# Firth McCallum

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{{Short description|Australian rules footballer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2015}}
{{Use Australian English|date=September 2015}}
{{Infobox AFL biography
| name = Firth McCallum
| image = Firth McCallum.png
| alt = 
| caption = McCallum in 1899
| fullname = Firth William McCallum
| birth_date = {{birth date|1872|12|27|df=y}}
| birth_place = [Birregurra, Victoria](/source/Birregurra)
| death_date = {{death date and age|1910|07|11|1872|12|27|df=y}}
| death_place = Birregurra, Victoria
| originalteam = Birregurra
| height = 
| weight = 
| position = Centre / Half-forward
| statsend = 1905
| years1 = 1893-1896
| club1 =  {{AFL Gee}} (VFA)
| games_goals1 = 57 (0)
| years2 = 1897–1903, 1905 
| club2 = {{AFL Gee}} (VFL)
| games_goals2 = 74 (25)
| games_goalstotal = 131 (25)
| careerhighlights = 
}}		
		
'''Firth William McCallum''' (27 December 1872 – 11 July 1910) was an [Australian rules football](/source/Australian_rules_football)er who played with [Geelong](/source/Geelong_Football_Club) in both the [Victorian Football Association (VFA)](/source/Victorian_Football_League) and the [Victorian Football League (VFL)](/source/Australian_Football_League).<ref>Holmesby & Main (2014), p.&nbsp;565.</ref>

==Family==
The son of James McCallum (1844-1888),<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90350608 Death: M'Callum, ''The Colac Herald'', (Tuesday, 5 June 1888), p.&nbsp;2.]</ref> and Ann Whitely McCallum (1843–1928), née Leake, later, Mrs. Richard West Beach,<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87657120 Marriage: Beach—M'Callum, ''The Colac Herald'', (Friday, 21 April 1893), p.&nbsp;2.]</ref><ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3960047 Deaths: Beach, ''The Argus'', (Monday, 1 October 1928), p.&nbsp;1.]</ref><ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223819877 Human Interest: Wills and Estates''The Weekly Times'', (Saturday, 12 January 1929), p.&nbsp;9.]</ref> Firth William McCallum was born at [Birregurra, Victoria](/source/Birregurra) on 27 December 1872.<ref>''Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria'' Births Registration no.822/1873.</ref>

He married Jeanetta Gilmore "Nettie" Douglas (1877–1949), at Geelong, on 22 April 1903;<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9814982 Marriages: McCallum—Douglas, ''The Argus'', (Saturday, 20 June 1903), p.&nbsp;9.]</ref> they had three children.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22733730 Deaths: McCallum, ''The Argus'', (Wednesday, 8 June 1949), p.&nbsp;13.]</ref>

==Football==
===Geelong (VFA)===
Recruited by the VFA club, Geelong, from the Birregurra Football Club,<ref>Pennings (2016), p.&nbsp;68.</ref> he played in 12 matches for the team in 1893,<ref>Pennings (2016), p.&nbsp;320.</ref> 13 matches in 1894,<ref>Pennings (2016), p.&nbsp;394.</ref> 17 matches in 1895,<ref>Pennings (2016), p.&nbsp;460.</ref> and 15 matches in 1896.<ref>Pennings (2016), p.&nbsp;525.</ref>
====Inter-colonial representative team====
On 21 July 1894 he and his Geelong team-mate, Joe Marmo,<ref>[https://australianfootball.com/players/player/joe+marmo/17448 "Joe Marmo", at ''AustralianFootball.com''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240519233006/https://australianfootball.com/players/player/joe+marmo/17448 |date=19 May 2024 }}</ref><ref>In 1893, the previous season, the VFA played in three inter-colonial matches in June 1893, two against Southern Tasmania, and one against South Australia. No Geelong players were selected to play in any of the three matches (Pennings, 2016, pp.&nbsp;340-342).</ref> played on the wing for the VFA in an inter-colonial match, against South Australia, on the MCG.<ref>Pennings (2016), pp.&nbsp;428-430.</ref>

===Geelong (VFL)===
He played for Geelong in its first-ever match in the new VFL competition, [against Essendon, at the Corio Oval, on 8 May 1897](/source/1897_VFL_season).

