25 BROKEN HILL ICONS – BRUCE MCGREGOR
BORN on January 7, 1903 in Broken Hill, Harry “Bruce” McGregor would develop into one of the champions of SANFL football during the 1920s.
His football resume in South Australia included captain-coaching a premiership team; earning a couple of the competition’s top individual honours; and achieving consistent state representation for SA across his eight seasons from 1923;
After a couple of campaigns in the Apple Isle, McGregor would also coach perennial cellar dwellers Glenelg Football Club from obscurity to defeat Port Adelaide, winning their first-ever premiership in 1934.
Initially, McGregor made his Silver City A Grade debut at the age of 16 for West Broken Hill Robins in the Broken Hill Football League, where he was a Hurley medallist in 1922 as the competition’s best player.
McGregor was recruited by West Adelaide in 1923 after previous attempts were made for his signature by both high-profile clubs, Norwood and Port Adelaide.
McGregor would go on to play 102 games for West Adelaide from his debut in 1923 until 1929.
He was appointed captain-coach of the team in 1926, leading the Bloods to the 1927 SANFL Premiership, collecting a 12-point – 10.10 (70) to 8.10 (58) – win over North Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval.
Winning the award in the back-to-back seasons of 1926 and 1927 McGregor became the first and only West Adelaide’s dual Magarey medallist.
He represented South Australia at the interstate level an impressive 22 times during his career.
Records vary, but folklore has it that McGregor also won as many as six Best All-Round Player Awards during his time at Westies.
What is in the record books, is that McGregor won the award across five successive years from his first season in 1923 to 1927.
With the economic hardship of the Great Depression beginning to hit home in 1930, McGregor, along with West Adelaide teammate Bob Snell, the 1929 Magarey medallist, was lured to Tasmania where the money on offer was significantly better than in Adelaide.
After two seasons as captain-coach of North Hobart in the Tasmanian Football League, where the team finished as beaten grand finalists in both 1930 and 1931, he returned to the SANFL and joined the South Adelaide Panthers, initially as their player-coach.
He played just two games before standing down as a player, but coached the club for the rest of the year with South Adelaide ‘winning’ the wooden spoon, finishing eighth.
In 1933, McGregor was appointed coach of the Glenelg Football Club and in 1934 he coached the club to the holy grail — their first ever SANFL premiership.
McGregor then returned to West Adelaide to coach the team in 1937, but his three seasons in charge saw the Wests near the bottom of the ladder in each season.
He was replaced as West Adelaide coach for 1940, but returned in 1941, and along with Colin Smith, coached the vastly improved team to finish third with a 12-5 record.
His son Ken also played SANFL league football for West Adelaide after he was a highly successful tennis player.
Ken’s tennis career saw him become a member of the successful Davis Cup teams of 1950, ’51 and ’52.
He won the 1952 Australian Open singles title and won the Grand Slam Double quartet – Australian – French – Wimbledon – US Open titles in 1951.
He retired from tennis at the age of 25, and played five seasons with West Adelaide, including the ’58 and ’59 grand final losses to Port Adelaide.
In 1999, Ken McGregor was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, followed in 2000 with induction into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame.
