Description
Stock CMT606
‘Tom Wills’
Martin Tighe
Bronze sculpture of Tom Wills.
Tom Wills was born in 1835 near Gundagai, NSW . Tom was an Australian all-round sportsman, umpire, coach and administrator who is credited with being a catalyst towards the invention of Australian Rules Football.
In the latter half of his life, Tom suffered from alcoholism and spent time in Institutions to work through his demons. In 1880 at the age of 44 he was admitted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with extreme alcoholism and delusions. He discharged himself a day later and went home where he killed himself by stabbing his chest with a pair of scissors. It was said that the reason for his alcoholism was partly due to the violent death of his father in 1861.
Wills is honoured for the important role he played in the formation of Australian Rules Football with a sculpture at the MCG by Louis Laumen erected in 2002. The sculpture reads that Wills:
“Did more than any other person – as footballer and umpire, co-writer of the rules and promoter of the game – to develop Australian Football during its first decade.”
A room in the Great Southern Stand, known as the Tom Wills Room, reserved for corporate functions is also named after him.
In 2008, Round 19 of the AFL season was named Tom Wills Round to celebrate 150 years of Australian Football and featured a curtain raiser at the MCG between Scotch and Melbourne Grammar to mark the match which Wills famously umpired.
1 of 9
2011
H: 33 cm
W: 20 cm
D: 14 cm