Ron Barassi Sr.

Ronald James Barassi, lived from 24 October 1913 to 30 July 1941, was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League and was the father of Hall of Famer Ron Barassi. Of Swiss-Italian descent on his grandfather side, he began with the Castlemaine Football Club, played as a rover and debuted for Melbourne in 1936. His last match was the club victorious 1940 grand final, in which he started as the nineteenth man. He joined the army soon after that season, like many Melbourne players, served in the North African campaign and was killed in action at Tobruk in 1941, the first VFL footballer to die in the Second World War. He is buried at Tobruk War Cemetery.