Bill Strickland: Pioneering Hero of Collingwood Football Club

Bill Strickland's Collingwood Hall of Fame 2017 Induction medal in the original case of presentation. Provenance: The family, by descent. In 2017, the Collingwood careers of three players whose careers spanned 1893 to 2013, were inducted into the club Hall of Fame. They were Bill Strickland, Saverio Rocca and Alan Didak. When Collingwood first encountered Bill Strickland, he was one of the stars of the game with Carlton. But twelve months after their first meeting, he became a Magpie, and there he stayed for the rest of his football days. During his Collingwood career, Strickland was a member of the club's first premiership in 1896, and months later was named captain of the club in the inaugural year of the VFL. Later, he went on to become Collingwood's first official coach in 1904 and spent more than a decade on the committee, as vice-president and VFL delegate. Bill Strickland undoubtedly earned the title of being a great servant of the game. But his time as a Magpie player and captain ? and all that he did outside the playing arena ? stamps him as a pioneering hero of the Collingwood Football Club.