page_title: Dick Reynolds
section_title: Early life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Dick Reynolds / Early life and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Australian football player, Dick Reynolds, kicking.
context_page_description: Richard Sylvannus Reynolds was an Australian rules footballer who represented Essendon in the Victorian Football League in the 1930s and 1940s.
  Reynolds is one of four footballers to have won three Brownlow Medals, the others being Haydn Bunton, Sr., Bob Skilton and Ian Stewart. Revered by Essendon supporters, he was often referred to simply as "King Richard".
context_section_description: Reynolds grew up supporting Carlton and sold lollies outside Princes Park on match days.
  When Reynolds won his first Brownlow Medal in 1934, Fitzroy champion Haydn Bunton, Sr., whom Reynolds had narrowly beaten to win the award, was the first person to telegraph his congratulations, a sporting gesture that Reynolds deeply appreciated.
  In June 1947, it was announced that Reynolds would start writing about football for the now-defunct Melbourne newspaper The Argus.
  Like many footballers, Reynolds was also a noted cricketer. He was a successful medium-fast bowler for Essendon Cricket Club but gave up the game when it started to interfere with football. In January 1949, he made a return to district cricket when Essendon batsman Ken Meuleman was picked for State duty.
  After being re-elected yet again as player-coach by the Essendon committee in February 1949, Reynolds guided the Bombers to the Grand Final against Carlton, which they won by 73 points. Reynolds, who was playing his 299th game, described it afterwards as "the best Essendon performance he could remember."
  Off the field, Reynolds was a shy and private man, noted for his humility about his footballing achievements.
caption: Reynolds in action.
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