No 1.
In the late 1950's I think .. very young and the memory is no so good these days.
As a young boy taken by my fanatical one-eyed Saint father to the old South Melbourne ground to see the 'Lakeside Premiership' fought and won and as usual Bob Skilton was carving us up.
I cannot recall the exact quarter I think late in Q2 Ecca ran towards the ball and so did Bob.
To StKilda fans it was akin to the famous Healy/Adams clash and I am sure if you asked Bob today he would have thought he had been hit by a runaway tank.
The Sth Melbourne fans went ballistic. To a young boy this was quite frightening. I thought the crowd would murder Ecca.
To his credit he apparently was so ill by what had happened he did not return after half time.
No 2.
I went to school with players like John Stephens and Jeff Sarau (Melb High) and had ambitions to play for StKilda. Having Kicked 13 goals for an Assumption College Amateur side a long time St Kilda stalwart (Jim Mordern .. father played for Saints) arranged somehow for me to get a training invite.
Ecca had charge of training. I think he looked at me and thought yep the kid can run and jump (I was a schoolboy high jumper) but he has no weight or condition he will get murdered.
To prove the point he made me lie on the ground, put the small of his hand right in the middle of my back and said get up. Of course he had the leverage and I could not move. He then said pretend you are in a war .. I am an SS soldier I have a gun and I am about to shoot you .. get up .. I could'nt move.
He said son why do you want to go to war when you cannot even get off the ground. He made his point .. I played a few practice matches and was let go very quickly. I am still glad I had a go, met the man and learned quite a bit that then allowed me to have a very happy 10 years at suburban club Clayton where I was able to compete, enjoy footy and protect myself.
My lasting memory of a man that was incredibly tough, hard, firm but very fair.
Ken McAvoy
