit Rankin with being the first player in the league to touch the ball on the ground, rather than bouncing it.[23]

    Although many modern accounts situate the event in the 1890s, it seems certain that, on the (1925) account of Gerald Brosnan, a former Geelong (VFA) team-mate or Rankin, it happened during the time that Brosnan was playing for Fitzroy (viz., 1900–1909), that it happened at the Brunswick Street Oval, that it took place on an extremely wet day (the playing conditions on the Brunswick Street Oval were notoriously bad on wet days due to the slush and mud that ran from one end of the ground to the other), and that Jim D'Helin was the umpire:

    By the way, Ted was instrumental in having the clause regarding wet day bouncing inserted in the rules. Playing against us at Fitzroy on a very wet day, when it was impossible to bounce the ball, Ted conceived the brilliant idea of running 10 yards, stooping down and touching the ground with the ball, and going on. He got only the first 10 yards, however, for [James Otto] Jimmy D'Helin, who, I think, was the umpire, free-kicked him, though undoubtedly he was wrong in doing so. I'll never forget Ted's look when he found himself penalised for his clever idea. (The Geelong Advertiser, 16 October 1925)[10]

    After football

    After football, Rankin was caretaker at the Corio Oval for about eight years, until he was replaced by Arthur Rayson c.1924.[24]

    He was employed as the head groundsman at the Geelong College from 1904 to 1941, and as the Principal's gardener from 1941 to 1944. He also coached the college's First XVIII from 1905 to 1921.[25]

    Death

    He died, in a private Geelong hospital, on 31 July 1944.[26] [27] [28]

    Honours

    See also

    References

    External links

    Notes and References

    1. News: Obituary Mr Edwin Rankin. . . Melbourne . 1 August 1944 . 14 May 2015 . 5 . National Library of Australia.
    2. Web site: R-Z - geelongcats.com.au . www.geelongcats.com.au . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052803/http://www.geelongcats.com.au/club/history/every-player/r-z. . 2016-03-04.
    3. J. and J. McDonald, Three William McDonalds, Canberra, 2010, pp. 92-94; http://www.geelongcats.com.au/club/history/every-player/r-z.
    4. http://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=631235&c=WW2#R World War Two Service Record: Sapper Edwin Douglas Rankin (V63732), Department of Veterans' Affairs.
    5. Web site: King-sized satisfaction as Rams reach the peak at last. www.theage.com.au. 7 April 2008. 23 January 2021.
    6. Web site: Parliament of Victoria – Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). www.parliament.vic.gov.au. 23 March 2011. 23 January 2021.
    7. J. Ross (ed.), 100 Years of Australian Football, Ringwood, 1996, pp. 339,352; M. Maplestone, Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club, 1872–1996, Melbourne, 1996, pp. 561.
    8. Web site: Georgie Rankin. www.geelongcats.com.au. 26 January 2021.
    9. Web site: McWilliams . Phoebe . Phoebe McWilliams . Georgie continues 'powerful' Rankin dynasty . geelongcats.com.au . Geelong Football Club . 3 March 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190204174521/http://www.geelongcats.com.au/news/2018-11-29/georgie-continues-powerful-rankin-dynasty . 4 February 2019 . 29 November 2018 . live.
    10. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/207869396 Geelong Footballers: Echo of Early Days: Ted Rankin as Rover, The Geelong Advertiser, (Friday, 16 October 1925), p.1.
    11. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/166015240? Geelong Football Family, The Geelong Advertiser, (Friday, 3 August 1923), p.6.
    12. Ross (1996), p. 44.
    13. An April 1891 newspaper report of a match between Chillwell Magics and Riversdale noted that "the play of Rankin for Riversdale was greatly admired throughout the game". (Football, The Geelong Advertiser, (Monday, 27 April 1891), p.3).
    14. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241546696 Football Gossip: South Melbourne v. Geelong, The Herald, (Friday, 26 June 1891), p.3.
    15. "Rankin filled [Wheatland's] place with credit": Football, The Sportsman, (Tuesday, 30 June 1891), p.6.
    16. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/190631555/18424705 South Melbourne v. Geelong, The Age, (Monday, 29 June 1891), p.6
    17. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9190321 Geelong's Inexperience, The Argus, (Monday, 10 May 1897), p.5
    18. Ross (1996), p.41.
    19. For many years, it was believed Rankin's games total was 241 due to incomplete records, and this total was passed by Reg Hickey in Round 18 of 1939: Hickey was taken to be the club record holder on that basis until Round 20 of 1971, when Bill Goggin passed him, with Newman subsequently passing Goggin in Round 20 of 1977, though Hickey and Goggin both held the club record for most games played in the VFL/AFL.
    20. The Age, 9 August 1939, p. 6; Sporting Globe, 12 August 1939, p. 6.
    21. Geelong Advertiser, 4 October 1924, p. 4.
    22. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9030781 'Old Boy', "Football: A Review of the Season", (Monday, 18 September 1899), p. 6.
    23. Others credit West Adelaide (1898–1902) and Carlton (1903–1913) wingman George Bruce:
      "George Bruce, of Carlton, was the first player to introduce the tricky dodge of bending down, touching the ball on the ground, and then shooting past the man playing against him. Many have imitated him, but none has equalled him in this move." (Play and Players, The Herald, (Friday, 1 August 1913), p.3.)
    24. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/185067996 Success of Geelong Seconds: Players Who Have Made Good: Born Footballer, The Sporting Globe, (Saturday, 26 July 1924), p.7.
    25. http://gnet.geelongcollege.vic.edu.au:8080/wiki/RANKIN-Edwin-Teddy-1872-1944.ashx Edwin "Teddy" Rankin (1872-1944), Heritage Guide to The Geelong College, geelongcollege.vic.edu.au".
    26. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11354541 Deaths: Rankin, The Argus, (Tuesday, 1 August 1944), p.2.
    27. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11354630 Obituary: Mr Edwin Rankin, The Argus, (Tuesday 1 August 1944), p.5
    28. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11354867 Late Mr Edwin Rankin, The Argus, (Thursday 3 August 1944), p.3.
    29. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/206470266 College Gates as Memorial. The Age, Monday, 12 October 1953), p.2.
    30. http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/community/display/100473-edward-%60teddy%60-rankin Edward "Teddy" Rankin, Monument Australia.
    31. https://www.geelongcats.com.au/news/2018-08-17/hall-of-fame-cats-honour-club-greats Oates, Stacey, "Hall of Fame: Cats Honour Club Greats, geelongcats.com.au, 17 August 2018.

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