(Ken Piesse is a Melbourne author and sportswriter of over 35 years' standing.)

Even into his 80s, Geelong's living legend Bob Davis could talk underwater with a mouthful of marbles. 'Talking is what I do best,' he'd say to me. 'I've never had a real job.'

Known for his crocodile shoes, flashy jackets and his habit of zooming his sports cars like a stunt driver on two wheels through the narrow entrance at Kardinia Park, Davis was one of the best-loved footy identities from yesteryear.

For almost 30 years on Channel 7, Davis, Jack Dyer and Lou Richards were a Thursday night institution with their program League Teams. Occasionally, in-between Bob's recipe, Lou's gags and Jack's one-liners, they'd read out a team or two. But only occasionally.

‘Woofa' made a comeback on Fox Sports with Grumpy Old Men, telling all his favorite old chestnuts like the time he was made Victorian and All-Australian carnival captain (in 1958) ahead of legends Ron Barassi, Bobby Skilton and Ted Whitten. 'It was fair dinkum unbelievable,' he told me. 'Teddy was particularly dirty!'

Davis, who hailed from Clunes via Ballarat College, said his father Leslie, a barber-cum-SP bookmaker and billiard room proprietor, had always taught him the importance of money and the transition from player to television's first expert comments man 50 years ago was a matter of simple arithmetic.

'I was getting 14 or 15 pounds (a week) to play at Geelong and Channel 7 offered me 50 on top of that,' he said. 'I was blessed. Keith Cairns from Channel 7 told me that they were going to film the football and Geoff Raymond from the ABC was going to call the games. They wanted someone to give comments: "When he runs out of something to say, you'll say something."

'And you're going to pay me 50 quid for that?'

'Yes.'

'OK.'

'I came home, told Marg (his wife) about it and she said: "It might be a good idea, Bob ... you're never going to win the Brownlow are you?" and that was that. I'd played my last game.'

Davis, who died last night at 82, could connect with all generations. When I'd take the Frankston third XI cricketers down to Geelong for a Saturday-Sunday game, we'd stay at Bobby's motel and he'd come out in his slippers and introduce himself to each of the boys. ‘Kenny keeping you in check?' he'd ask.

Davis had first been taught footy on the sandhills of Golden Point and, from the age of 12, boarded at Ballarat College  where he still remembers being tucked in at night by the school's dear old matron, Mrs McDonald.

'We'd gone out to Clunes (from Ballarat) about 1933 (when he was 5). There was a split up in the family. My Dad ran the barber shop and billiard room. He was a part time SP (bookmaker) as well and did very well out of it all. We went to the local school there at Clunes and I'd walk home and have a kick on the local oval with my mates. Come Saturdays we were always getting under the feet of the seniors. I played my first matches there. Clunes wore Collingwood jumpers. I've never forgotten that!

'Dad reckoned it would be best if I went to school (and board) in Ballarat. "Where would you like to go?" he asked me one night: "The Grammar or the College?"

'As a kid there used to be a magazine called the Triumph & Champion. It was full of all these English public school stories. The College always sounded better in the mags, so I told Dad "The College".'

'Okay.'

'I first went there in 1939, being just 11 or 12 at the time. For years I was known as "little Bobby Davis" or "Atom". I was 5ft nothing. But in the year I had my tonsils out I shot up to just about what I am now (183 cm, 6ft.). I also got faster. I wasn't necessarily the Geelong Flyer back then, but I was very quick, particularly for Ballarat footy. Slowly, everything else started to come together. I could kick it better, mark it better and run faster. Luckily I took after my mother's side, the Jones's. They were very athletic (Davis' uncle Ray Jones was also to play for Geelong after the War).

'In my last year there (1946) we had what looked like a terrific team and I said we had a good enough team to take it up to St Pat's who hadn't been beaten for 40 years or more. Dad immediately started going around Ballarat saying how his kid was going to beat St Pat's and he put 300 pounds on us! That's a lot of money in 1946. The publicity for the game was so huge that they shifted it to the City Oval, rather than playing it at school.  I kicked 5.8 and we got beaten by three points!'

Davis barracked for South Melbourne and loved it that a distant cousin Harry Clarke had played in South's famous ‘Foreign Legion' premiership of 1933. Having been asked to play a game by Golden Point at 16, he thought League football was an automatic next step.

'Bob Pratt and Laurie Nash were my heroes. They'd been stars for South Melbourne all through the 1930s,' Davis recalled. ‘I kidded my Dad to take me down to South and (coach) Bull Adams sent me home three times without even seeing me kick a ball! Even Dad said to me: "Are you sure you can play?"

'Maybe it was because I was uninvited, but it all turned out very nicely. I started to play regularly at Golden Point. I was boarding with the O'Brien's who lived right on the ground. Then I went to live in town with the Rosser's. They had a daughter Margaret and from the moment I saw her I told myself this was the one I wanted to be with for life. It began the happiest of all partnerships (on their wedding certificate both wrote the same address... ‘but there was no funny business,' said Marg. ‘I was a good Catholic girl. Bob was at one end of the house and I was at the other.')

Davis' teenage exploits at Golden Point were considerable and included a senior premiership at 17. Several League clubs showed an interest. Melbourne was keen but wanted Davis to shift full-time to Melbourne. Geelong was also in the race.  ‘Ivo Gibson (Geelong's secretary) was chatting to me on a street corner (in Ballarat) one day and I told him what Melbourne was wanting. He said if I signed with them I could still live in Ballarat and just come down to training twice a week. "Done," I said.

'Also standing with us was Len Menzies who ran a Cream and Gold cab in Ballarat. ‘I'll take you down each Tuesday and Thursday and Saturdays, too, if you want, Bob,' he said. "Done," I said.

'In my first year at the club (1948), I'd go down and come back three times a week with Len. If we were playing in Geelong we'd stop off at the Elaine hotel for an early counter lunch. If we were in Melbourne, we'd stop off at Freddie Fanning's Bacchus Marsh hotel and have our three courses. Don't know what the dietitians would have made of all that today. But back then it all worked out very nicely indeed. I've never once ever regretted my association with Geelong. It has been fantastic really.'

(KEN PIESSE's forthcoming new book Football Legends of the Bush has more Bob Davis memories. Ken can be contacted at www.cricketbooks.com.au)