Malcolm Cooper (footballer)

Malcolm Cooper was an Indigenous Australian rules footballer who played for Port Adelaide during the 1950s.[1]

Malcolm Cooper
Playing career
Years Club Games (Goals)
1954–1955 Port Adelaide 5

Football

Cooper was noticed as an up and coming player in the junior ranks, winning the "most improved" award for Port Adelaide Colts in 1953.[2] He is considered the first indigenous Australian to play senior football for Port Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).[3] Harry Hewitt did represent the club in an interstate match against Victorian club Fitzroy in 1891 but that was not an SANFL fixture.[4]


Malcolm was also the first Aboriginal footballer to play for the Port Adelaide Football Club in a Grand Final, the seven-point loss to West Torrens in 1953.[5]

Social activism

Malcolm Cooper founded the Aboriginal Progress Association and became its first president in 1964.[6][7] The association was formed in response to perceptions that the South Australian Aborigines' Advancement League was dominated by non-Aboriginal members, lessening the voice of indigenous Australians politically.[7] He met and lobbied Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies in 1963 in Canberra as part of a delegation to promote justice for Aboriginal people.[8]

References
  1. "List of Port Adelaide's indigenous players in the AFL and SANFL - portadelaidefc.com.au". portadelaidefc.com.au. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  2. ""Sport" Holes". Messenger (135). South Australia. 29 October 1953. p. 2. Retrieved 20 April 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. Homfray, Reece (13 July 2017). "If you bleed black and white you're in part of the family". WA Weekend.
  4. "The Fitzroy Matches". South Australian Chronicle. XXXIV (1, 720). 8 August 1891. p. 15. Retrieved 9 April 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. https://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/2019/02/01/kids-from-the-alice-when-malcolm-met-menzies/
  6. "Port Adelaide's pain over racism after long and proud Indigenous history". ABC News. 2016-08-23. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
  7. Australia, National Museum of. "Collaborating for Indigenous Rights Home". indigenousrights.net.au. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
  8. https://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/2019/02/01/kids-from-the-alice-when-malcolm-met-menzies/
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