The suicide of Thomas Wentworth Wills

Thomas Wentworth Wills was the most important Australian sportsman of his time. He captained the Victorian colony at cricket and was the first hero of Australian Rules football. Although his picture now adorns the conservative Melbourne Cricket Club, he died in 1880, an isolated, destitute alcoholic, after stabbing himself in the heart. Wills embodied a tradition, as prevalent today as it was over 100 years ago, that weds sport with alcohol in Australian culture.