A famed media personality, Beitzel was a broadcaster with 3AW, 3AK and ABC. He also umpired 182 VFL games, including the 1955 grand final.

His daughter Kerrie told 3AW that she was so lucky to have Beitzel as her father.

"He just loved it. He never stopped coming up with ideas," she said.

Having played reserves football for Fitzroy, Beitzel first gained prominence during a 13-year VFL umpiring career, during which he presided over 182 games, highlighted by the 1955 grand final. He served two years as the league's umpiring director in the early 1980s.

It was after turning his hand to the media though that Beitzel gained a foothold in the public imagination. For three decades after umpiring his last game in 1960, Beitzel cast a sizeable shadow, with roles across radio, TV and print.

Perhaps his greatest legacy is the international rules concept which continues to this day. It was Beitzel who in 1967 organised to send an Australian team - nicknamed 'the Galahs' - to Ireland to play a series of composite games.

His reputation was tarnished somewhat after he was imprisoned for 18 months in 1994 after pleading guilty to defrauding an elderly couple to the sum of $1.8 million relating to the "soccer pools" lotto game.

He later moved to NSW after marrying his second wife, Karolyn, and has been largely accepted back into the football fold, maintaining contact with former umpiring colleagues, along with the likes of Kevin Sheedy and Kevin Bartlett. Beitzel was inducted into the Australian football hall of fame in 2006.

"He was very, very touched to be a hall of famer, that's for sure," his son Brad has said of his father.