As the club prepares to move to its new state-of-the-art training and administration base at Melbourne Airport next week, we reflect on the key moments at Windy Hill over its history.

Reynolds Royalty

Dick Reynolds is to Essendon Football Club what Don Bradman was to cricket and what Phar Lap was to horse racing. He was a footballer who captured the imagination of a generation and became an icon at Windy Hill.

Known simply as ‘King Richard’, Reynolds was a rover who dominated games from start to finish. When he was in full flight, opposition sides seemed powerless to stop him.

Reynolds’s career started humbly. He came from Essendon, went to school in Ascot Vale and Moonee Ponds and arrived at Windy Hill in 1933, a promising recruit from local club Woodlands. He barracked for Carlton, and sold lollies outside Princes Park on Saturday afternoons but was overlooked after a trial at Princes Park. Of this, Reynolds said: “I was a Carlton barracker at the time and got a training run with their seconds. But I ran around and no one said boo to me so I had a shower and left a bit disillusioned.”

From then, Essendon Football Club would be forever redefined.

By 19, Reynolds was the youngest person to win the Brownlow Medal, and the first Essendon player to take home football’s highest individual honour.  After only two seasons, Reynolds had established himself as one of the superstars of the competition. By 1939, he was captain-coach, a logical ascension for a man who readily admitted to finding more joy in team success than his own.

With no less than four premierships, three Brownlow Medals and seven Best and Fairests, Reynolds’s efforts at Windy Hill put him at the pinnacle of the game’s greats.

There is no more decorated player in league history but yet modesty was one of Reynolds’ greatest assets. Newspaper columnist Percy Taylor wrote in 1949: “His chief characteristic is his modesty. It is hard to image anybody who has had his success and continued to keep both feet on the ground so firmly. Late Essendon legend Ron Evans, who played under Reynolds for three years, previously recalled: “(Reynolds) taught us to be modest in victory and gracious in defeat.”

By the time he retired, Reynolds was widely acknowledged as the greatest player of all time.

Just days before Reynolds passed away, he was named Essendon’s greatest ever player at the Champions of Essendon Gala Event. He was one of football’s most humble, archetypal gentlemen and was visibly moved by the honour. When presented, Reynolds famously stated: “I don’t deserve this honour... Bill Hutchison was the best player I ever saw.”

Yet for all of his contributions, including 320 games incorporating 244 as skipper, his greatest gift to the club was noted by his close friend John Birt: "He gave Essendon people hope. He led Essendon out of the Depression and the football club out of mediocrity."

Dick Reynolds' legacy at Windy Hill will never be forgotten.

Richard 'Dick' Reynolds
- 320 games and 442 goals from 1933-1951
- Premierships 1942, 1946, 1949, 1950
- Brownlow Medal 1934, 1937, 1938
- Represented Victoria 17 times
- Best and Fairest 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1942, 1943
- Essendon leading goalkicker 1943
- Essendon captain 1939 – 1950
- Essendon captain/coach 1940 – 1950, non playing coach 1951 – 1960
- AFL Team of the Century Member
- Essendon Team of the Century Member
- Australian Hall of Fame Legend
- Number 1 Champion of Essendon

*With thanks to An Illustrated History of Essendon Football Club and Champions of Essendon.