===1899 team of "champions"===
At the end of the 1899 season, in the process of naming his own "champion player", the football correspondent for ''The Argus'', [Reginald Wilmot ("Old Boy")](/source/Reginald_Wilmot), selected a team of the best players of the 1899 VFL competition:
* Backs: [Maurie Collins](/source/Maurie_Collins) (Essendon), [Bill Proudfoot](/source/Bill_Proudfoot) (Collingwood), [Peter Burns](/source/Peter_Burns_(footballer%2C_born_1866)) (Geelong).
* Halfbacks: [Pat Hickey](/source/Pat_Hickey_(footballer)) (Fitzroy), [George Davidson](/source/George_Davidson_(footballer)) (South Melbourne), [Alf Wood](/source/Alf_Wood_(Australian_footballer)) (Melbourne).
* Centres: [Fred Leach](/source/Fred_Leach) (Collingwood), '''Firth McCallum''' (Geelong), [Harry Wright](/source/Harry_Wright_(Australian_footballer)) (Essendon).
* Wings: [Charlie Pannam](/source/Charlie_Pannam_(footballer%2C_born_1874)) (Collingwood), [Eddie Drohan](/source/Eddie_Drohan) (Fitzroy), [Herb Howson](/source/Herb_Howson) (South Melbourne).
* Forwards: [Bill Jackson](/source/Bill_Jackson_(Australian_footballer)) (Essendon), [Eddy James](/source/Eddy_James) (Geelong), [Charlie Colgan](/source/Charlie_Colgan) (South Melbourne).
* Ruck: [Mick Pleass](/source/Mick_Pleass) (South Melbourne), [Frank Hailwood](/source/Frank_Hailwood) (Collingwood), [Joe McShane](/source/Joe_McShane) (Geelong).
* Rovers: [Dick Condon](/source/Dick_Condon) (Collingwood), [Bill McSpeerin](/source/Bill_McSpeerin) (Fitzroy), [Teddy Rankin](/source/Teddy_Rankin) (Geelong).
From those he considered to be the three best players — that is, Condon, Hickey, and Pleass — Wilmot selected Pat Hickey as his "champion player" of the season.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9030781 'Old Boy', "Football: A Review of the Season", (Monday, 18 September 1899), p.&nbsp;6.]</ref>

==Death==
McCallum, who had been suffering from [consumption](/source/Tuberculosis), died at Birregurra, Victoria on 11 July 1910,<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article150671061 Western District News: Birregurra, ''The Geelong Advertiser'', (Tuesday, 7 December 1909), p.&nbsp;4.]</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10443984 |title=Deaths: McCallum |newspaper=The Argus  |issue=19,961 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=13 July 1910 |page=1}}</ref><ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article149158886 Death of Mr. Firth M'Callum, ''The Geelong Advertiser'', (Wednesday, 13 July 1910), p.&nbsp;3.]</ref><ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10068764 Personal, ''The (Hobart) Mercury'', (Friday, 15 July 1910), p.&nbsp;5.]</ref> and was buried at the Warncoort Cemetery on 13 July 1910.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article149159038 Personal, ''The Geelong Advertiser'', (Thursday, 14 July 1910), p.&nbsp;3.]</ref>

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}		

==References==
* {{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: every AFL/VFL player since 1897 |last=Holmesby|first=Russell|last2=Main|first2=Jim |year=2014 |edition=10th |isbn=978-1-921496-32-5 |publisher=BAS Publishing |location=Seaford, Victoria}}
* [https://eprints.qut.edu.au/100083/18/Mark%27s%2BBook%2BVolume%2B4%2Br.pdf Pennings, Mark (2016), ''Origins of Australian Football: Victoria's early History: Volume 4: Tough Times: Victorian Football loses its Way, 1891 to 1896'', Brunswick, Victoria:  Grumpy Monks Publishing.] {{isbn|978-0-646-93604-8}}
		
== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
*{{AFL Tables|ref=F/Firth_McCallum.html}}		
*{{AustralianFootball|ref=firth%2Bmccallum/996}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCallum, Firth}}
Category:1872 births
Category:1910 deaths
Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Australia
Category:Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state)
Category:Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents
Category:Geelong Football Club (VFA) players
Category:Geelong Football Club players

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Firth McCallum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firth_McCallum) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firth_McCallum?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.
