Memories
In The Beginning
The First Track & Field Season
The First Track & Field Championships
The First Cross Country Season
The move to Chandler Park - 1969
Knox Little
Athletics Centre’s second season - 1969/70
"In The Beginning" Stephen Egan (Bayswater Bullets) August 2005
I have attached some articles (shown in Golden Oldies
page) on the formation of the Knox Little Athletics Centre in 1968. It
started with great enthusiasm by the Knox Shire, local schools, parents, the
Victorian Egg Board (who were the Little Aths sponsors) and the VLAA with a
series of meetings in August and September 1968, just 4 years after Little
Athletics first started in Geelong by Trevor Billingham. This was in the lead up
to the Mexico Olympics so there a lot of enthusiasm amongst the school children
too. My father, Kevin Egan attended these meetings and was voted in as the first
Fairpark Little Athletics Club President. He also went on the Knox Centre
Executive Committee in the second season as Registrar. So Knox became the 23rd Centre in
Victoria to be formed and since its inception, has always remained once of the
largest Centres in the State.
The foundation clubs were Bayswater, Boronia West,
Dorset, Fairpark, Knoxfield, Rangeview, St Johns, St Josephs, Studfield and
Wantirna Ambers. Today, only six of these clubs survive, with a seventh "The Fields"
made up from the merger of the Studfield and Eastfield clubs.
The first season started on Sat, 2nd November 1968 at
the old Boronia High School oval opposite the Knox Leisure Centre in Tormore
Road, Boronia, which today is a housing estate. It was officially opened by the
Knox Shire Mayor, Cr Wally Tew. The running track consisted of a 200m lap
grass track and a separate 100m straight grass track with age groups from Under
8 to Under 12.
“The First Track & Field Season” Stephen Egan (Bayswater Bullets) August 2005
After all the background work behind the scenes in
starting Little Athletics, the very first day of competition for the Knox Centre
was held at the Boronia High School oval on Sat, 2nd Nov 1968. This was right
on the back of the Mexico Olympics, which had only ended the previous weekend.
All the children were ready and eager to compete for their first time ever,
already familiar with the unusual named throwing and jumping field events from
watching the Olympic highlights on Black and White TV. (Colour TV was still 6
years away)
The track had to be prepared for the weekly Saturday
morning competitions and the parents mowed and
marked out the track on Friday evenings.
Coloured T-Shirts must have been hard to obtain back in
1968 as most uniforms used a “jacket” style top (like the lane coloured tops
used in the sprints and hurdles) over a white T-Shirt. I remember my mother
filling the laundry sink with green liquid dye and spent days soaking dozens of
white T-Shirts to make the first Fairpark tops, which turned out a light green
colour. All uniforms had a small “age” patch on the front upper right side and
vinyl registration number on the back. I still remember my first number – 443.
The placing result tickets we received in competition
were in different colours depending on your place. The most sought after was the
blue first position, second was red, third was green and so on until seventh and
beyond which was a "finished" grey ticket. For myself, it took nearly half
season to obtain my first blue ticket, which I still clearly remember. This was
in the 800m Walk, which on this day, was contested on the 100m track, where we had to
walk up and down, turning about the pole at each end. On my 7th turn I realised
I was far enough ahead to win and finally be able to stick my first Blue ticket
in my Little Aths result booklet.
The Knox Centre competed for the first time ever as a
team at the Ringwood Highland Games, which was held at Jubilee Park on Sat, 1st
March 1969. This festival had Scottish traditional dancing and events such as
“Tossing the Caber” but also had a limited number of junior athletics events.
The Knox Centre selected their best athletes to competed against the best
athletes invited from the Box Hill, Springvale and Nunawading Little Athletics
Centres. Knox was the winning Centre of the day despite very strong competition
from Box Hill.
"The First Track & Field Championships" -
Stephen Egan (Bayswater Bullets) August 2005
The first Little Athletics Zone Finals (Regional
Championships) for the Knox Centre was held at Carey Grammar Sports fields in
Bulleen on Easter Monday, 17th March 1969, which was the Centre’s second
competition as a team, after the Ringwood Highland Games.
Our uniform was a yellow T-Shirt with a black “KNOX” on
the front. It was also the first time we had run on a rubberised track. I
remember it being a very hot day and our team was based on the far side bend
under the trees for shade. We ran out to the edge of the track cheering for Knox
whenever we saw a yellow T-shirt coming towards us.
The highlight of the day Bruce Beaton from Bayswater who
broke a Victorian Record in the U/11 800m Walk by 10 seconds. The Rose Bowl
Trophy was won by Box Hill, with Nunawading second and Knox third. All the Zone
Final competitors were given a red 1969 VLAA patch.
