About

E.J. Whitten OAM
‘Mr. Football’
27 July 1933 – 17 August 1995
Born and bred in Melbourne’s Western suburbs, he was loved for his caring nature, unique character and common touch.
E.J. (Ted) Whitten was the largest of the larger than-life characters that have decorated Australian Rules football. Considered by many as the most complete footballer to play the game, he was also a rich mixture of headline grabbing talent – schoolboy prodigy, working-class battler, inspirational leader, knockabout clown, The King of Footscray and all points west who became a football icon for the whole of Victoria. In the mix were equal parts of kindness, charity, tough talk and loveable devilment.
He starred for Footscray and was variously captain, coach, selector, mentor to a host of champions and an automatic state selection who later became the voice of Victorian football. Whatever was ‘on’ in fundraising, presentations, publicity, TV, radio and promotion of anything and everything, especially football, Ted was up for it and putting his own stamp on it.

He was ‘E.J.’ and Teddy, and he revelled in his undisputed title of Mr Football, but in truth he wore the mantle lightly and was always in touch with his heartland of the western suburbs and the ‘real people’.
And he had a private life, enriched by a wide family and old friends – a world of knockabout fun around the pool and the barbie and a few beers on a Saturday night. The pictures of that family, as he went from grandson to grand-father, are a moving glance at changing times in Australia over seven decades.
In 1996, he was among the first batch of inductees to the Australian Football Hall of Fame, immediately elevating him to Legend status.

The early passing of Ted Whitten caused real grief beyond the confines of those who knew him, going across the State and into the wider reached of Australia. His funeral was a State occasion. As with football itself, rich and poor alike rubbed shoulders in witnessing his passing.
E.J. Whitten was one of those rare souls who clung passionately to his roots while inspiring a whole generation.