To mark this special occasion, today is all about the man they called ‘Skinny’, on our website.
We are celebrating the terrific Tigerland life and times of the goalkicking genius, through a collection of articles, tributes and photos.
READ MORE:
The day Titus turned back time
Jack Titus in his own words
Titus by the numbers
Titus Tributes
Enjoy this grand celebration of Richmond’s 11-time club leading goalkicker, dual Best and Fairest winner and two-time premiership superstar spearhead Jack Titus.
Jack Titus lined up with Richmond’s senior side for the first time in Round 12 of the 1926 season against South Melbourne at Punt Road.
There was, however, nothing shown that day by the 18-year-old recruit from Victorian country club Castlemaine to suggest he would go on to become such an outstanding champion for Richmond and an all-time great of the game.
In fact, it’s fair to say, Titus had a shocker!
He went goalless, barely touching the ball, as the Tigers suffered a disappointing 33-point loss on their home turf.
Titus was omitted from the senior side after his debut performance, but returned later in the season, playing four games and kicking just one goal.
It took Titus until late in the 1928 season for him to put his stamp on the competition for the first time.
A nine-goal haul against Essendon at Punt Road in Round 17, 1928 was a brilliant break-out game by Titus, and he followed that up with five goals against Geelong in the final home-and-away round of the season.
Then, when Titus kicked six goals to spearhead a big 53-point victory for Richmond over Carlton in the ‘28 semi-final, the entire League football world at the time sat up and took notice of the lightly-framed but highly-skilled full-forward.
Titus managed only two goals in the Tigers’ 1928 Grand Final loss to Collingwood, but his late-season efforts had captured the imagination of the Yellow and Black faithful.
Over the course of the ensuing 15 years, Jack Titus would rewrite the record books at Richmond with his amazing goalkicking exploits.
In 1940, at age 32, Titus became the first Richmond player to kick 100 goals in a season.
He booted exactly 100 goals that season to win the competition’s leading goalkicker award, with the Tigers finishing runners-up to Melbourne.
All these years later, only one other Tiger – Michael Roach – has managed that elite goalkicking feat (Roach scoring 112 goals in 1980).
A long-standing competition record Titus held was for consecutive games – 204 in all, from 1933-43. That league record wasn't broken until Round 9 of the 1996 season, when Melbourne ruckman Jim Stynes played his 205th game in-a-row.
On 11 occasions, Titus topped Richmond’s goalkicking list in a season, he was a 14-time Victorian State representative, a dual premiership player with the Tigers (1932 and 1934) and he won the Club’s Best and Fairest twice (1929 and 1941).
Titus’ superb, six-goal display in the ’34 Grand Final against South Melbourne was pivotal to Richmond winning its fourth league football premiership.
He would finish his 294-game career at Richmond with 970 goals, which, to this day, is the most scored by any player in the Club’s history.
What made Titus' awesome achievements all the more incredible, was the fact that he was built like a whippet.
‘Skinny’ Titus, as he was affectionately known, was just 175cm tall, and weighed only 66kg throughout his long, illustrious league career with the Tigers.
Think about that for a moment . . . he was the same size as the smallest current-day Richmond player, Dion Prestia.
Despite being so small of stature for a key league forward, Titus had extremely strong fingers and a great spring for his size, which enabled him to take spectacular marks on such a consistent basis. To cap it all off, he was a deadly accurate kick for goal.
Titus more than made up in courage, speed and skill, what he lacked in size. In his playing days, he was constantly buffeted by bigger men, but very rarely beaten.
After retiring as a player in 1943, Titus joined the Richmond committee, but early in the 1945 season he was approached by VFA club Coburg to make a comeback.
Richmond offered him six months leave of absence, and the veteran spearhead subsequently scored 119 goals that year to finish second on the Association’s goalkicking list to Ron Todd, who amassed 188.
Titus kicked a further 20 goals with Coburg in a handful of games in 1946, giving him 139 in just 22 VFA matches, before retiring as a player for good. Well, almost for good . . .
During the 1948 season, Titus, at age 40, made a brief comeback for Richmond's reserves. The team was one player short, so Titus, who was a Tiger committeeman and selector at the time, agreed to fill in.
He proceeded to bag a ‘lazy’ dozen goals, to further underline his genius in front of the ‘big sticks’.