The first Knox Championships were held over the last
three Saturdays of March 1969 as one of the conditions set by the Boronia High
School Advisory Council is that competition had to be completed by 12 midday,
due to the Boronia Methodist Church Cricket Club using the oval in the
afternoons. I
remember that it cost 10 cents to enter each event.
The first on these was Sat 15th March 1969, just two
days before the Zone Championships. The medal presenter for this day was Knox
Shire Cr Fasham of Knoxfield. The first day’s highlight was the Walk events
where every Knox Centre record was broken. This had much to do with the Knox
Centre’s Walk coach Alan Johnson with his Walking technique tips and training
throughout the season.
The second day of the Knox Championships was on Sat
22nd March 1969. The medal presenter was Knox Shire President Cr Wally Tew. The
star of this day was St Joseph’s U/9 Ricky Dyer who won 4 Gold Medals (breaking
3 Knox Centre records). His brother U/8 Bill won 2 Gold Medals (breaking 1
record).
The third and last day of the Knox Championships was
on 29th March 1969. This was also the last day ever of competition at the
Boronia High School oval. Medal presenters were Sir Gib Chandler, Minister of
Agriculture from the early settler Boronia Chandler family. He presented medals
to two of his Grandsons who competed with Rangeview. The other presenter was Mr
Geoff Hayes MLA who presented the Club Shield to the Captains (Keith Brown and
Tracy Caird) of the winning club, Rangeview. The Champion Boy was St Joseph’s
Ricky Dyer and Champions Girl was Rangeview’s Meghan Hughes. This was calculated
on points gained over the 3 Championship Days.
The Knox Centre had a team of 24 who competed at
Olympic Park for their first State Little Athletics Championships. These were
the first and second place getters from the Zone Finals. Bayswater’s U/11 Bruce
Beaton broke his Victorian Record by 9 seconds in the 800m Walk by winning Gold.
Other Victorian Medal winners were St Joseph’s U/9 Ricky Dyer and Bayswater’s
U/12 Glenn Mackwell who both won Bronze medals in the 800m.
"The First Cross Country Season" -
Stephen Egan (Bayswater Bullets) August 2005
The
season started on Sat, 24th May 1969 at Knox Park, Knoxfield on Ferntree Gully
Road, where Gilbert Park Softball Fields currently stand. Age groups were from
Under 8 to Under 12 only. There were only 2 distances of 1600m and 2000m for the
boys and the girls had 800m and 1600m.
At the time it was held in very boggy cow paddocks and fresh cow dung
always had to be dodged. I once lost my sandshoe in the mud but kept running and
retrieved it after the race.
Cross Country was held once a fortnight and was run by Geoff Warren, a
former Australian representative Empire Games (Commonwealth Games) middle
distance runner who was associated with the Boronia West club.
There were only 6 rounds for the season plus the Victorian Championships
(where Knox had won 2 Gold Medals and 1 Silver medal and lead the medal tally –
no Regionals or Team Medals back in 1969) and the Knox Cross Country
Championships which was held on 2nd August 1969.
I’ve always associated that first Cross Country season with space as
during this time, it was at the height of the “space race” when Neil Armstrong
became the first person to step on the moon with Apollo 11. The Championships
were just a few weeks after this historical event.
By coincidence, 36 years on, nearly to the day, my daughter won a silver
medal also for her first KLAC Cross Country Championship.
There was plenty going on behind the scenes in the
lead up to the second Knox Little Athletics Centre’s season (1969/70). A new
site was approved by the new Knox City Council, which had just been promoted
from “Shire” status in July 1969. They allocated Chandler Park, Boronia,
which was to be the home for the next nine seasons. I have attached an article
from the Knox Gazette 3rd Sep 1969 showing a plan of the new athletic field.
There was no mowing to be done by the Centre, but
5000m of track had to be marked out every Saturday morning. The site
consisted of a full size 400m Circular grass track, with a separate 100m
grass track in the centre along with multiple Discus, Shot Put and High Jump
areas. The Triple and Long Jumps were done from the Netball courts at the
base of the park. There were no Javelin events back then. The track was
designed by Geoff Warren (mentioned in the Cross Country above) and allowed
for eight simultaneous events to be conducted at the one time. A Storage Shed
was also constructed for somewhere to keep the equipment on site.
Another interesting article from the “Free Press”
27th Aug 1969 edition (shown in Golden Oldies
page) was the first mention of Knox Park in Knoxfield. Cr Fasham had moved
that approval be given to allocate an area for Athletics within the 84 acre
site, which was reserved for various sporting activities for the Knox
residents.
At the club level, the largest team Rangeview, which
had 150 athletes from U/8 to U/12 in the first season, had divided into 2
separate clubs. It was decided that the children from The Basin and Boronia
Heights Primary Schools to form a new club “Basin Heights” and the remainder
stayed on, still as “Rangeview”. The Basin Heights uniform was red T-Shirt
with a green sash. Another new club to join only for the one season was
Sherbrooke, which started off with 35 athletes. Their uniform was a white
T-Shirt with a black Lyre motif.
