25 years on: Ted Whitten Jr reflects on EJ’s emotion-charged lap of the MCG

Today marks the 25th anniversary of one of most memorable moments at the MCG ever.

And it almost never happened.

Neil Mitchell spoke with Ted Whitten Jr about his famous father’s final lap of the Melbourne Cricket Ground before his death in 1995.

While it became the stuff of legend, it could have easily not unfolded.

“He told us he wasn’t well enough and was feeling too sick that he couldn’t make it and so we had to ring the AFL and tell them he wasn’t coming,” Ted Whitten Jr explained on 3AW Mornings.

“That was that.

“But the next morning he woke up with a spring in his step and he wanted to go.

“He changed his mind and said – ‘I’m going, I want to go and get a haircut, get my blazer and tie out and we’re going to go to the MCG and we’re going to go around’.”

EJ became a significant symbol for men’s health in Australia, with Ted Jr also reflecting on the EJ Whitten Foundation’s fight for men’s health.

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