Bulldogs history - 1967

[steve_mortimer]

When my Grandfather passed away in 1992 I was lucky to have his collection of old Rugby League News programs passed down to me. One special issue among the piles of history was the Grand Final match day guide for 1967, the year we ended the St. George run of 11 titles on the trot and the year in which "that pass" was thrown into the arms of South Sydney's Bob McCarthy.

Semi Final wins over Eastern Suburbs 13-2 and St. George 12-11 set up the match against the star studded Souths on Saturday September 16th. Sadly the day went wrong for the Berries but i've included a couple of scans from the program including an interesting article on the Belmore Sports Ground make over. $200,000 was to be spent on the ground and the capacity was alos said to be upwards of 40,000. Issues must have been abound in council meeting because as we know many of the ideas never came into being for the club.

There are some more fantastic articles so if anyone wants me to put them up i'll translate the text.

 

[Özil]

Dang... Belmore was a huge ground after all...

 

[steve_mortimer]

Dang... Belmore was a huge ground after all...

From what I gathered they were looking at turning it into an SCG style ground. They must have run into council issues. I'll translate the text tomorrow though for a proper read for you all.

 

[Memberberries]

they would also have to tear down 3 blocks of houses to provide parking if the stadiu, were to be updated

and Belmore isnt exactly the best station to use the train with 16 000+ people all leaving to get on the train at once

 

[Shanty Bill]

Damn! look at the bloke with the shoulder-pads, Milo Kerrigan eat your heart out.

 

[Winston Smith]

good things, mortimer.

 

[steve_mortimer]

BERRIES GROUND TO SET STANDARD -

Rugby League News September 16th 1967

Canterbury has an additional reason for wanting to win today's premiership - it is hoping to be able to fly the premiership pennant over the rebuilt Belmore Oval headquarters next season. Belmore is undergoing a facelift which will make it the finest football ground in sydney.

Canterbury council has given a lead to other civic bodies by doing something to increase facilities for the many thousands of local rate payers who attend the oval.

The council in co-operation with the N.S.W Rugby League and the Canterbury football club and Canterbury Leagues Club, is determined to make the ground a showplace.

In all, $200,000 will be spent on the improvments with the Canterbury council matching the League and the Canterbury clubs' dollar for dollar.

The new ground will cater for between 35,000 and 40,000 spectators and an important feature will be parking space for up to 1,200 cars.

Transport and parking are becoming increasin problems for the sports fans these days but Belmore has both of these beaten as in addition to the parking it is almost at Belmore Station.

Another worry for the football grounds is that mostly they are used for cricket during the summer months and this necessitates a wicket area and also placing the fence back farther than would be used for football only.

Only minor grade cricket has been played at Belmore and the council has found a turf wicket elsewhere in the municipalty to cater or the cricketers.

This will mean the new look Belmore oval will be along the lines of the English football grounds with the spectators close to the playing field.

The League has deputised Messrs Alex Mackle (chairrman) and Ken Charlton (vice president) of the Management Committee to act in conjunction witht eh Mayor of Canterbury, Ald. Allan Mulder and Dep. Mayor Ald. Alf Pate and Messrs Ron Ibbotson (secretary) and Fred Dunn (treasurer) of the football club, regarding the project.

The League hopes this will be the first of a number of moves to rebuild suburban grounds.

Parramatta already is well advanced with Cumberland Oval and every other club with its own ground has plans for development within the next few years.

Belmore is alreayd a scene of great activity and schedules call for the work to be completed in time for next season.

With the good lighting at Belmore the ground should be the venue of many stirring pre-season games.



Interesting article isn't it? My mum has said that the plans all fell through due to council problems. She said some people with ego problems stopped the plans from going ahead. It all makes me wonder if the plans had gone ahead the Dogs would be using Belmore today. She grew up only a couple of streets from the ground and has mentioned in the past that many local residants were keen to see great changes made but nothing ever came to.

 

[Özil]

BERRIES GROUND TO SET STANDARD -

Rugby League News September 16th 1967

Canterbury has an additional reason for wanting to win today's premiership - it is hoping to be able to fly the premiership pennant over the rebuilt Belmore Oval headquarters next season. Belmore is undergoing a facelift which will make it the finest football ground in sydney.

Canterbury council has given a lead to other civic bodies by doing something to increase facilities for the many thousands of local rate payers who attend the oval.

The council in co-operation with the N.S.W Rugby League and the Canterbury football club and Canterbury Leagues Club, is determined to make the ground a showplace.

In all, $200,000 will be spent on the improvments with the Canterbury council matching the League and the Canterbury clubs' dollar for dollar.

The new ground will cater for between 35,000 and 40,000 spectators and an important feature will be parking space for up to 1,200 cars.

Transport and parking are becoming increasin problems for the sports fans these days but Belmore has both of these beaten as in addition to the parking it is almost at Belmore Station.

Another worry for the football grounds is that mostly they are used for cricket during the summer months and this necessitates a wicket area and also placing the fence back farther than would be used for football only.

Only minor grade cricket has been played at Belmore and the council has found a turf wicket elsewhere in the municipalty to cater or the cricketers.

This will mean the new look Belmore oval will be along the lines of the English football grounds with the spectators close to the playing field.

The League has deputised Messrs Alex Mackle (chairrman) and Ken Charlton (vice president) of the Management Committee to act in conjunction witht eh Mayor of Canterbury, Ald. Allan Mulder and Dep. Mayor Ald. Alf Pate and Messrs Ron Ibbotson (secretary) and Fred Dunn (treasurer) of the football club, regarding the project.

The League hopes this will be the first of a number of moves to rebuild suburban grounds.

