RUSSELL MIDDLEMISS made his name as a footballer, but the Ballarat Orphanage gave him his start in life."These were my formative years at the orphanage where I was taught, fed and educated and clothed,"Mr Middlemiss recalled this week. "I couldn't ask for much more."A dual premiership player with the Geelong Football Club, he returned to Ballarat for a reunion of ex-orphanage residents from the 1930s to 1955.He said the orphanage gave him "200 brothers and sisters", but at age 14 he faced a choice. "It was between a higher education or working on a farm. I chose working on a farm because it got me out of the orphanage."After labouring on a series of western district farms, a fateful conversation with "an old gun shearer" at Meredith changed the course of his life."His name was Cec Bunting. He heard that Geelong and Melbourne were interested in me and he said: `I'm a gun shearer, l've been working so long and I still live in a commission home. If you've got a chance to play football, take it'." He took the advice and, as he put it, "strolled into Kardinia Park", where he got a game in a practice match."I'd never played half-back flank, but they put me there and I must have gone alright because I made the list for that year."That was 1949. He made his VFL debut that year, and while a knee injury kept him out of the 1950 season, he returned to play in the 1951 and 1953 premiership sides under coach Reg Hickey.Occasionally, during a game, a fellow orphanage kid would call out to him from the crowd. He knew where they were from because they called him by his orphanage nickname, "Buster".Although another knee operation forced him to retire in 1954, he "settled down to married life with a Geelong girl".He had four children and eight grandchildren and now lives on five acres at Leopold, where he can "muck around" and grow vegetables. He occasionally returns to Ballarat, but said his bond with his "big family" is unique.