Jack Brake


John "Jack" Brake was a former leading Australian rules footballer who played with University and Melbourne in the Victorian Football League.

Family

The son of James Hugh Brake, and Barbara Stevenson Brake, née McDougall, John Brake was born at Horsham, Victoria on 11 November 1890.
He married Grace Glendinning Taylor on 19 July 1921.

Education

Brake was educated at the Princes Hill High School, the Hawthorn College, and the University of Melbourne.

Bachelor of Agricultural Science (B.Agr.Sc.)

Enrolled at the University of Melbourne in 1910, he graduated B.Agr.Sc. in April 1916, attending the conferral ceremony in his AIF uniform.

Athletics

He was a champion schoolboy track and field athlete.
At the 1914 Australasian Athletics Championships, with a height of 11 ft – Brake set a new record for a Victorian Amateur, breaking the record he had set – he tied for first place in the pole vault with the visiting Stanford University athlete Dink Templeton.
While at the University of Melbourne he was awarded a triple blue: for athletics, football, and rifle shooting.

Footballl

University (VFL)

Generally regarded as one of University's few great players, Brake usually played in the ruck.
He tried out with Melbourne in the 1909 pre-season. He was vice captain of the University side in 1913.

Victoria

He represented Victoria in 1912.

Melbourne (VFL) pre-AIF service

The University team withdrew from the VFL competition prior to the 1915 season; and, along with his team-mates Claude Bryan, Jack Doubleday, Dick Gibbs, Roy Park, and Percy Rodriguez, Brake was given a clearance to transfer from University to Melbourne.

Pioneer Exhibition Game 1916)

Brake was stationed with the 3rd Division in London when an Australian rules match was organised for 28 October 1916 between two teams of Australian servicemen in aid of the British and French Red Cross.
Promoted as the "Pioneer Exhibition Game of Australian Football in London", Brake represented the Third Australian Divisional Team against Australian Training Units at Queen's Club, West Kensington before an estimated crowd of 3,000, including the Prince of Wales, and King Manuel II of Portugal. A news film was taken at the match.

Melbourne (VFL) post-AIF service

As with many players at the time, World War I severely interrupted his career. Brake continued to appear sporadically for Melbourne after World War I, finally retiring in 1921 after 17 matches with Melbourne and 98 VFL matches over all.

VFL Trubunal

Brake later became a member of the VFL Tribunal.

Military service

World War I

Brake enlisted in the Third Division Artillery of the Australian Imperial Force at the start of the war, reaching the rank of Lieutenant.

World War II

In September 1940 he enlisted in the Second AIF, attaining the rank of Major.

Death

Brake died on 16 May 1970 at Castlemaine, Victoria.

Footnotes