Born: December 28, 1927
Died: June 19, 2000
Chairman: 1991-2000
North Melbourne Hall of Fame inductee: 2002

Known to all Victorians for decades as the face of Channel Seven’s renowned Sunday sports show, World of Sport, Ron Casey was a man of many talents - television administrator, presenter and commentator among them. But his one true love was the North Melbourne Football Club, and he dedicated much of his time to its success.

Born in 1927, two years after North Melbourne had joined the VFL, Casey began his media career at radio station 3DB where he commenced as a panel operator in the late 1940s. So began more than four decades of service to the radio and television industry.

When television came to Australia in 1956, Casey joined HSV7 and spent the next 28 years as host of what became the world’s longest-running show dedicated to sport, World of Sport, a Victorian institution on Sundays at noon.

He later became studio manager and then general manager at the station, while forming a powerful footy calling duo with Lou Richards on 3DB.

While broadcasting boxing and harness racing occupied much of his time, Casey’s mind and heart were rarely far away from his greatest sporting love, football and North Melbourne. He joined the club’s board in 1987 and gave his all to the Kangaroos over the next 14 seasons, the last 10 of those as chairman.

Under Casey’s stewardship, the Shinboners embarked on a new era of success which saw the club appoint Denis Pagan as coach, the master coach taking North to premierships in 1996 and 1999 and to within a whisker of a treble in 1998. With Pagan in charge on the field and Casey at the helm off it, the Kangaroos reprised the Barassi-Aylett glory days of the seventies, delivering the club’s third and fourth flags, a remarkable effort when taking into consideration the club’s market share against the AFL’s mega-clubs Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond.

Having seen the club attain the pinnacle twice under his leadership, Ron Casey died in June 2000, with his beloved Kangaroos as the reigning premiers.

Casey’s services to football in general were recognised when he was one of 136 inaugural inductees of the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996 (in the media category) and specifically to North Melbourne as part of the initial 2002 intake into the club’s own Hall of Fame.