Fitzroy Football Club might just be a memory and an acronym on the back of Brisbane Lions jumpers but an enthusiastic band of supporters is working overtime to complete a collection containing at least one photo of everyone of the 1156 men who played senior footy with the Roys. When the Riverine Herald’s ANDREW JOHNSTON joined the hunt, two of the missing were turned up within two weeks.
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BILL Hicks and George Pattison are forever intertwined.
Even though it is almost certain they never crossed paths.
But both achieved something many dream of but few, very few, achieve – playing football at the top level in Melbourne.
More than a century ago, after starting their careers in the Goulburn Valley, both men played for a powerhouse of the still very young Victorian Football League in Fitzroy.
The Roys had won seven premierships by the time the younger, Hicks, had left the league in 1922.
Yet their biggest connection has only come to light in recent weeks, because until now both Hicks and Pattison were seemingly lost to the sands of time.
And their club has been searching for them ever since.
Once Fitzroy merged with the Brisbane Bears to create the Brisbane Lions, the Fitzroy-Brisbane Lions Historical Society has been working tirelessly to keep their combined history alive, with a museum at Marvel Stadium that includes a photo collage of every player to wear the maroon and blue.
By January this year they had tracked down 966 of the 1156 senior players to don the guernsey and put the call out to anyone who could help them find those missing from the list.
When an article appeared in the Riverine Herald in mid-January, there was hope even one of the six players on the list who started their careers in the Goulburn Valley would be found.
Within two weeks two of them had turned up.
For Pattison, a family member in Shepparton sent the article to Melbourne, where his daughter Joan Munday was excited to tell the story of her father.
Pattison was born into a family of 10 in Caniambo, just outside of Shepparton, where he played football with his five brothers.
When Pattison’s father Andrew died in a farming accident, three of the brothers, including George, moved to Melbourne to join the police force.
Once in Melbourne, Pattison found a spot with the Roys, appearing in eight games between 1914 and 1917, though not in their 1916 premiership season.
Pattison married Margaret Kennedy – daughter of Thomas Kennedy, a member of the first Australian Federal Parliament – in 1922.
Joan, now 88, said it was a pleasant surprise to hear someone was looking for her father.
“It was quite lovely, it’s wonderful that the club is looking for him,” she said.
“He was a fantastic fellow, very jovial, as were most of the Pattisons. They were always out for a laugh, a great family. And I do feel as though that has passed down in the family.
“He was an excellent athlete, and those genes have come through. They’re all very sport minded, I have four sports teachers in the schools today. My grandchildren and great-grandchildren are all good young athletes as well, so it has clearly come down in the family.”
Bill Hicks’ family moved from Cornwall in the 1850s, purchasing land near where the Echuca racecourse now sits.
From a young age Hicks was a talented footballer, playing much of his early career with Echuca Football Club, before making his way to Melbourne and debuting with the Roys in 1921.
Hicks spent two years with the club, appearing in four games, though he was not one of the lucky players selected in the 1922 grand final; where Fitzroy defeated Collingwood to claim their seventh VFL premiership in the 26th year of the competition.
The Roys would claim just one more VFL flag in 1944.
Hicks returned home after his stint in the big smoke, and made a successful career working with sheep.
His grandson, also named Bill Hicks, said his grandfather had built quite the reputation for his work in the industry.
“He was a proper wheeler and dealer of sheep,” he said.
“He bought a property out at Bunaloo, his brother-in-law had an adjoining property as well where they worked together. He’d regularly travel up to Queensland and buy sheep, put them on the train and bring them home where he would work to grow them and sell them at profit.
“Other times he and my grandmother Dorothy would walk them down through Queensland, although they rode horses while the jumbucks walked ahead of them. They would also sell sheep all the way along the road. They were actually in Winton travelling and selling when my dad Rodney was born.”
Hicks had a huge reputation within the region, with his property also having a throughput of 60,000 sheep in a year at one stage.
His business aside, Bill remembers his grandfather as “just a lovely man”.
I have nothing but great memories of him,” he said.
“He was just my grandfather to me; it was like the sun shone out of him. We didn’t live locally when I was young, so every school holiday we would come back and stay with family. It was a pretty special time.”
Hicks said he was proud to hear people wanted to know more about his grandfather.
“It was really wonderful to find out,” he said.
“He played before I was born, so I don’t remember him as a footballer. But for him to get the recognition all these years later is very special.”
Fitzroy-Brisbane Lions Historical Society chairman Arthur Wilson said they were thrilled to add another two photos to the collection.
“Seeing as the club started at VFL level in the late 1800s, it becomes harder to pick up these photos,” he said.
“It’s special for our group, but mostly for the players. They get such a kick out seeing their photos, and people enjoy seeing their parents or siblings or grandfathers in this display. It’s wonderful to get to tell that story and have those who have represented their club on display.”
Though the club lives on through the name and logo of the Brisbane Lions, it is a harsh reality that the Fitzroy name is slowly disappearing.
A second generation of football fans is now being born since the Lions played their final game at VFL/AFL level against Fremantle in 1996.
But the club continues to live through the memories of those who loved the boys from old Fitzroy.
And now, two of our own can claim their rightful place alongside their teammates in the history books of one of our native game’s great clubs.
The Fitzroy-Brisbane Lions Historical Society is still searching for the photos of four more players who started their careers in the region: BENALLA – Fred Beeson (FFC 1924-25, two games), TONGALA – Tom Laurenson (FFC 1929, two games), YARRAWONGA – Tom Ledwidge (FFC 1936, 1938, six games), YARRAWONGA OR NUMURKAH – Alby McDonald (1902-03, seven games).
If you have any information or photographs of these missing players, please contact the Riverine Herald.
Sports journalist