Bill Luff Sr.

Australian rules footballer

Bill Luff
Luff in 1910
Personal information
Full name	William John Luff
Date of birth	(1886-01-15)15 January 1886
Place of birth	Hawthorn, Victoria
Date of death	6 September 1952(1952-09-06) (aged 66)
Place of death	Blackburn, Victoria
Original team(s)	Richmond Imperials
Height	191 cm (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	73 kg (161 lb)
Playing career¹
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1908–10	Richmond	39 (0)
¹ Playing statistics correct to the end of 1910.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

William John Luff (15 January 1886 – 6 September 1952) was an Australian rules footballer who played with the Richmond in the Victorian Football League (VFL).^[1]

Family

The son of Richmond City Councillor, Charles Osborne Luff (1851-1922),^[2] and Charlotte Luff (1854-1943), née Entwhistle,^[3] William John Luff was born on 15 January 1886.

He married Sarah Ross (1888-1976) in 1909. Their son, William Norman Charles Luff, a.k.a. "Bill Luff" played with Camberwell in the VFA and, then, with Essendon in the VFL.

He died on 6 September 1952.^[4]

Football

He was a "tall, lightly-built" half-back flanker, "who was a fine high mark [and] possessed sound judgement and a good football brain".^[5]

Richmond (VFA)

Along with his brother Jim, Luff played for Richmond in the VFA competition from 1905 to 1907.

Richmond (VFL)

Richmond entered the VFL competition in 1908; and Luff played with 39 senior games for Richmond over three seasons (1908-1910). He was the first Richmond (VFL) footballer to represent Victoria — he played three games for Victoria in the Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival of 1908.

Prahran (VFA)

He transferred to Prahran in 1911.^[6] Where he played one game. ^[7]

Beverley (MAFA)

In 1914, he was cleared from Prahran to the Beverley Football Club, in the Metropolitan Amateur Football Association.^[8]

Footnotes

^ Holmesby & Main (2014), p.531.
^ Deaths: Luff, The Age, (Wednesday, 10 May 1922), p.1; Deaths: Luff, The Age, (Saturday, 13 May 1922), p.11.
^ Deaths: Luff, The Age, (Wednesday, 4 August 1943), p.6.
^ Deaths: Luff, The Argus, (Monday, 8 September 1952), p.14; Deaths: Luff, The Argus, (Monday, 8 September 1952), p.7.
^ Hogan (1996), p.128.
^ Football: Victorian Association: Permits Granted, The Age, (Friday, 28 April 1911), p.10.
^ https://thevfaproject.org/pages/Players/Luff,_William_b1886.php VFA project - Luff, William b1886
^ Metropolitan Amateur Association, The Argus, (Saturday, 27 June 1914), p.22.

References

Hogan P: The Tigers Of Old, Richmond FC, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-646-18748-1
Holmesby, R. & Main, J., The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: every AFL/VFL player since 1897 (Tenth Edition), BAS Publishing, (Seaford, Victoria), 2014. ISBN 978-1-921496-32-5