18 Facts About Ray Gabelich

Raymond Thomas Gabelich was an Australian rules footballer who played with Collingwood in the Victorian Football League.

The son of John and Elizabeth Nina "Bessie" Gabelich, nee Rerecich, Raymond Thomas Gabelich was born in Perth on 3 July 1933.

Ray Gabelich married Glenda Beverley Huxtable on 5 September 1960; they had three children: Lisa, Raymond and Matthew.

Ray Gabelich was the team's captain in 1953, and he was selected in a West Australian representative team to play in Melbourne.

Ray Gabelich lodged numerous unsuccessful appeals against his prohibition from playing for West Perth.

Ray Gabelich came to Collingwood from Western Australia as a centre half-forward in 1954 too late to be listed; and, so, he continued to play football with Parkside Amateurs, a team that was coached by ex-Preston rover Les Ross, in the Victorian Amateur Football Association, for the remainder of the 1954: a season in which Parkside were C-Grade premiers, unbeaten throughout the entire season.

Ray Gabelich played at centre half-back in the Grand Final where Parkside 15.19 defeated Old Xaverians 8.12.

Ray Gabelich played for a Collingwood team, against South Fremantle, in July 1954.

Ray Gabelich played for Collingwood in its end-of-season match against Perth Football Club, who had won the 1955 West Australian Football League premiership team on the previous Saturday, in Perth, on 15 October 1955.

Ray Gabelich was selected in the First XVIII for the important last match of the season against St Kilda on 24 August 1957, and was one of Collingwood's best players in a losing team.

Ray Gabelich was runner-up in the 1959 Brownlow to St Kilda's Verdun Howell and South Melbourne's Bob Skilton, and he won the Copeland Trophy as Collingwood's best and fairest in 1960.

Ray Gabelich played as a back-pocket resting ruckman for the combined VFL and VFA team against the VAFA in the demonstration match of Australian rules football, during the Melbourne Olympic Games, on 7 December 1956.

In March 1960, Having played a number of games in Darwin, Ray Gabelich decided to temporarily abandon his plans to play with West Perth, and chose to play another season with Collingwood.

Now aged 28, Ray Gabelich returned to Collingwood in 1962, and he captained the club for the entire 1964 season and part of 1965.

Ray Gabelich is perhaps best known to those who never saw him play for the often-shown television footage of the remarkable goal he scored in the dying minutes of the 1964 Grand Final.

Ray Gabelich kicked two goals, one behind, and was one of Collingwood's best players:.

Ray Gabelich was reported twice in his 160-game, 13-season career with Collingwood.

The second was in the 23 June 1962 game against Fitzroy, when Ray Gabelich was charged with striking Fitzroy's Ron Harvey in the second quarter of the match.