He grew up near Windy Hill and could almost hear the roar of the crowd during a halcyon six-year period just after World War 2.

He got upset as a child when they lost and even cried when they won.

"In my third game we were playing Collingwood and our coach, the legendary Dick Reynolds, had revved us up," he said this week.

"I came into the rooms after a narrow victory as an 18-year-old, I'm hugging Dick Reynolds and I'm in tears.

"I'm a fairly emotional person, I guess it was that fanaticism and love of Essendon that came through."

Over an 11-year career, the centre half-forward would also make plenty of Bombers' fans cry with joy.

"My strength was my marking, I felt at the time that I could out-mark anybody in the VFL," he said.

"I was lucky I had long legs (he was 187cms or six feet, two inches) and a natural spring, but I worked on it as well."

Fraser's resume is comparable with almost any Bomber.

He played 198 games, won premierships in 1962 and '65, including the latter as captain, was a two-time club best and fairest and was runner-up twice in the Brownlow Medal.

The 1965 premiership win over St Kilda by 35 points was his career highlight, but Fraser admits now it's a blur.

He will never forget though that year's preliminary final win over Collingwood after Essendon's John Somerville was knocked unconscious.

"The booing at the MCG was extraordinary, normally there's a mix of cheering, but the booing was something that was memorable. That was a major incident in football," Fraser said.

"Bearing in mind in 1958, Collingwood had beaten Melbourne in a grand final, they had really sucked Melbourne in.

"I've gone around to as many players as I could and looked them in the eye and told them to play the ball, don't get sucked in.

"A few years later Peter McKenna, who was an 18-year-old centre half-forward for Collingwood, told me, 'I remember you telling all the players to concentrate on the ball, but did you realise your tough centre half-back (Ian) 'Bluey' Shelton (and vice-captain) was about 20m behind you and was saying hit them hard, knock them over'?

"I said to 'Bluey', who was a wonderful bloke and great player, a few months later, 'did you follow me and say, 'hit them hard and knock them over'?

"He said, 'of course I did, I knew you'd be telling them to play the ball, so I wanted to put a bit of fear into them (laughs)."

"I was a quiet captain, I tried to lead by example and encouragement, bringing my team-mates into the game."

And he was a teetotaller, who lived at home for much of his VFL career, which certainly made an impact on Lou 'Louie The Lip' Richards.

"(Carlton's) Gordon Collis and myself were among the favourites heading into the 1964 Brownlow count and I remember Lou Richards and Bill Collins, who were two of the top media personalities at the time, sitting there at home and both were pretty good doers (drinkers), but my whole family was teetotallers and mum was serving cups of tea and I could see they were doing it pretty hard," he laughed.

"Whenever I saw Lou Richards later in life he said, 'your mother made some lovely cups of tea, didn't she Ken'? (laughs)."

Fraser captained Victoria in the 1996 carnival, but it was a bittersweet memory as he injured his hamstring in the first game.

The following year he had his second proudest moment in sport after playing Gaelic football against the Irish at Dublin's famous Croke Park in front of around 30,000 fans.

"Harry Beitzel, an umpire and media personality, put up all the money and when he went to get the winning cheque from the Irish secretary, there was only about half of what he expected and the secretary said to him, 'oh, I'm sorry Harry, we neglected to tell you that all the clergy get in for free (laughs), so half the crowd must have been clergy," he chuckled.

Fraser retired from VFL level after missing the 1968 grand final with injury.

Those hamstring problems had returned and he was even knocked out at training - by the ball.

"I was stretchered off and spent a night in hospital," he said.

That trip to Ireland, which also took in a New York game, whetted Fraser and his new wife Shirley's appetite for travel, so the two teachers spent 1969 working in the UK.

While overseas, he received a letter from the Yarrawonga Football Club.

By 1970, he was a Pigeon.

He spent four years as coach, losing the 1971 and '72 grand finals to emerging powerhouse Wangaratta Rovers.

"Probably 1971 (hurt the most), we'd finished on top and were about 17 points up at three-quarter time," he said.

"I look back now and think one of the mistakes that I made as a coach was not having the younger blokes fitter, we were overrun in the last quarter.

"It's probably one of the saddest parts of my footy career, I would loved to have been a premiership coach at Yarrawonga."

Team-mate Noel Long missed the 1971 decider through injury.

"Ken had that much respect that players wanted to play for him, you wouldn't want to let him down, he was too nice a bloke and a terrific citizen for the town," he said of his great friend.

And Fraser was, perhaps, ahead of his time with so many successful modern day coaches lauded for their interest in players away from the field.

"He took an interest in everyone and everything. If players were injured, he'd be the first one around to the house to see how they were," Long said.

The grand final losses aside, Fraser had some great times at Yarrawonga, where his children Mark (ex-AFL player) and Darren were born.

"We went on an end of season footy trip to the Riverina and ended up at the greyhound racing," he said.

"It was a beginners' race and they opened the starting boxes and the dogs ran out after the lure, but with all the yahooing we were doing they got a bit tangled up.

"So the bloke who was controlling the lure in his vehicle, he started bringing the lure back so all the dogs had now gone past the lure.

"They've then doubled back and were chasing the lure, but the bloke decided he better go forward again and the dogs didn't know what was going on, there was just this tangled mess of dogs with the lure going back and forth.

"It was just hilarious (laughs), it was a priceless moment of humour."

Of course, it must be said no animals were hurt in the making of this race, it just provided a lifelong memory for the players.

Coincidentally, Fraser was supposed to catch up with Long this weekend, but the coronavirus stopped that.

Fraser became a school principal and is now retired in Melbourne suburb Eaglemont.

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He was playing golf twice a week until the coronavirus shut courses and also loves watching his five grandchildrens' sport.

"I'm doing the cooking, since Shirley passed away (in April, 2017), I'm looking after myself and doing all the domestics," he said.

"You know that book, A Fortunate Life by Albert Facey, I had been fortunate until Shirley had that horrible brain cancer.

"I miss her greatly but we had a very happy life together."