Parramatta already is well advanced with Cumberland Oval and every other club with its own ground has plans for development within the next few years.

Belmore is alreayd a scene of great activity and schedules call for the work to be completed in time for next season.

With the good lighting at Belmore the ground should be the venue of many stirring pre-season games.



Interesting article isn't it? My mum has said that the plans all fell through due to council problems. She said some people with ego problems stopped the plans from going ahead. It all makes me wonder if the plans had gone ahead the Dogs would be using Belmore today. She grew up only a couple of streets from the ground and has mentioned in the past that many local residants were keen to see great changes made but nothing ever came to.

well $200,000 in the 1960s was a quite a lot of money though... i guess the council had issues by getting the money

 

[Toey .H.C.]

bulldogs are truly #1

 

[boggie23]

i was reading that and i thought hey wen did the dogs ever have a car park.


i guess the chocos wernt around.

but Belmore has both of these beaten as in addition to the parking it is almost at Belmore Station.


would of never thought the newspaper would call belmore station adequate for thousands of football fans or that it is safe in the first place.


40 years is a long long long time.


i am guessing rebbeca wilson was doing the weather report back then

 

[steve_mortimer]

would of never thought the newspaper would call belmore station adequate for thousands of football fans or that it is safe in the first place. 40 years is a long long long time.

Back then my mum said you would go out to the shops and leave your house unlocked..front door open even. You got the train and never once feared for your safety, even late at night. Strangers would give kids a lift home or to school and drugs were a flu tablet

Ahh, Belmore in the 60's

 

[MBW]

Thanks Steve, I really enjoyed reading all of that. Cheers.

 

[Memberberries]

Back then my mum said you would go out to the shops and leave your house unlocked..front door open even. You got the train and never once feared for your safety, even late at night. Strangers would give kids a lift home or to school and drugs were a flu tablet

Ahh, Belmore in the 60's

those days are long gone but the place is still haunted with all those people

 

[boggie23]

Back then my mum said you would go out to the shops and leave your house unlocked..front door open even. You got the train and never once feared for your safety, even late at night. Strangers would give kids a lift home or to school and drugs were a flu tablet

Ahh, Belmore in the 60's

yeh i sort of do the same.


when i park in belmore i lock my car with an immobliser and turn on my alarm and make sure it is on and make sure there is nothing visible like a phone or money and only park there for a maximum of 20 mins.


i trust belmore so much i dont even have to really be scared of theft or vandalism.

 

[steve_mortimer]

those days are well long gone but the place is still haunted with all those people

I oftenwonder why plans are drawn up for the Dogs but they always seem to fall over.

A while ago now I contacted VEG who put our all the footy DVDs and they said Canterbury were looking into a History of DVD like this Parra one...

http://www.rl1908.com/parra.htm

They said the club had pulled the pin and they doubt there will be anything in the next few years. I mean c'mon...there is hundreds of hours of footage and much history about the club that should be out there for all to see. There was also to be an updated issue of "Berries To Bulldogs" a couple of years back and again ..nothing

The official website is crap compared to other clubs and it is high time the club got the right people in to protect the past and look to the future.

 

[madroota]

Great thread Steve Mortimer. It's very important that we don't forget our past.

 

[Christabella]

Good read, I came across something similar today.
We were doing a bit of spring cleaning and stumbled across a scrapbook that belonged to my dad from 1967.
He was nine then and it had pictures, autographs and other tid bits from every club in the league at the time. He said all you had to do back then was write a letter to the club then they would send you all that stuff. Its a great to flip throgh and see the beginning of Cronulla and Penrith and the St George team about to be knocked off their perch.
But my favourite is the drawings my dad filled the spare pages with ... picture a blue strawberry punching a rabbit or squashing a dragon with "Up the Berries" all over it. The scoreboard behind read: Berries 23 tries 23 goals 115, Dragons 0. It's just like what the kids send into Big League these days.

Oh and here is the theme song from 1967:
We're the up and coming Berries
We've come to let you view
The strength and brawn thats gonna make
the dear old Dragons few.

Don Lane can sell his Bunnies
St George can help him too
The Tigers will be running round
Chasing their tails too.

Les Johns he aint no rose bud
Kev Ryan's a hero too
Keith Barnes can keep his golden boot
Watch Georgie put 'em through.

Let Manly keep their ferries
Berries are on their own
And a certain team of boys should be
In Parramatta Bad Girls' home. (bahahahahahaha I love that line! )

His Emminence Cardinal Gilroy
Thinks the Dragons are the best
But he will be in for a shock
When us Berries win the test.

We're the up and coming Berries
And this we promise you
We'll do our best and win the test
And only kill a few.

 

[steve_mortimer]

That is magic! I'd love to see that scrap book one day if you ever feel like showing it around. Would you be able to scan some images in by chance?

I was thinking the other day that maybe we should get a group together to conduct some interviews with pioneer Berries players from the 30's and 40's. It would be wonderful to capture the likes of Frank Sponberg, Eddie Burns, Henry Porter, Joe Gartner and Ted Anderson on video for historical referances. Does anyone here know if or how it would be arranged to conduct such interviews? I'm assuming i would have to contact the club then seek permission to conduct the interviews??? I'm not too sure if many of these guys are still alive

I think it should be a high priority for the club to capture our history before it is gone forever. We should seek out former players, staff and also long term fans for opinions and reflections.

 

[Christabella]

That is magic! I'd love to see that scrap book one day if you ever feel like showing it around. Would you be able to scan some images in by chance?

Sorry but it's practically falling apart as it is and the way he has stuck some things into it I'm not sure it would survive a scanner.