Born to Susannah (née Strickland) and William John Truscott in Lithgow, Truscott grew up in Sydney where he played rugby football. He moved with his family to Kalgoorlie on the Western Australian Goldfields at the age of 14, and began playing for the Trafalgar Football Club's junior side.
Football career
Truscott was a durable rover (175 cm, 66 kg), who played to age 41. Lithgow born Truscott was a doyen of West Australian football, and an all round sportsman, once representing Western Australia in a first-class cricket match as a wicket-keeper and also playing bowls. Partnered by Harry Snook, he won an Australian pairs bowls title in 1955.[2]
Nicknamed 'Nipper' as a boy for his quickness in Rugby Union, he grew up in Sydney, only taking up Australian rules football when his family moved to the goldfields in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia in 1899. He was an exceptional player for Mines Rovers club at a time when the Goldfields League was considered to be almost the equal of any other league in the country. Truscott was chosen to represent Western Australia in the 1908 national carnival side – the first of his record five carnival appearances over 18 years.
Having married in 1912 he then moved to Perth where he became a postmaster. He commenced in the 1913 season with the East Fremantle Football Club, and quickly established himself as the WAFL's leading centreman. His ability to pass the ball (always with a drop kick) accurately to teammates was a feature of his play. He played in three premiership teams and in seven that were runners-up. He later acted as coach, club and State selector, club secretary and delegate.
Truscott died at the age of 79, on 20 June 1966 in Western Australia. He was an inaugural member of the Western Australian Institute's Hall of Fame in August 1985, and in the same year he was listed in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
