'Know Your History' - Australians in the NFL with Shannon Gill (06.02.25)

Yeah, and I'm a subscriber to the Jordan Mailata, is probably the most influential right now, given what he's done on the field and what he could do this week.

And certainly the impact he has on the average fan in the US.

But I have been looking at who are the others, right? if we assume that Jordan's sitting, if not number one, very close to number one.

So I've gone way back to the start, Gerard.

Have you heard of a guy called Colin Ridgeway? I have not.

Okay.

I'm going to tell you about Colin Ridgway.

It's a wild story.

It's actually a tragic story.

He's a young fellow who grew up in Coburg, so a Melbourne kid.

He plays under-19s and reserves for Carlton Footy Club in the late 50s.

He also competes in the high jump as a teenager at the 1956 Olympics.

So he's got all this going for him.

yeah

after the olympics he heads off to the usa because he gets a college um athletic scholarship so he's over at lamar tech a college in the us he's there studies does impressive things on the athletic track as a high jumper But all this time, no one sort of picked up on the fact that he could kick a football.

And towards the end of his time there, he's just mucking around kicking a football in Aussie rule style on the American football field.

And a few people are sitting back going, hey, you're pretty good at this.

You should do something with us.

He rings up the Houston Oilers.

And they give him a trial.

He tries a few drop kicks.

That didn't really impress, but his punt kicks did.

They think we've found something and they promise a contract.

It makes news.

The contract doesn't quite materialize straight away.