Aged 17 and four months when he beat Graham Farmer by four votes in the 1955 Sandover Medal count, Todd was the youngest-ever winner in open-age competition (Laurie Bowen was younger when he won the award in 1942, one of the seasons which were restricted to under age during World War II).
[2] Five games into Todd's second season, shortly after he turned 18, a pack of players collapsed on his left leg during a match.
Todd suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament[3] that was unable to be repaired with the medical techniques of the time.
He won the South Fremantle best and fairest award in each of these years, 1958 and 1961 and also was selected in the All-Australian Team following Western Australia's successful 1961 Brisbane Carnival performance.
He made a comeback to the playing field in June 1966 in the Foundation Day Derby but retired again soon after, finishing with 132 games.
[7] While at Swans in 1982, Todd caused controversy by sending a team of reserves and colts to Melbourne to compete in the Escort Cup quarter-final against VFL club Richmond.
Todd's actions were in protest to a change of the quarter-final schedule, which he felt would be detrimental to his senior team's performance in the WAFL.
[12] The idea seemed reasonable, based on the previous season's results; in their first year of VFL football, of the 11 games the Eagles had won, only two of them were away from home.
But the side under Todd, struggled in the 1989 season where the Eagles finished eleventh on the ladder with seven wins and fifteen losses, missing out of the finals.
Todd was replaced, without his knowledge, as senior coach of the West Coast Eagles at the end of the 1989 season with Mick Malthouse.
The Parliament of Western Australia suspended its standing orders to pass a motion of congratulations to Todd for his contribution to Australian rules football.