Jack Pollard

Jack Ernest Pollard OAM (31 July 1926 – 25 May 2002) was an Australian sports journalist, writer and cricket historian.

Born in Sydney, New South Wales on 31 July 1926, Pollard began his journalism career in 1943 as a copy boy at Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper. At the age of 18, he was called up to the Australian Army, but a foot injury sustained during an army rugby game saw him sit out nine months at Holsworthy Barracks. The injury may have saved Pollard's life as his assigned platoon was killed in action in New Guinea during World War II.

From 1945 to 1947, Pollard lived in post-war Japan working as a sports editor for the armed forces newspaper there. He returned to Sydney briefly, then moved to England, where he worked as a horse racing writer for a newspaper in Sheffield.

In 1948, he started work as a correspondent for the Australian Associated Press in London which included a regular column, sometimes serious, other times humorous.

He covered many major sporting events. He also covered events such as the 1948 Summer Olympics, ten Wimbledon Championships and the 1948 tour of England by Don Bradman's Australian cricket team.

Pollard returned to Sydney in 1956, where he worked as a sports reporter until starting his own publishing company (Jack Pollard Publishing), which specialised in books on sport and leisure topics. Pollard was a prolific writer and editor, who produced a large number of sporting reference books, including a definitive five-volume history of Australian cricket, encyclopaedias on rugby union, golf, horse racing and a series of popular fishing guides. He also wrote biographies for several sports stars including tennis players Lew Hoad and Rod Laver, cricketer Keith Miller and umpire Lou Rowan, golfer Bruce Devlin, rugby league players Ken Thornett and Johnny Raper, and VFL player Peter McKenna.

Although Pollard's works included all Australian sports, it is his cricket writing that is considered an important part of his legacy. Books include such topics as:

• The history of Australian cricket
• Cricket statistics
• The "Australian way" of playing cricket

• Pollard, Jack, 1926- (1969), Ampol's Australian sporting records, Pollard Publishing Co, retrieved 23 January 2017  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Pollard, Jack (1995), The complete illustrated history of Australian cricket (2nd ed.), Viking, ISBN 978-0-670-90329-0 
• Pollard, Jack (1989), The pictorial history of Australian cricket (3rd ed.), Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 978-0-340-51638-6 
• Dundas, Ross; Pollard, Jack, 1926-2002 (1990), Highest, most and best Australian cricket statistics 1850-1990, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 978-0-207-16460-6  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Pollard, Jack, 1926-2002 (1968), Cricket, the Australian way (2nd ed.), Lansdowne, ISBN 978-0-7018-0231-8  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)

Pollard retired from publishing in 1981 to concentrate on writing.

He died on 25 May 2002, after suffering a stroke upon his return to Sydney from a research trip in Melbourne.

• 12 December 1990: General member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame
• 8 June 1992: Medal of the Order of Australia for service to sports journalism and sporting history

The Jack Pollard Literary Award is awarded annually by the Australian Cricket Society for the leading Australian cricket book published over the previous 12 months.