Lou Richards


Lewis Thomas Charles "Lou" Richards, was an Australian rules footballer who played 250 games for the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League between 1941 and 1955. He captained the team from 1952–55, including a premiership win in 1953. He later became a hotel manager and a highly prominent sports journalist, in print, radio and television, and was known for his wit and vivacity.

Playing career

Born in Collingwood, Victoria, Richards' passion for Collingwood grew out of family connections – he followed in the footsteps of his grandfather Charlie Pannam, and uncles Charles and Alby Pannam, both 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 as a rover, resting in the forward pocket.
He was captain of the club for four years, including Collingwood's 1953 premiership team.

Post-playing career

After his retirement from football, Richards managed a number of Melbourne hotels, including the well-known Phoenix Hotel in Flinders Street, whose regular customers included journalists from the nearby Herald and Weekly Times.
Richards also had 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, the latter on Channel 7 with his great mates Jack Dyer and Bob Davis. 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.
His radio career commenced just after his retirement in 1955, when he teamed up with Jack Dyer as 3XY's commentary team. In 1959 he transferred to 3DB where, as well as being a football commentator, he participated in sports panels and for four years teamed up with well-known DB personality Dick Cranbourne to host the station's breakfast program.
As a football tipster, Richards was known as a Kiss of Death and regularly backed-up his tips with famous dares: "I'll cut Teddy Whitten's lawn with nail scissors" or "I'll jump off St Kilda pier."
In 1972, Richards was appointed Court Jester to King of Moomba Johnny Farnham and was the King of Moomba himself in 1981.
In 1989, he released a memoir, The Kiss of Death: Memoirs of a Sporting Legend; an updated version was released in 2012, entitled Lou: My Wonderful Life.
At the end of 2008, Richards retired from hosting the handball segment on the Sunday Footy Show, and subsequently made only occasional public appearances.

Honours

Richards was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1981, received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000, and was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001. In 1996 Richards was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame and in 2004, he was named as the captain of the Greek Team of the Century, due to his Greek heritage. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2008.

Personal life

Richards married Edna Lillian Bowie in 1948; the couple had two daughters. Edna was admitted into care with dementia in 2005. She died, aged 87, in March 2008.
On 8 May 2017, Richards died at his nursing home in the Melbourne suburb of Windsor at the age of 94. The Richards family accepted the Victorian Government's offer of a state funeral, which took place at St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral on 17 May 2017.