Reg Hall

Reg Hall
Personal information
Full name Reginald Harry Hall
Nickname(s) Nippy number 2
Date of birth (1932-03-20)20 March 1932
Date of death 6 August 2013(2013-08-06)
Height / weight 166 cm / 64 kg
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1953–1955 Richmond 26 (6)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1955.

Reg Hall (20 March 1932 – 6 August 2013) was a former Australian rules footballer who played with Richmond in the Victorian Football League (VFL). And for East Perth in Western Australian Football League (WAFL) [1]

Reg Hall was born on March 20, 1932 in East Perth, to parents James Arthur Hall and Jessie Owens. He was the last child to be born in this family of 6 living children… and whose father, was a war hero. Arthur, as his dad liked to be known, was in the 11th Battalion – the one depicted in the famous photo on the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt - and which united with the 9th and 10th battalions that landed in Anzac Cove at 4:30 in the morning of April 25, 1915. And then later….was sent to fight in France near Belgium.

Interestingly, the Motto of the 11th Battalion was “Deeds not Words” which perfectly describes Reg Hall

When Reg was born that day, some notable and historical things were taking place at the same time. Phar Lap’s race and his mind boggling win of the Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico - North America’s richest race at the time—had staggered and stunned American Racegoers. It took place on his birthday, which was a Sunday, and was splashed all over the news here the next day. And also, the daybefore he was born, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened, which provided a debate at home as to whether to perhaps name the new baby boy Sydney, instead of Reginald.

It was also the third year of the Great Depression and Australia like the rest of the world was doing it tough. But when you are a child – it’s your day-in day-out experiences that is your immediate reality and you make the most of what you have. Reg remembers there was always at least one really good roast meal a week- on a Sunday- and then his mother would make that stretch into a soup or a stew during the week. And he told me he or his brothers always brought someone home for dinner most days. There may not have been money for toys but there was plenty of imagination and places that boys would inevitably be drawn to, to make their fun. With his brothers and friends they would head down to a part of the Swan River called the Mucks, and would go crabbing off of the Little Bunbury bridge, known then to locals as the ‘Little Bunna’ which crossed the Burswood canal at Rivervale, and have fun kylieing for mullet to take home. As a family, the Halls would do trips to Dunsborough on the train, which he always talked about fondly and it’s where at a tender age he was taught to fish by his Dad and brother Arthur. One of his favourite memories was on cool nights or afternoons sitting with his mom Jessie- and sometimes his dad or other siblings- with his feet perched on the open oven door to get warm and warming his hands on a cup of tea as they had a chat.

As the great depression came to an end - it of course was unfortunately followed by World War II. He was 7 years old and known as ‘little Reggie’ to his family he was spoiled and loved and always had someone that wanted to take him under their wing to show him off or teach him things. Playing with other kids in the area was another fond memory.

Games of Cricket were had in the street - using rubbish bins as wickets; and football play happened only when you knew someone who was lucky enough to afford a ball. When you didn’t have a footy, you made one out of rolled and squashed up paper and string.

Reggie’s natural born gift of great hand eye coordination and his litheness when it came to outrunning his friends… meant it was easy to see that he would follow in the footsteps of others in his family and be good at sports.

Being the youngest, Reg’s oldest brother Arthur was 17 years his senior… and it was Arthur who first saw Reggie’s sporting potential and encouraged him to try all the sports that he himself was involved in. So Reg played cricket, baseball, and football and was good at all of them, particularly football and cricket. In only his second year in high school, he was made captain of the cricket team. He tried his hand at boxing at the local police boys club - and at boxing camps at Pemberton. And of course there was football. At the age of 16 he was playing footy for Police Boys on a Saturday; ‘A’ grade Baseball on a Sunday; and cricket in the summer -for North Perth. He could boast that he once scored a century against University, with the main victim of his fabulous batting - Billy Sneddon- a one time Prime Ministerial aspirant….but it wasn’t in Reg’s nature to be boastful. He left school at this stage, and began working at Taylors Sports in London Court.

