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COOPER, John Richard (1922-2012)

COOPER, John Richard (1922-2012)


'Jack' Cooper was among the most talented cricketers to play schoolboy cricket. ‘Jack’ was selected as a member of the Geelong College Team of the Sesquicentenary in 2011.

‘Jack’ was a boarder at College from 1937 to 1939 after attending Leongatha High School and was among the first boarders to enjoy the new facilities of Mackie House in 1939. At College, he was a member of the 1st Cricket Team, the 1st Football Team and the Athletics Team, all from 1937 to 1939. In school competitions he scored three centuries, one in 1938 against Geelong Grammar, and two in 1939 against Wesley and Xavier Colleges. At College he was also Captain of the Athletics Team, Shannon House Captain and a School Prefect in 1939. Among his other achievements were the winning of the Doubles Tennis Championship in 1939 and the awarding of the Dr Gus Kearney Prize for all-round sporting achievement.

During World War II he enlisted on 4 September, 1941 and served as a sergeant with the 2/164 General Transport Company, as a Driving Instructor and Testing Officer in the southern States before being stationed at Adelaide River in the Northern Territory. He was discharged from the army on 22 July, 1946. Pegasus published a letter from him in which he mentioned his dismal cricket performance and several other College students then serving with the army in the Northern Territory

Before World War II, ‘Jack’ Cooper played district cricket (Melbourne) with Collingwood 1st XI for two years. After the war, he played first grade (Sydney) for Waverley. Selected in the NSW Practice Squad he played for NSW 2nd XI against Victoria on SCG. He then captained the NSW Country XI against the touring MCC team (Fred Brown, Captain) at Lismore, NSW in about 1950.

After moving to Queensland he played for the Western Suburbs Cricket Club in Brisbane and captained them to a premiership in the 1954/5 season. He was selected in the Queensland Practice Squad and played one Sheffield Shield match for Queensland against NSW. ‘Jack’ died, age 90, on 19 November 2012.


''Sources: James Affleck. 'Geelong Collegians at the Second World War' p172; Courier Mail (Brisbane) 21 Nov 2012.' (OGC 1935).