Victorian Rugby mourns the loss of Jack Burridge
Jack Burridge, Life Member of Victorian Rugby Union, died on Tuesday December 14th 2010 after a long illness.
Jack Burridge, Life Member of the Victorian Rugby Union was also a Life Member of Footscray Rugby Club where he served on the committee throughout the years and also served as Secretary and Vice President of the club.
Jack first went to Footscray when his son, John, started playing with Tottenham Technical School in 1965. While watching the game he realised that the team didn’t have water bottles so he took it upon himself to organise some, and that was the start of his love affair with Footscray and Victorian Rugby.
Jack was first elected onto the VJRU Board by Dr Stan East in the 1960′s and from there he progressed to become a long standing VRU Board member. He served as manger of the Victorian Under 16 state team from 1971 to 1974 and then served as manager of various Victorian Under 18, Colts, Under 20 and Under 21 teams until 1985.
The Victorian Rugby Union awarded Jack a Life Member in the 1980’s for his long service to rugby and also made Jack its property steward and in 2000 Jack was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his services to rugby.
Jack also served as press correspondent for the Footscray Rugby Club for many years, ringing around for the results on Sunday mornings typing them up on his old manual typewriter and delivering them to the local papers offices. Footscray is one of the few clubs in Victorian Rugby with a comprehensive record of players and games that played for the club which was started by Jack in 1967 and these records are so complete that even people who only played 1 game are recorded as Footscray players because of Jack’s thoroughness.
The VRU staff and Board send their sincere sympathies to Jack’s family and to all the Members of Footscray at this time.
The funeral service for Jack Arthur Burridge will be held at Tim Nelsons Brothers, Williamstown, 81 Kororoit Creek Road on Monday December 20th commencing at 2pm.
Source: Victorian Rugby Union (http://www.vicrugby.com.au)
