Know Your History with Shannon Gill
The History of the VFL on ESPN - 'Know Your History' with Shannon Gill (27.02.25)
Oct 20, 2026 · 35 min · 13 segments
The History of the VFL on ESPN - 'Know Your History' with Shannon Gill.
Know Your History with Shannon Gill
Oct 20, 2026 · 35 min · 13 segments
The History of the VFL on ESPN - 'Know Your History' with Shannon Gill.
The idea of our game going to America or going somewhere else, a lot of people sort of... um, talk it down and say, that's, that's a pipe dream that'll never happen.
And why should we do it? But I think this story just gives you a little glimpse of what could happen in a little way if things developed at all.
A guy called Jim McKay, who I've spoken to, um, over the last few weeks and a really interesting guy.
ESPN.com.au. Um, Jim Mackay, I liken him to, he was like the Forrest Gump of Australian sports and entertainment in the 70s.
Now, by the fact that, you know how Forrest Gump just tended to be at things that really mattered in that movie? Yeah.
Well- Jim McKay, he, in the early seventies, he's the original producer of Hey Hey It's Saturday.
He also, um, helps put on the Sunbury Rock Festival, which is a sort of a, an iconic seventies moment, but also he then ends up getting the marketing account for the VFL.
Now at the time, the VFL was just, was, was simply concerned with playing footy and nothing, nothing more really.
Within a couple of years of him running that and basically putting the VFL logo on everything he could find.
You had the VFL logo actually on jumpers worn by players, which hadn't happened.
He was, he was putting a VFL logo onto it ahead of his time and, and doing that.
The idea of our game going to America or going somewhere else, a lot of people sort of... um, talk it down and say, that's, that's a pipe dream that'll never happen.
And why should we do it? But I think this story just gives you a little glimpse of what could happen in a little way if things developed at all.
A guy called Jim McKay, who I've spoken to, um, over the last few weeks and a really interesting guy.
ESPN.com.au. Um, Jim Mackay, I liken him to, he was like the Forrest Gump of Australian sports and entertainment in the 70s.
Now, by the fact that, you know how Forrest Gump just tended to be at things that really mattered in that movie? Yeah.
Well- Jim McKay, he, in the early seventies, he's the original producer of Hey Hey It's Saturday.
He also, um, helps put on the Sunbury Rock Festival, which is a sort of a, an iconic seventies moment, but also he then ends up getting the marketing account for the VFL.
Now at the time, the VFL was just, was, was simply concerned with playing footy and nothing, nothing more really.
Within a couple of years of him running that and basically putting the VFL logo on everything he could find.
You had the VFL logo actually on jumpers worn by players, which hadn't happened.
He was, he was putting a VFL logo onto it ahead of his time and, and doing that.
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