But there were to be no more comebacks by Titus, who continued to serve on the Club's committee for many years, and even stood in as senior coach in 1965, when Len Smith became ill.
Jack Titus died in 1978, at age 70, but his legacy undeniably lives on . . .
Each year, the AFL hands out the Jack Titus Recognition of Service Award to a person who has made a significant contribution to League football at a club level. That indeed is testimony to the high esteem Titus has been held in – not only by Richmond, but by the entire football world.
In 1996, Titus was one of 136 inaugural inductees into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
Three years later (August,1999), he was named at full-forward in Richmond's Team of the Century.
Then, in 2002, he was one of the inaugural inductees into the Tigers' Hall of Fame.
And, in 2019, Titus was elevated to ‘Immortal’ status at Tigerland.
Jack Titus truly is a revered figure at Richmond because of all his dazzling on-field deeds, as well as the wonderful off-field service he provided his beloved Tigers.
Jack Titus profile
Born: March 3, 1908
Recruited to Richmond from: Castlemaine
Height: 175cm
Playing weight: 65.5kg
Guernsey number: No. 12
Games played (1926-1943): 294
Goals: 970
Honours: Dual premiership player (1932, 1934); League leading goalkicker in 1940 (100 goals); 11-time Club leading goalkicker (1929-1930, 1934-1942); 14-time Victorian State representative; two-time club Best and Fairest winner (1929, 1941); Australian Hall of Fame member; Tigers' Life Member; Richmond Team of the Century member; Tigers' Hall of Fame inductee, Richmond ‘Immortal’.
To get a greater appreciation of why Jack ‘Skinny’ Titus has now attained ‘Immortal’ status at Richmond, here are a couple of newspaper articles on the brilliant goalkicking machine that were published in the twilight of his magnificent league football playing career with the Tigers.
“Whenever Titus is mentioned at the Tiger headquarters he is summed up as the greatest ‘character’ that ever walked into the room,” wrote the author of the first article that appeared in the ‘Sporting Globe’.
“This is a compliment to his running fire of banter and barrack and his ready wit. His philosophy meets every situation with a joke. As a club man, he has had few equals.
“Around the club-rooms, Titus is the arch jester. No one is safe from his pranks. Many have tried to get back at him, but that nimble brain that sees things quickly before they really happen has quickly turned the proposition back on its originator. He has a native wit – a spontaneous humour that never leaves him stuck for an answer.
“But of more importance is his loyalty to the Club. Few know that two seasons back, Titus gave 10/- (shillings) each week of the season to the best boy in the second 18. He is vice-captain and players' representative on the committee.”
According to the article, Titus' explanation for his commitment to the Yellow and Black cause was simple.
“I'm in the best club there is and I am going to stay there till I finish,” he said.
The article's author subsequently posed the rhetorical question, “Wherein lies the success of Titus?” – and then proceeded to supply the answer . . .
“He is supremely confident. There is in fact a very perky ego about Jack. He is irrepressible.
“On the Melbourne ground (MCG) in a final, Richmond came over Carlton with three goals in as many minutes and snatched the laurels away from the Blues. The winning goal was kicked by Titus as the bell rang. Ray Brew was standing on his mark as Jack went back to kick. “You'll miss it!” Brew taunted him. “Oh yeah, watch this,” came the reply, and through it went to leave Richmond winners by a few points.
“Titus relies on his judgment in beating opponents. His timing is perfect and his anticipation of the flight of the ball uncanny. All this has been developed. The skill of Titus is of the type that is developed and built on natural ability until it reaches a very high standard.
“He is as cunning as a fox. Experience has given him a quick and certain estimate of the strength and weakness of opponents. He avoids the strength and exploits the weakness. He is as fast as any man in the game over the first 10 yards, while his dash to the ball is deadly in its certainty. It is no use playing him from behind.”
Football columnist of the day, P. J. Millard, alias ‘Short-Pass’, described Titus as “a footballing will o’ the wisp, and the most elusive and tantalising forward of the last decade in League football”.
“With cat-like stealth and nimbleness, he has perfected the art of giving his man the slip, as a very necessary prelude to one of his deadly shots at goal,” Millard wrote.