Sherbrooke went on to form their own Centre in the
1970/71 season. A new Centre to start in 1969/70 was Croydon. The Nunawading
Centre had started the same year as Knox (1968/69) and the Box Hill Centre
started a year earlier (1967/68). The Ringwood and Yarra Ranges Centres were
yet to be formed.
"Knox Little Athletics Centre’s
second season - 1969/70"
Stephen Egan (Bayswater Bullets) September 2005
The opening day of the 1969/70 Track & Field season at
the new location of Chandler Park was held on Sat 4th Oct 1969. It started with
a parade of athletes in team order around Boronia and Dorset Roads, led by the
Police Highland Marching Band. When we got back to Chandler Park, we had the
opening ceremonies and then only a part of the program was run before it was
washed out by the weather. The athletes from the previous season were very
impressed with the new grass track.
On Sat 25th Oct 1969, we had a surprise visitor to watch
the action - Olympian Ron Clarke. He was unnoticed at first but had a rousing
reception once recognised. Ron continued circling the ground talking to the
children and their parents. It would be the equivalent of having Cathy Freeman
coming down to Knox Park today. Ron had wrote the forward in our Little
Athletics Ticket Booklets.
An article in the local paper in Nov 1969 stated the
Knox Little Athletics Centre had nearly 900 athletes from Under 8 to 12 and was
officially the largest Centre in Victoria. Not bad in only its second season.
I remember early in the season, a Committee Member of
Sherbrooke coming up to me and saying “You must be the son of Kevin Egan (Knox
Centre Registrar)” When I asked how did he know, he said “Well, our batch of
Registration Numbers stops at 1110 and starts again at 1112 and you are wearing
the missing one.” I had swapped my Rego Number from the previous season and got
caught out. Also Fairpark bought new T-Shirts for this season in an emerald
green colour.
To raise money, the Knox Centre ran the first “Little
Athletics Annual Ball” which was held on 5th Dec 1969, at the Ferntree Gully
Technical School Assembly Hall. The main fundraiser was a “Beardathon” where the
fathers paid 10 cents each to enter and had spent weeks without shaving. The
wives got to shave them off on the night. The winner for the longest (or was it
scruffiest) was Ken Howl (Basin Heights) and the Matron of the Ball was Mary
Maguire (St Johns), husband of the Knox Centre Recorder Brian Maguire. $100 was
raised for the Centre. (around $1600 in today’s money)
The Knox Little Athletics Centre competed in their first
Relay Zone (Regional) Championships this season. The relay events were only in
the 4x100m and 4x400m. The competing athletes were given a yellow 1970 Relay
VLAA patch. Five Knox teams qualified in the Zone Finals to compete in the very
first Relay State Championships held at Olympic Park on 7th Dec 1969. The Knox
Centre won 2 Third Place Pennants with the Boys U/9 and Boys U/12.
Centres did not have Open Days back in the early 70’s
but there were still plenty of opportunities to compete against other Centres by
events that were run by Senior Athletic Clubs or Community Organisations in
their junior part of the competition, which were open to all children to enter.
Events usually cost 10 cents each. The Knox Centre quickly gained a reputation
throughout the region for their athletic ability.
On New Years Day 1970, the Knox athletes travelled to
the Croydon Athletic Association Carnival and won all but one junior event. All
the races were in yards and the best performance of the day was by Basin Heights
Geoff Hill who won a silver medal in the Under 12 880 yards in a time of 2 min
34.4 sec despite being 10 years old. Rick Dyer, also 10, won the Bronze.
The Knox Centre was invited to compete at the
Sandringham Athletic track by the Powerhouse Athletics Club for the junior part
of the program on Wed 7th January 1970. It was a short program against the
Springvale and Frankston Centres where the age groups had only one event each.
This would have been the first time Knox Athletes had run in a Twilight event.
It was a successful night coming back with 4 Gold, 5 Silver and 4 Bronze medals.
It was still two years away before “Daylight Saving” was introduced so would
have started getting dark around 7:30pm
The next competition for the Knox Athletes was at the
“Bayswater Rotary Challenger” on Sat 29th Feb 1970. The Knox Centre won the day
with 45 Gold, 37 Silver and 32 Bronze medals. Second was the Springvale Centre
with 19 Gold, 24 Silver and 16 Bronze medals. The Nunawading Centre was third
with 16 Gold, 15 Silver and 31 Bronze medals. Best effort was Triple Gold
medallists Sherbrooke’s Gayle Banks and Basin Heights Barry Brown.
