Ede joined Port Adelaide from local club Seaton Ramblers and made his league debut in 1969.
The rugged, left-footed, half-back flanker played 113 games for the Magpies up until the end of the 1976 season after which he transferred to Central Broken Hill to complete his football career.
Port Adelaide President Brett Duncanson said that Ede epitomised everything expected of a Port Adelaide player.
“John was a local product who started at our club in 1969 and had to work really hard to become a regular player in our side in the early 1970s,” Duncanson said.
“He wasn’t a fashionable player but once he established his place in the side he became the quintessential Port Adelaide player - a tough, resolute, uncompromising half-back flanker who refused to give up.
“As a one hundred game player his name will be forever etched on the number 28 locker ensuring his legacy will live on forever within the Port Adelaide Football community.”
Port Adelaide great Russell Ebert, who captained Ede from 1974 to 1976, remembers him as being a great character on and off the field.
“I thoroughly enjoyed John’s company off the field as well as going into battle with him on the field,” Ebert said.
“Similar to the way he played his footy, John was a hard and tough character off the field but also had a human touch which made him a great friend and very enjoyable to be around.
“One of my greatest memories of playing with John occurred in the early 1970s against North Adelaide at Prospect where I played alongside him and Rod Davies and we defeated Barrie Robran and his Roosters in an unforgettable game.”
John Ede is survived by a son and daughter and two grand-children.