When he was about 18, football became a more serious passion in his life and he began playing for Central Districts. Reg’s uncle, George ‘Staunch’ Owens - happened to be the 2ndSandover Medalist for the WAFL, winning that honour in 1925 and was later inducted into the WAFL Hall of Fame and Hall of Champions. So genetics for success were high-on odds.

While playing for the Metropolitan Juniors in 1951 – Reg won the competition’s distinguished Best and Fairest 'Caris Brothers Medal'


The next season he played one game for the East Perth reserves in 1952 that would tie him to the Royals. Winning the Caris Bros Medal however brought him to the attention of football scouts in the east and this led to Reg being only the second person to be drafted to the VFL as a junior when the Richmond FC came calling.

So at nineteen, he packed his bags and moved to Melbourne, travelling by train with his mom who helped to settle him in. He applied for a clearance which was approved by East Perth, but the application was stone walled at the WANFL, who had adopted a ‘no clearance’ policy for young players wanting to play in Victoria. It meant he had to stand out of football for 1952 to gain clearance, and bided his time playing for Sunday League club West Melbourne to keep match fit. Eventually the clearance came and Reg debuted for the Tigers as a wing against Collingwood. Reg was a fast, smooth running left footer with an excellent kick, and still had the goods in him to land some good kicks and marks when James and Ryan started their football and practised with him and Neil, I can tell you! He played for three seasons for the Tigers before returning home to East Perth. It was a good time to return, Jack Sheedy had just been appointed coach of East Perth, and 1956 was to be the beginning of another successful era for the Royals and Reg became an integral part of what was to develop into an outstanding football side, but he unfortunately pulled a hamstring on the Thursday night before the grand final- and this robbed him of a premiership medal for that year. All in all he played with the Royals for 5 seasons from 1956 – 1960 playing for two premiership sides in 1958 and 1959. He played and was valued alongside greats such as Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer, John K Watts, Kevin McGill, Pauly Seal, Brian Ray, Jack Sheedy, Tom Everett, Tony Bellos, Bevan Byrne and others. His last game for East Perth was in the grand final on October 8th1960, where East Perth lost to West Perth, but the loss wasn’t a big blow to Reg as he was enjoying the euphoria of welcoming his first child Derek into the world with his wife Wanda just two days before the game. They then had two more children, Neil in 1962 and Joanna in 1966.

Reg’s occupation was as a racquet stringer and this eventually led to him opening a sporting goods store in Osborne Park in 1976 that specialised in racquet sports. It was called Reg Hall’s Racketworld and was an institution. Anyone who needed stringing or some good equipment with a great old fashioned chat and bad joke to go with it -went to see Reg. He eventually would be known as just Reg, and people would tell their friends to “go and see Reg, he’ll sort you out”. But the irony of this is that Racket world became known as the best in the business for all things racquet related…and of all Reggie’s fabulous sporting ability, and all the sports he was great at—no Hall family member ever saw him hit a tennis ball!

He was also a fabulous golfer and was captain and club champion of his golfing club for 13 years.

He was a friend to all and this included the many sporting company representatives that he dealt with over the years – some indeed becoming treasured friends.

Reg ran this business in the old fashioned way -without much computer assistance until just before his 80th birthday in 2012. It was then he was discovered to have a rare heart condition that left him with just months to live. Sad to see the business go, but knowing it was in good hands meant that he could finally retire. But loving his work and loving the people that it sent his way meant he’d never wanted to retire. And now that his health had made that decision for him, the dreaded disease had left him not fully able to embrace all the wonderful things that retirement can offer.

Reggie might have been famous for a lot of things the public knew about -but he was famous with us his family for his tenderness, gentle nature, his loyalty and his superior generosity. He loved his family more than anything and was a rare and true gentleman.

References

  1. ↑ Holmesby, Russell; Main, Jim (2014). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: every AFL/VFL player since 1897 (10th ed.). Seaford, Victoria: BAS Publishing. p. 355. ISBN 978-1-921496-32-5.
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