IN THE BEGINNING : 1968 – 70

Extract from  BHOS FC Commemorative Book 1968-1990

 

“At the beginning of 1968, three ex-Brighton High School students, Doug Golley, Paul Manuel, and Arthur Porter, following “round” table discussions at a local pub, decided to form an Old Scholars Football Club.  Little did they know at the time, but their initiative resulted in the development of a wonderful football club which was enjoyed by 590 players and many supporters and parents over a period of 23 seasons. 

 

With the vast majority of people that you speak to about the Club, they will say their experience was one of the best times of their life, especially socially.  We also had our fair share of success, winning 4 A grade premierships from 7 Grand Finals, 1 B-grade premiership in 1977 and 1 C-grade premiership in 1987.

 

The Club came into existence in February 1968 and entered a team into A6 Amateur League. The Club suffered large defeats in 2 pre-season games, had little money and were in danger of not even starting the season when on the Monday night prior to the first game there were only 5 players certain to line up on the Saturday.  A mad recruiting scramble all week led to not only successfully fielding a team but resulted in a 47 point victory over Goodwood.  The team and numbers improved as the season went on and some brilliant football was played as some games were won by huge margins.  The major victim was Flinders University where we kicked 34-28 to 0-5 in round 8 and 39-26 to 0-2 in round 12.  We ended the minor round in 2nd position with 17 wins and 3 losses, but unfortunately lost the second semi and preliminary finals to Exeter (1 point) and Goodwood (6 goals).  The Scholars successes during the season were based on no training and an attacking, handball, flow-on style of game.  The Club finances allowed the purchase of just one football for the season.’

 

The “Scholars” then won 3 successive SAAFL Premierships in 1969 (A6 – 1 point win over Henley & Grange); 1970 (A5) and 1971 (A4) and advanced to A2 from 1977-79.  “The inspiration behind these 3 flags was playing coach Allan Lamb whose dedication and desire to win dragged the rest of the players with him.  Allan was a great ruckman and reader of the play where he took heaps of marks in defence.  He won 7 A Grade Best & Fairest as testimony to his ability.”  The Club dropped back to A5 in 1983 after a few poor seasons, but rose again to A2 with 3 successive Grand Finals, including the 1986 A4 premiership.  After being in A2 from 1988-90 the merger occurred suddenly with Brighton Football Club.

 

OTHER INFORMATION

 

The best player ever to play for BHOS was the late Ken Whelan who kicked 142 goals in 1970 as an 18-year old in A5, including 7 goals in the Second Semi & 8 goals in the Grand Final to help win the flag.  Ken then went on to play in the 1974 premiership with Sturt and kicked 100 goals in a season twice.  He was one of the most spectacular high marks in the history of Australian Rules football and it is extremely unfortunate that we did not have more cameras around at the time to record him taking regular screamers.

 

Statistician Ian Driver, who joined the Club in 1973, has kept impeccable records of the BHOS Football Club and has a statistical sheet on every senior player.  Ian has carried on this role with the Brighton Bombers where we have extensive records.

 

A more detailed history of the BHOS Football Club is documented in the Commemorative Book 1968-1990 produced in 1999 by John Smith and Ian Driver.