| Hugh Gavin | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Gavin in 1901 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Lodovic Hugh Gavin | ||
| Born | 25 October 1878 Stawell, Victoria | ||
| Died | 13 November 1940(1940-11-13) (aged 62) Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Victoria | ||
| Position | Defender | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 1897–1902, 1904 | Essendon | 112 (21) | |
| Coaching career | |||
| Years | Club | Games (W–L–D) | |
| 1911 | Western Australia | 4 (1–3–0) | |
| 1915 | Mines Rovers | ||
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1904. | |||
| Career highlights | |||
| Sources:AFL Tables,AustralianFootball.com | |||
Lodovic Hugh Gavin (25 October 1878 – 13 November 1940) was anAustralian rules footballer who played 108 games for theEssendon Football Club in the years following the formation of theVictorian Football League (VFL).
The son of William James Gavin (1830-1915),[1] and Jane Gavin (1834-1908), née Caldwell,[2] Lodovic Hugh Gavin, known to his family as "Hughie", was born atStawell, Victoria on 25 October 1878.[3]
He married Rose Margaret Spears (1878-1944), in Perth, on 5 June 1907.[4][5][6][7] The had one child: Frank Hugh Gavin (1908-1969).[8]
According toGerald Brosnan, the former VFA and VFL player, and former VFL coach, "Hughie Gavin, of Essendon, ... was the best centre half-back I ever met or saw".[10]
The otherwise unidentified "An Old Player", one ofThe Sporting Globe's leading football journalists, selected Gavin as one of four "champion" centre half-backs — namely,Jim Sharp (Fitzroy VFL and Collingwood VFL),Tom Banks (Fitzroy VFA and Fitzroy VFL), Hugh Gavin, andJoe Hogan (St Kilda VFA and St Kilda VFL) — in his "Champion Footballers of the Past" team in 1923,[11] and, later, as the stand-alone, "best" centre half-back, withBilly Payne (Carlton VFL), andHugh Purse (Melbourne VFL) selected as his two half-back flankers, in his "Best Eighteen of the Century" team in 1936, more than thirty years after Gavin's last VFL game.[12]
Gavin, later, a key defender, was a member of Essendon's inaugural premiership side in 1897.[13] Although he only played in 13 of the team's games in his first season, he kicked 14 goals, coming second toNorman Waugh's 23 goals, Essendon's leading goalkicker for 1897. He was listed as Essendon's best player in the 1901 grand final. In 1902 he won Essendon'sbest player award.[14] He was aVictorian representative in intrastate and interstate football in 1900, 1901, 1902, and 1904.[15]
In 1903 he spent a season in theWest Australian goldfields withBoulder City, and was described as the top player of the goldfields in that year.
He returned to Essendon in 1904, played in 15 matches, and served as team captain on 5 occasions.[16]
In 1905 he played withEssendon Association, and served at the team's captain, in theVictorian Football Association.[17]
In 1906, cleared by Essendon, he returned to Western Australia to play with the Boulder Stars.[18]
In late 1906 he was suspended for "professionalism", consequent upon the facts that had been disclosed when Gavin sued Ludwig Hahn, a jeweller, and president of the Boulder Stars football club, for unpaid agreed-upon wages amounting to £23/15/-.[19][20] In December 1906, and a result of the facts of the evidence that had been produced in Gavin's court case,[21] Hahn was suspended by the Goldfields Football League for four years, and Gavin for two.[22] Gavin appealed in August 1907, arguing that, because, Hahn's 4-year suspension had been reduced, upon Hahn's appeal, to 12 months, and that because "his case was about half as bad as that of Hahn", "he thought the board should deal with him in a like manner". Gavin's suspension was reduced to 12 months.[23]
Gavin's career still flourished. He captained the combined Goldfields side that beatPort Adelaide on 31 July 1910, 12.12 (84) to 9.13 (67).[24] He was captain-coach of the 1911Western Australian carnival side which played atthe Adelaide Carnival.[25]
In 1915 he captainedMines Rovers, of the Western Australian Goldfields, to a premiership.[26]
By 1916, he was featuring as a field umpire in Goldfields Football League matches.[27]
Hugh Gavin died ofbronchial pneumonia at theRoyal Melbourne Hospital, inParkville, Victoria,[28] on 13 November 1940,[29] and was buried at theBurwood Cemetery.[30][31]