In early March 1970, a small Knox team went to the
Mini-Olympic South Eastern Championships. Each event cost 10 cents. My brother
and myself went with the Dyer family. After competing in few sprint events and
a 2 Mile Cross Country, I had 10 cents left. I was going to buy a chocolate bar
as the only event left to enter was the 14 year old Junior Mile, I didn’t think
I would have a chance being in the Under 11’s. Betty Dyer (A Knox Life Member
whom the “Nine Year Dedication Award” is named in her memory) talked me into
entering with her son Rick, who was in the Under 10’s. I was glad she did as to
our surprise, Rick won the Gold Medal and I won the Bronze. Other medallists
were George Dyer winning Gold in the 5 year old 70m, his sister Julie winning
Silver in the 6 year old 70m and Sherbrooke’s Peter Bertalli winning a Silver
Medal in the 11 year old 100m event.
On Monday, 9th Mar 1970, the Knox athletes travelled to
Sandringham for the Zone 5 (Regional) Championships. Back in these early years,
the Knox Centre selected their best athletes for each event, depending on their
performance throughout the season. The Victorian Egg board donated a new Trophy
- “The Rose Bowl” for the Centre that won the most first places. The Knox
Centre, with 28 points, won the trophy, with the Waverley Centre coming second
on 18 points. The other Centres competing were Oakleigh, Beaumaris and Brighton.
I have attached a paper clipping of Knox Athletes receiving The Rose Bowl. My
best memory on this day was Geoff Hill of Basin Heights winning the Under 11
1500m. He was so far ahead that second place was not in sight as he finished his
event. Geoff went on to win Gold at the VLAA State Championships at Olympic
Park. The competing athletes were given a green 1970 Track & Field VLAA patch.
The Knox Centre Little Athletics Championships were held
over two Saturdays – Field Events were held on 21st March 1970, The Track
Events were due on 28th March 1970, but was postponed due to the weather to
Easter Monday 30th March. I have attached a clipping from the first Championship
Day showing the John Bennett Memorial Trophy, which was presented for the first
time to Bayswater athlete Under 10 Stephen Davis for the 800m Walk. In this
photo is "The Field's" Chief Official Judy Blizzard as an Under 10 Bayswater
athlete.
The Trophy, donated by the Bennett family, has been
awarded annually ever since to the athlete with the most outstanding performance
in a single event throughout the season. A tribute by Cr Wally Tew, the first
Knox City Mayor on John Bennett was: “John Bennett was editor, owner and
publisher of the “Free Press” in Belgrave for many years until his early death.
In his younger days he was a good athlete. He was a prominent Councillor of the
Shire of Ferntree Gully for some years and was especially interested in schools.
He was on the Advisory Council of Upwey High School and was particularly
interested in athletics, an interest which also showed in his support of Little
Athletics”. The “Free Press” and other local papers reported and published the
weekly results and related stories on the Knox Centre every week. We always
looked forward to receiving them to see how we, our team-mates and competitors
performed.
On Wed 25th March 1970 at Olympic Park, Bayswater’s
Bruce Beaton was one of twenty Under 12 athletes to represent Victoria in the
Interstate Challenge against New South Wales and Western Australia. Bruce
competed in the 800m Walk but unfortunately was disqualified approaching the
finish line. This competition was the foundation for the Australian Team
Championships.
The Knox Centre sent a team of 35 athletes that
qualified in the Zone Finals to compete at Olympic Park on 4th April 1970 for
the State Track & Field Championships.
The 1970 Knox Cross Country season was held at Fairpark
Reserve, between the two ovals on Manuka Drive, off Scoresby Road in Ferntree
Gully. The distances ran were changed to 1500m and 3000m for boys and 1000m and
2000m for Girls.
We had Cross Country Zone (Regional) Championships this
season, which was held at the Tally-Ho Boys Farm near the corner of Burwood and
Springvale Roads, close to where the Nunawading track is today. Only the first 6
place getters of each event progressed to the State Championships. The competing
athletes were given a green 1970 Cross Country VLAA patch. I also remember
watching the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games on TV around the time of these
Championships.
I think the 1970 State Cross Country Championships was
held in Kew, but not really sure. I remember that the line at the start was as
long as the eye could see and we had to race to an embankment about 100m away
and merge into a narrow opening. Geoff Hill, who had a good chance of winning in
the U11 3000m tripped over at the start, but did well to run from last place
back into the top 10. I remember as I was running to the finish line (I was
towards the back of the field), a Collingwood Centre athlete with a Magpie motif
on his back was ahead of me, but being a One-Eyed Collingwood supporter, I
couldn’t bring myself to try and pass him and gave him the respect to finish in
front of me.
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The newspaper
article to the right was chosen as part of the Knox Leader's (formerly
Knox News) own 40th
Anniversary in 2007 with submissions from readers of Knox area memories
from the past. |
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Click to view |
Check out the 'Golden Oldies'
photo page for more memories of KLAC past.
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LA Vic Centre No. 23
