Norm Smith

Norm Smith
Personal information
Full name	Norman Walter Smith
Nickname(s)	The Red Fox
Date of birth	(1915-11-21)21 November 1915
Place of birth	Clifton Hill, Victoria
Date of death	29 July 1973(1973-07-29) (aged 57)
Place of death	Pascoe Vale, Victoria
Original team(s)	Northcote juniors
Height / weight	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)/81 kilograms (179 lb)
Position(s)	Full-forward
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1935–1948	Melbourne	210 (546)
1949–1950	Fitzroy	017 0(26)
Total		227 (572)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
1941–1945	Victoria	2 (9)
Coaching career3
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
1949–1951	Fitzroy	055 00(30–23–2)
1952–1967	Melbourne	310 (197–108–5)
1969–1972	South Melbourne	087 00(26–61–0)
Total		452 (253–192–7)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1950. 2 State and international statistics correct as of 1945. 3 Coaching statistics correct as of 1972.
Career highlights
Player 4× VFL premierships: 1939, 1940, 1941, 1948 2× Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medallist: 1938, 1944 4× Melbourne leading goalkicker: 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941 Melbourne captain: 1945–1947 Fitzroy captain: 1949–1950 Melbourne Team of the Century (full forward) Coach 6× VFL premierships: 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1964 AFL Team of the Century (coach) Melbourne Team of the Century (coach) Overall Australian Football Hall of Fame (legend status) Melbourne Hall of Fame (legend status)
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Player

Coach

Overall

Norman Walter "Norm" Smith (21 November 1915 – 29 July 1973) was an Australian rules football player and coach in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After 200 games as a player with Melbourne and Fitzroy, Smith began a twenty-year coaching career, including a fifteen-year stint at Melbourne. Recognised as the father of modern Australian football coaching, Smith coached Melbourne to six premierships and in 1996 was chosen as the coach of the AFL Team of the Century.

Smith and elder brother Len (born 9 February 1912) were the sons of ironworker Victor Smith and Ethel May (née Brown). After attending Westgarth Central School, Smith completed an engineering apprenticeship and worked at Millers rope-works in Brunswick. In 1943, he took over his father's engineering business in Northcote, later relocating it to North Coburg in 1954. On 19 October 1940, he married Marjorie Victoria Ellis, at the Wesley Church in Melbourne. Their only child, Peter, was born in 1947.

A brilliant all-round sportsman in his youth, Smith played first-grade district cricket and Australian football. His first club football was for Dennis, which played in the sub-district competition, where his brother Len had started his career. When scouts for VFL club Melbourne arrived at the Smith household to sign Len, Victor Smith suggested that young Norm might make the grade as well. Melbourne were ambitiously rebuilding their side and Smith made his debut under legendary coach Frank 'Checker' Hughes in 1935. Ironically, while Norm's career blossomed at Melbourne, brother Len failed to nail down a regular place and he moved to the VFA and later to Fitzroy to further his career.