Reg Date
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Reg Date was an Australian football (soccer) international and prolific goalscorer who plied his trade after the Second World War.
Date went to Plattsburg Public School in Wallsend who he first turned out for, attracting the attention of scouts of Canterbury-Bankstown in the state league. In time he was coached by the great Alf Quill, Wallsend's legendary goalscorer of the inter-War years.
At his peak Date was a prolific goal scorer for Canterbury-Bankstown in the New South Wales Division 1, earning state and international recognition and captaining Australia for a single game on May 31, 1947 against South Africa. That game formed part of a five-game home series against that nation; Date scoring 8 goals. (He scored another 3 in two warm-up matches for the 'B' side prior to the official tour. There was consternation when Date, for whatever reason, was not selected on international tours of New Zealand in 1948 and, most surprisingly, South Africa in 1950 but he did score in a representative match on the national side's return from the Cape for New South Wales against Australia on Saturday September 2, 1950 and did appear for the 'B' side in the famous 0-17 defeat to an English XI on June 30, 1951.
In 2000 he was selected as a member of the Australian team of the century by respondents to a rsssf.com vote, beating Frank Farina into second place for the number 10 shirt.
