page_title: Bob Pratt
section_title: 1935
hierarchical_section_title: Bob Pratt / South Melbourne / 1935
caption_attribution_description: An image of Bob Pratt on crutches after being hit by a truck on VFL grand final eve, 1935.
context_page_description: Harold Robert "Bob" Pratt, senior was an Australian rules footballer who represented South Melbourne in the Victorian Football League and Coburg in the Victorian Football Association during the 1930s and 1940s.
  Considered "arguably the best full-forward in the history of Australian rules", Pratt was one of the inaugural legends inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996.
  Known for spectacular diving and high-flying marks, he topped the club's goalkicking for the first time in 1932 with 71 goals and for the next three seasons passed 100 goals. His total of 150 goals in 1934 was a VFL/AFL record which stood alone until Peter Hudson equalled it in 1971. Pratt also kicked ten or more goals in a game eight times, including 15 goals in a single game. His son, Bob Pratt, Jr. also played for South Melbourne.
context_section_description: Pratt was again a star performer in 1935, kicking 103 goals for the year and, for the third season in a row, being the VFL Leading Goalkicker (an outstanding feat, given that his teammates Roy Moore and Laurie Nash scored 52 and 51 goals respectively for the 1935 season as well).
  Following a convincing win in the second-semi final against Collingwood, when Pratt kicked six goals, South Melbourne were again considered favourite to win the premiership. However, Pratt missed the 1935 VFL Grand Final through bizarre circumstances. On the Thursday night prior to the Grand Final he was clipped by a truck carrying five tonnes of bricks moments after he stepped off a tram on High Street, Prahran. Pratt injured an ankle and lacerated both legs due to the accident and was unable to play.
  
  In response to the accident, the South Melbourne Record wrote 
  The initial attack on the inhabitants of Adowa by Benito Mussolini's invading army upon Emperor Haile Selassie, is no greater shock than that received by SMFC officials when they learned on Thursday afternoon, through the press, that Bob Pratt had been involved in a collision with a motor truck.
  The truck driver, a South Melbourne supporter, offered Pratt a packet of cigarettes as a way of apology.
  In Pratt's absence Collingwood won the Grand Final by 20 points.
caption: Pratt on crutches on Grand Final eve
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