page_title: Western Bulldogs
section_title: 1970s
hierarchical_section_title: Western Bulldogs / History / 1970s
caption_attribution_description: Ted Whitten Statue
context_page_description: The Western Bulldogs is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League, the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 in Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne, the club won nine premierships in the Victorian Football Association before gaining entry to the Victorian Football League in 1925. The club has won two VFL/AFL premierships, in 1954 and 2016, and was runner up in 1961. It has also claimed one premiership in the AFL Women's competition, in 2018, having been a foundation member of the league the previous year.
  The Western Bulldogs' home guernsey features two thick horizontal hoops—one red and one white—on a royal blue background.
  The club's headquarters and training facilities are located in Footscray at Whitten Oval, nicknamed "The Kennel", its original home ground. The club draws much of its supporter base from Melbourne's traditionally working class western region, and plays its home matches at Docklands Stadium in the Docklands area, also in the city's inner-west. In 1996, the club changed its name from the "Footscray Football Club" to the "Western Bulldogs".
context_section_description: Ted Whitten Snr. retired as a player in 1970 and held the record for the most VFL games played at the time (321 games); he would continue in a coaching capacity until the end of 1971. The club was relatively strong in the 1970s, but did not win a final; by decade's end they were back near the bottom.
  The main stars of the decade included Gary Dempsey, the heroic ruckman who was badly burnt in Lara bushfire of January 1969 but managed to take out the game's top individual award, the Brownlow Medal, in 1975. Promising South Australian import Neil Sachse had his neck broken in a freak accident while playing against Fitzroy at the Western Oval. He was left quadriplegic.
  In 1978, Kelvin Templeton became the first Bulldogs player to kick 100 goals in a season, including a club record of 15.9 in Round 13 against St Kilda.
caption: Footscray legend E. J. Whitten played his 321st and final game in 1970 to become the VFL games record holder. (Pictured: Statue of Whitten outside Whitten Oval.)
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