The Sumich name is synonymous with South Fremantle, with four members of the clan representing the club at league level. Before the arrival of Peter, his father Laurie, Jack, Joe, and Budi all donned the red and white.  According to many good judges at the port, the first of them, Jack, was one of South Fremantles best ever ruckmen. A half an inch over six foot tall and weighing 97kg(15 stone), that would seem an ambiguous statement, but Jack Sumich was a springheeled jack with a big leap, and was extremely agile.  A highly credentialed athlete and engineering graduate, the conflicts of competing sporting interests and studies combined to eventually rob football of his impressive talent.  In just sixty games of football, Sumich did enough to suggest that he could have become an all time great given different circumstances. Jack Sumich didn't display much in the way of sporting ability as an early schoolboy. A son of a market gardener at Spearwood, his athletic career kicked off with a beanstick. “I would pick up a beanstick and throw it as far as I could, with it ending up sticking in the ground,” he said. “It didn't take long to develop a technique to get better and better at it.” In his second year at University, Sumich was obliged to join the CMF, and participated in their athletic competitions. “It was originally a stategy to avoid the marching drills, but I got to enjoy it,”he said.  Jack was selected in the Army team for the triangular meeting and won the javelin event.  Representing University at the Leederville athletics meetings,  Sumich found that it was a long wait for his event, so he began to dabble with the shot put and discus, eventually competing in pentathlon, winning State titles.  In 1960 he was runner up to John Montgomery in the State Decathlon.  “I was a shocking distance runner,” Jack recalled. “I ran against John in a fifteen hundred metre event, and led them up early. John had a pacemaker in the race, and I folded up at about the half way mark. I vowed after that that I'd get my revenge, which I did four years later.”  Sumich's engineering studies took him to Manchester, England, in 1961, but he continued to become a force in athletics, winning the British Open Decathlon in 1962 and 63, and was a record holder in the event. The Perth Empire Games in 1962 beckoned, but not having completed his residential requirements for his study in England, and not having the resources or time to return, Jack was unable to compete for a place in the team. Returning home in 1963, Sumich competed in the Australian Championships in Melbourne, which were also trials for the Tokyo Olympic Games. He fared well in all events, but a conversation with a selector made him reassess his priorities. “It was different in those days,” he said. “There wasn't the funding there is now, it required a lot of self sacrifice and dedication. The negative attitude I got from the selector caused me to think I would be better off channeling my time into my professional life, which had already been neglected.” At the peak of his prowess at the time, Jack has often reflected on what might have been, but has no regrets.  The round ball game held sway in the Sumich household in his younger days.  A promising soccer player, Jack captained the State junior side before being chosen in Spearwood's senior side at the age of sixteen. He would play soccer on Saturdays and line up for Cockburn in the Fremantle Ex Scholars Australian Rules competition the next day. In 1958, he won the Lynn Medal as fairest and best in the Ex Scholars.  Venturing to Fremantle Oval in 1959, he was selected as back up ruckman to Lindsay Hurst in the first game of the season, before taking over the mantle of number one after just a few games. It was John Todd's first year at the helm, and the young Sumich quickly impressed with his agile displays both at the ruck hitouts and around the ground. His high leaping tapwork, complimented by marking around the ground and deft ballhandling impressed many of the critics. Because of his often huge height disadvantage, Jack relied on the timing of his leap, and often bounced off an opponent, which in turn put them off their game. “Polly Farmer was an expert at doing that, and was an object lesson,” he said. “Brian Foley was a great player, but I could usually get over him with a good jump, but not Pol. He was unflappable, you couldn't put him off his game.”   Sumich made his State debut in June of that year as part of a State second side which defeated Hawthorn twice. Incidently, South team mates John Gerovich and John Todd booted seven goals each in Tasmania with the State number one side. Promoted to the Western Australian team for the second of two games against South Australia  that August, he kicked four goals, as did Gerovich.  “I should have played in the first game against South Australia,” he recalled. “I was in the squad for the two matches, but wasn't  named for the Saturday match. On arriving at Subiaco Oval, the team manager grabbed me with the information that there'd been a change and I was in. I had no gear with me, and was on the carpet as a result.” The Tuesday game wasn't without a complication for Jack either. “I got no sleep the night before with an abscess on a tooth, so a visit to the dentist wasn't the ideal pre game preparation.” Sumich was runner up for the Walker Medal in his first year, but went one better the following season, taking off the award, and played as a half forward for Western Australia against Victoria, with a ruck battery of Foley, Farmer, and Clarke. In what was to be his last appearance for three years, Jack was his side's best in a losing semi final to East Fremantle.   Sumich returned to South Fremantle in 1964 after an athletics and studies sojourn overseas. With Fred Seinor entrenched in the ruck, Jack's flexibility was used, and he found himself playing all over the ground. “I probably wasn't really prepared for league football at that stage, after a busy and absorbing three years away,” he said. It was to be his last hurrah for the Bulldogs, a transfer to Collie with the State Electricity Commission in 1965 causing him to relocate to the South West, where he played for Mines Rovers. Part of a premiership in his first season at the club, Sumich took on the playing coach role for the following two years. He was a dominant centre half forward in 1967, with one bag of seven goals against Harvey-Brunswick, and received recognition with a Hayward Medal as fairest and best in the SWNFL.   Farmer was Jack's pick as hardest to beat, with Mal Atwell close behind. “Mal played it hard and tough.” With the proviso that he hadn't seen the best of John Todd, but from what he'd seen of the champ fully believing how good others say he was before suffering injury, the names of Tony Parentich, John Gerovich, Cliff Hillier, and John Colgan were foremost as best South team mates.  Formerly an electrical engineer, Sumich later headed the family business, the Sumich Group, which at one time boasted five hundred employees and became the largest fruit and vegetable exporter in Australia. These days he deals in currency trading. “It's a difficult and challenging occupation/hobby,” he laughed. “There aren't a lot of people doing it, and there's  less making money out of it.” A former keen amateur golfer, open heart surgery has put the fairway out of bounds lately. He enjoys a good game of football on TV, is a fan of today's AFL, but admits he finds being a sporting spectator difficult. The WA football world saw far too little of Jack Sumich. In 1959 and 60 he stormed into the top echelon of his craft despite being just a touch over six foot. His success in other walks of life prevented him from giving the game the time needed to develop into the great player he would surely have become.