Billy Schmidt
Australian rules footballer and coach
Louis William Schmidt (29 December 1887 – 23 October 1975) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in 1907 then in the Victorian Football League (VFL) from 1908 to 1911, and again in 1921. He played for the St Kilda Football Club between 1912 and 1914, and again from 1918 until 1920.
Football
"William was a centreman. Recruited from the local Richmond area, he quickly developed into one of the best centreman of his era. A consistently high possession winner, he had great pace, brilliant evasive skills and was a magnificent kick."
Richmond (VFA)
He played in the last four games (6 goals) of the 1907 VFA season for Richmond — the team's last season in the VFA — including its Semi-Final loss to West Melbourne.
Richmond (VFL)
He played in Richmond's first match in the VFL competition, against Melbourne, at the Punt Road Oval, on 2 May 1908. He went on to play 71 VFL games (69 goals) over four seasons: 1908 to 1911 (he was the team's captain in 1910).
St Kilda (VFL)
In 1913, Schmidt kicked a goal after the siren to destroy Carlton's chances of making the finals; it is the first recorded instance of a VFL player kicking a goal after the siren to win the match. Schmidt, who was known for his accurate kicking using either the drop kick or the place kick, steered the ball through the goals from 45 yards. He was a member of the St Kilda team that lost the 1913 VFL Grand Final to Fitzroy.
The public source identifies “Billy Schmidt” as australian rules footballer and coach. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Billy, Schmidt and Australian.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4913286. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887, 1975, 1907 and 1908.
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This entry incorporates text from “Billy Schmidt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.