Ronald Dale Barassi was an Australian rules footballer, coach and media personality.
42 Facts About Ron Barassi
1.
2.
Ron Barassi subsequently lived with Norm Smith, Melbourne's then-coach and a former teammate of his father.
3.
Under Smith's mentorship, Ron Barassi pioneered the ruck-rover position and appeared in six premiership-winning sides, two of which he captained.
4.
In 1964, in what has been called "the most audacious signing in league history", Ron Barassi left Melbourne for a lucrative contract at Carlton.
5.
Ron Barassi retired from professional football in 1971, but he was lured back two years later to coach North Melbourne.
6.
Ron Barassi's coaching career was both successful and regarded by many as revolutionary, and his clean record and passion for the game earned him a place as a celebrity and popular culture figure in Australia.
7.
Ron Barassi was named a Member of the Order of Australia in 1978, and in 1996 was selected in the AFL's Team of the Century as a ruck-rover.
8.
The young Ron Barassi spent his early years in Guildford, Victoria.
9.
Ron Barassi was educated at Castlemaine Tech and then at Preston and Footscray techs in Melbourne.
10.
Ron Barassi was a third-generation Italian Australian whose Swiss Italian ancestors migrated to Victoria during the gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s.
11.
Ron Barassi unintentionally changed the game before he even took the field.
12.
Ron Barassi played more as a second rover, and the term "ruck-rover" entered the football lexicon.
13.
Ron Barassi soon proved himself as an influential footballer, and he was quickly handed leadership responsibilities.
14.
The image of Ron Barassi breaking a tackle in the 1957 Grand Final is captured in Jamie Cooper's painting The Game That Made Australia, commissioned by the AFL in 2008 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the sport.
15.
Ron Barassi's coaching at Carlton brought them from their lowest-ever VFL finish to premiers only four years later.
16.
Ron Barassi preached and played a tough brand of football, and asked his charges to play a selfless, team-oriented style.
17.
Whereas Ron Barassi had implemented a tough training regime in 1974, he modified this approach for the 1975 finals when he introduced lighter training sessions to keep his squad mentally-focused and not overtrained and exhausted.
18.
Ron Barassi's strategy worked and they won the 1975 premiership.
19.
In 1981, Ron Barassi returned to Melbourne to assist long-term under-19 coach Ray 'Slug' Jordon.
20.
Ron Barassi laid some foundations for what would become a revitalised Melbourne side.
21.
Ron Barassi started the "Irish experiment" at Melbourne, which started recruiting Gaelic footballers from Ireland and converting them to Australian rules footballers.
22.
Ron Barassi recruited the most famous of all, the 1991 Brownlow Medallist, Jim Stynes.
23.
In 1993, Ron Barassi returned to coaching for the Sydney Swans.
24.
On 4 March 1957, Ron Barassi married Nancy Kellett, whom he had met at work four years earlier.
25.
Ron Barassi used a motorised buggy and a wheelchair for a short time.
26.
In 1967, in New York City during the Australian Football World Tour, Ron Barassi was involved in a fight in which detective Brendan Tumelty broke Ron Barassi's nose and both were sent to the same hospital.
27.
Ron Barassi moved to the suburb of St Kilda in the late 1970s and lived there until his death.
28.
For many years, Ron Barassi owned the Mountain View Hotel at 70 Bridge Road in Richmond.
29.
On 28 February 2008, Ron Barassi launched and signed his book Ron Barassi, focusing on his personal life and scrapbook memoirs.
30.
On New Year's Eve 2008, Ron Barassi was assaulted when he went to the aid of a young woman in St Kilda.
31.
In January 2012, Ron Barassi suffered a bike accident, cracking three ribs.
32.
On 16 September 2023, Ron Barassi died following complications from a fall.
33.
Ron Barassi is one of only three Australian rules footballers in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, alongside Leigh Matthews and Ted Whitten.
34.
Ron Barassi was involved in grassroots football development and was an advocate for the development of the game internationally, particularly in South Africa.
35.
Ron Barassi was one of the last runners in the Queen's Baton Relay for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, being held in Melbourne, Australia, from 15 to 26 March.
36.
Ron Barassi is the namesake of the Ron Barassi Line, a concept originated by scholar Ian Turner to describe the geographical divide in Australia between Australian rules football and the two rugby codes.
37.
The line is imagined to intersect the border towns of Corowa and Wahgunyah, where, in 2014, Ron Barassi attended the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the Ron Barassi Line.
38.
Ron Barassi wrote the introduction to Philip Hodgins' 1990 poetry collection A Kick of the Footy.
39.
In 2015, Ron Barassi collaborated with singer-songwriter Tex Perkins on the song "One Minute's Silence", a tribute to the diggers who died at Gallipoli.
40.
Ron Barassi was mentioned several times in episodes of the television show Kingswood Country.
41.
Ron Barassi was one of the first footballers to have his own football clinic on television and during the 1960s.
42.
In September 2003, a bronze statue depicting Barassi kicking based on a famous photograph was unveiled at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.