Tigerland is mourning the passing of one of its most exciting players from the immediate post-war era, Jack O’Rourke. 

O’Rourke, who died last Friday (April 11) aged 79, played only 44 games for the Club from 1949-53, but he left an indelible mark at Punt Road in that relatively brief time.

Originally recruited from the local Richmond area, O’Rourke spent a couple of years in the Tigers’ reserve-grade side, before moving to country club South Warrnambool in 1948. He then rejoined Richmond in 1949 and made his senior league debut against Hawthorn in Round 2 of that season. 

An exciting, high-leaping full-forward, O’Rourke went on to kick 134 goals in his 44 games, winning the Club’s Leading Goalkicker award in 1951 (58 goals) and 1952 (43 goals). His highest individual goal tally with the Tigers was seven, which he booted against St Kilda in 1950.

O’Rourke thrilled the Yellow and Black faithful with his aerial exploits, and one of his marks featured in a book displaying photographs of the 100 greatest marks of all time. 

But, as Rhett Bartlett revealed in his book, “The Tigers:  A Century of League Football”, that much-publicised spectacular mark over Collingwood’s Jack Hamilton at Punt Road in Round 5 of the 1951 season, was actually not paid.  Umpire Bill Barbour deemed that O’Rourke had infringed against Hamilton in the process of taking the mark, and subsequently awarded a free kick against him.

O’Rourke ran into Barbour at the train station after the game and the umpire told him he’d made a mistake in not awarding the mark. 

“Jack was sky high. He knocked Jack Hamilton flying, but put his hands on his shoulder and pressed himself up,” Barbour said. 

“I took it off him; there was hell of a screaming. It was in the rules in those days. In reality, it would have been better to turn a blind eye to it,” he admitted.