He was also chairman of selectors for the state team after retiring from playing football. He was a key promotional tool for the series, often featured promoting the Victorian team with his saying "Stick it right up 'em", and had a profound impact on the concept during his time being associated. A notable example of this, was before the 1983 game between Victoria and Western Australia, which was for the Australian Football Championships, a new format for the competition, in which Victoria had previously lost to South Australia, and was on verge for the first time in history of losing all of its interstate matches in a year. On the bus ride to the ground Whitten sternly walked down the aisle, and handed out cards which had the Victorian theme song, which hadn't been sung in at least 10 years. And then began to start singing the song, with the players joining in, with soon being sung with feverish enthusiasm, with it being described the players had a tone in there voice of "let's get these little bastards". He also inspired many players during his time as a selector including Paul Roos, Danny Frawley and Jim Stynes. Whitten once famously said: "Years ago you had to crawl over cut glass to get one" (i.e. a state guernsey), He worked as a football commentator on television throughout the 1970s and as a radio commentator in the latter part of his life. Mike Brady wrote a song about him called, "It all sounds like football to me". Ted Whitten is heard answering questions humorously on the song. In 1992, Whitten was awarded the Order of Australia medal for his services to Australian football. In 1996, he was among the first batch of inductees to the Australian Football Hall of Fame, and was one of the twelve players immediately elevated to "Legend" status. He was selected as Captain of the AFL Team of the Century. In 2009 The Australian nominated Whitten as one of the 25 greatest footballers never to win a Brownlow medal. Whitten is one of only three Australian rules footballers recognised as a Legend of Australian Sport in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, alongside Ron Barassi and Leigh Matthews. In 1995, Whitten went public with the announcement that he was suffering from prostate cancer. On 17 June he made his final public appearance at the MCG before the State of Origin match between Victoria and South Australia. Suffering from blindness due to a stroke, Whitten was driven in a white convertible for a lap of honour around the MCG, accompanied by his son and three grandchildren while Mariah Carey's cover of the song "Hero" was played on the PA system.