Richmond ‘Immortal’ Kevin Bartlett is the Club’s second ‘Coming Home Hero’.
The five-time Tigers’ premiership superstar will be honored during the pre-game build-up at this Friday night’s Blockbuster clash with his old nemesis Collingwood at the MCG.
Bartlett, who played a Club record 403 games from 1965-1983 and kicked 778 goals, will walk to the Punt Road end of the ground, where he’ll receive rightful recognition from the Tiger Army.
Be there, buy tickets to this Friday Night's blockbuster game against Collingwood.
He will then proceed to kick a ceremonial goal, before signing the ball and handing it to a Richmond fan in the crowd.
Highlights of Bartlett’s brilliant career with the Tigers also will be shown on the big screens.
Bartlett knocked on the door at Tigerland, as a skinny 14-year-old in 1961, asking for a game with the Club’s under 17s.
That request was granted, and he went on to win the fourths’ (as they were known) Best and Fairest that year, before graduating to the under 19s, where he won the B & F in 1963.
He eventually worked his way through to make his senior league debut with Richmond in Round 3 of the 1965 season.
By 1967, when the Tigers ended their 24-year premiership drought, Bartlett was the team’s first rover – and a damn good one already!
KB, or ‘Hungry’, as he was affectionately known, was Richmond’s first rover again in its 1969, 1973 and 1974 premierships, and was a key performer in all those glorious triumphs.
Then, in 1980, when Richmond destroyed Collingwood by 81 points in the Grand Final, Bartlett again exerted a huge influence, although this time it was in a different role.
Bartlett turned football’s traditional graveyard – the half-forward flank – into a Yellow and Black oasis, kicking 84 goals for the 1980 season, including 21 goals in that year’s finals series, with seven of them coming in a breathtaking performance on Grand Final day, which earned him the Norm Smith Medal for best afield.
Electrifying pace, brilliant anticipation, enormous stamina, an insatiable ball-winning appetite, superb goal sense, and a fierce desire to succeed, combined to make Kevin Bartlett one of the greatest small players in league football history.
The awards, accolades and acknowledgments for KB during, and after, his incredible playing career, just kept coming . . . five Best and Fairest awards, Tigers’ Team of the Century rover, Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend, Richmond Immortal status, etc.
In Round 19, 1983, Kevin Bartlett became the first player in league football history to reach the 400-game milestone.
Three weeks later, it was all over for KB after 403 games in 19 seasons, and so much success along the way.
Bartlett subsequently returned to Richmond as the Club’s senior coach from 1988-91, and during his four-year reign he introduced talented, young players such as Matthew Knights, Brendon Gale, Wayne Campbell, Tony Free, Craig Lambert, Stuart Maxfield and Chris Naish into the Tigers’ line-up.
KB is a Richmond icon, and deserving of a huge Tiger turnout to pay tribute to him on his favorite stomping ground this Friday night.
KEVIN BARTLETT FACT FILE
Born: 6/3/1947
Height: 175cm
Playing weight: 71kg
Recruited to Richmond from: Try Boys Youth Club
Guernsey number at Richmond: No. 29
Games (1965-83): 403
Goals: 778
Games coached (1988-91): 88
Honors: Five-time premiership player (1967, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1980); five-time Jack Dyer Medal winner (1967, 1968, 1973, 1974, 1977); Norm Smith Medallist in 1980; four-time Club Leading Goalkicker award winner (1974, 1975, 1977, 1983); third on the Club’s all-time goalkicking list with 778 goals; Club captain in 1979; Tigers’ Team of the Century member; inaugural Richmond Hall of Fame inductee; elevated to Richmond Immortal status in 2004; RFC Life Member; Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend; AFL Life Member; 20-time Victorian State representative.
