Teddy Rankin

Who was Teddy Rankin?

Edward "Teddy" Rankin was an Australian rules footballer who played with Geelong in the Victorian Football League. His sons Cliff and Bert both also had successful careers with the club.

A rover, Rankin was a member of the inaugural Geelong VFL side in 1897. He did not play at all in 1898 due to typhoid but returned to the side the following season and appeared in every season until his retirement in 1910, by then in the backlines. In 1903 he won the Geelong Best and Fairest award. During the 1903 season he had become the first ever Geelong player to play 100 games and he is also credited as being the first player in the league to use the practice of touching the ball on the ground as oppose to bouncing it. He had used it during a wet game in the 1890s.