“Jack, of course, is too modest to say so himself; but to those who have watched him in action through his glittering career, it is obvious that his indomitable spirit – his absolute fearlessness – plays just as big a part in his success as his goal-getting technique. This consists, first, of slippery elusiveness, allied with deceptive pace in his dash for a mark. In addition, he possesses rare anticipation, a beautifully-timed leap for marking, a safe pair of hands, and a singularly accurate boot for his telling shots.”
On May 11, 1940, then veteran Richmond champion Jack Titus showed that he was far from a spent force at the game’s highest level, producing one of the best performances of his outstanding playing career with the Tigers. Tony Greenberg takes up the story . . .
Jack Titus already was a Richmond great going into the 1940 season, his 15th at VFL level.
In 14 seasons and 224 games with the Tigers up until then, the gifted forward had kicked a total of 693 goals.
His season-best goal tally had been 83, which he’d posted in 1935, and then again in 1936. He had also booted 80 goals in Richmond’s 1934 premiership year.
But in 1939, when the Tigers were bundled out of the premiership race in the first semi-final, Titus had managed ‘only’ 48 goals from 19 games.
As a result, there was speculation in the lead-up to the 1940 season that, at 32 years of age, he was on the slide and would not be able to recapture his brilliant best form.
Two rounds into the ’40 season, Titus had a respectable seven goals on the board (four v Footscray, Round 1 and three v Melbourne, Round 2) in two Tiger losses.
It was in Round 3, however, that Titus reignited Richmond’s prospects and regained his on-field aura of invincibility.
In a do-or-die clash with Hawthorn at Glenferrie Oval, Titus kicked eight goals in a vintage display that lifted the Tigers to a 27-point win – 19.15 (129) to 15.12 (102). This was Titus’ highest goal return in a game since the opening round of the 1938 season, when he booted nine against North Melbourne at Punt Road.
Here is ‘The Age’ newspaper’s report of the Round 3, 1940 match, and the major role played by Titus that day . . .
“Without the experience, sound judgment and driving force of their coach-captain, Bert Mills, Hawthorn, after a valiant effort, had to concede victory to Richmond at Glenferrie.
Although Richmond won by a substantial margin, the game was by no means one-sided. Hawthorn were always close until the last quarter when obviously tired, they just could not counter Richmond’s straight-ahead methods. Only then were Richmond able to consider themselves out of danger.
Both teams deserve congratulations for a first-class exhibition of speedy football. There was little between them in ruck and aerial duels. Richmond’s long and accurate kicking and more cohesive play forward deciding the issue.
Adhering closely to a definite plan of campaign in which (Jack) Titus was made the spearhead of the attack, Richmond were able to make a number of positional changes with beneficial results. (Jack) Dyer opened at centre half-back instead of in the first ruck, and in the third quarter moved into goal, while after half-time (George) Smeaton went to centre half-back, and (Jack) Crane centre half-forward. In the last term, Smeaton filled the full-back position.
Titus surprisingly scored 8.5, a feat which greatly delighted the Richmond camp. As a memento he will have a trophy which Mr J Jones, a Richmond official, promised him when he next kicked six goals in a match.”
The ‘Sporting Globe’ had this to say about Titus’ mighty, match-winning performance against Hawthorn . . .
“The forward play of Jack Titus during the second quarter was instrumental in keeping the Tigers in front. His remarkable leading out had a tendency to put the defenders off their balance. He got four goals during the second quarter with beautiful drop-kicks.”
Titus would go on to rewrite the Richmond record books that year, becoming the first Tiger to achieve the magical 100-goal feat in a season.
He finished with exactly 100 goals in 1940 after booting three in the Tigers’ Grand Final loss to Melbourne.
To underline how consistent Titus was that season, his lowest goal tally in a match was two, with his highest of nine coming in Round 17 against St Kilda at the Junction Oval.
Titus maintained his fine goalkicking form the following season, scoring 87 goals, and he then steered through 67 goals in 1942.
The man affectionately known as ‘Skinny’ subsequently bowed out of VFL football at the end of the 1943 season, having missed Richmond’s premiership that year because of injury.
With 970 goals from 294 games, Jack Titus remains the greatest goalkicker in the Club’s history, and the fact that he is one of only eight Richmond ‘Immortals’, highlights how highly he’s revered at Tigerland.
