Eric Ford

Eric Excell Ford (21 July 1904 – c. 1986) was a rugby union player who represented Australia. Ford, a wing, was born in Launceston, Tasmania and claimed a total of 7 international rugby caps for Australia. His brother Jack was also an Australian rugby union representative player. The elder brother of perhaps the more famous Jack Ford, Eric Ford was himself a star for both New South Wales and Australia in his own right. Family and early life Eric Ford was the son of a publican father who died when Eric was only six years of age, when the family had to move to Sydney. He began his early football career playing Australian Rules but switched to rugby when he and his brothers Jack and Percy went to St. Joseph's College at Hunters Hill in Sydney. They all had the unique benefit of learning the game from the remarkable Brother Henry. Rugby career On leaving school, with his brothers, he joined the Glebe-Balmain Club and was a member of the club's 1925 Sydney Premiership winning team. He was first selected for New South Wales in 1926. Troubled by frequent knee problems throughout his career, he nevertheless played on without demur and in 1929 won the New South Wales Rugby Union Sprint Championship.