By Tony De Bolfo

A publicity image of former Carlton footballer Jack Green.

The daughter of the former Carlton footballer Jack Green has seen fit to perpetuate her father’s memory by availing precious items of memorabilia for the club’s archive.

Amongst the artefacts are a hand-painted certificate of appreciation from 1933, along with sundry images and press clippings of Green, whose younger brothers Tom, Bob and Frank also represented the club as players.

Genevra Green, now domiciled in Thurgoona, an outer suburb of the regional city of Albury in southern New South Wales, forwarded the precious keepsakes.

She’d been encouraged to do so on the strength of an article which recently appeared on the Carlton website in tribute to Ray Brew, and old contemporary of Jack’s at Princes Park and best man at Jack’s wedding.

“Dad passed away in 1960 at the young age of 54 and it would be lovely if his story could be told too, with all its tragedy, triumph and courage,” Genevra said.

Born in Brunswick on Grand Final eve 1905, Jack was the oldest of five brothers – preceding Tom, Bob (himself a 187-game Carlton player), Frank (who died recently at the age of 97) and Bernie.

Genevra’s tale of her father’s early life corroborates that told by Bob’s son Terry in a previous interview, that the boys’ father, a well-known Bendigo hairdresser, returned from the Great War a changed man – which in turn posed enormous pressures on his relationship with their mother and inevitably led to irreconcilable differences.

In the wake of the parents’ separation, the mother was left to fend for the family, but when she suffered a breakdown Bob, Frank and Tom were placed into orphanages, with Jack and Bernie taken in by family friends.

“Dad was fostered by (former Carlton coach) Danny Minogue with brothers Tom, Bob, Frank (also Blues players) and Bernie all going to orphanages,” Genevra said.

“My father was the eldest and a brilliant student who won scholarships and eventually went to Newman College and studied law with Ray. He also won many awards at University Blues for football, cricket and tennis, and went on to join the firm of Nicholas O’Donohue and Brew.

“Dad also was also selected as a Rhodes Scholar, but could not travel overseas, so had to decline.”

Jack’s football prowess at amateur level with the University team did not go unnoticed at neighbouring Carlton – particularly through the 1928 season when he booted 118 for the Blacks in a season in which only one game was lost.

Such was Jack’s form that a scribe for the Amateur Footballer noted that the University’s phenomenal success “has been due to the wonderful all-round ability and accuracy of their star forward Jack Green. Lithe-limbed, cool and calculating, with a powerful spring and sure pair of hands, he has been the pivot of innumerable successful varsity onslaughts”.

As was the case some 80 years later with Chris Judd, Jack pitched for Carlton after it had won a vigorous contest over Melbourne and others for his services – and in May ’29, after donning the No.14 in the old dark Navy Blue, he duly completed his senior debut against Hawthorn at Princes Park.

Having ably supported the mainstays Horrie Clover and “Soapy” Vallence in his maiden season up front, Jack carved out his niche as a key forward of renown. Cruelly, a knee injury sustained in the ’32 Prelim against Collingwood cost him a place in the Grand Final narrowly won by Richmond, in what was an anti-climax to a season in which he’d earned Victorian selection.

Jack Green meets with selectors before being ruled out of the 1932 Grand Final with a knee injury. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

In season 1933, Jack and his younger brother Bob turned out in ten senior matches for the club, but when Geelong overpowered Minogue’s Blues in the cut-throat first-semi, Jack left the fray in his 85th and final appearance – and was subsequently released to Hawthorn in an apparent trade for Jim Francis.

Jack duly responded by kicking 80 goals for the Mayblooms on debut – the most goals kicked by anyone at Glenferrie in 34 years until Peter Hudson’s 125 in season ’68.

Jack’s 40 games over three seasons at Glenferrie landed him the impressive haul of 167 goals at the robust average of 4.17.

As Genevra said: “Whilst he may not have played as many games for the Blues as Ray (Brew), due to knee injury, which eventually saw him off-loaded to then cellar-dwellers, Hawthorn, he did play in a number of interstate games and was regarded as a top player . . . and if memory serves me correctly, he was the first players’ advocate at tribunal hearings”.

During this time, Jack and his brothers pursued their interests in music, as Terry remembered.

“Three of them later became members of the Hawthorn city band, for music must have been an outlet, and then there was the football. They were, to coin the phrase, a ‘band of brothers’,” Terry said.

“For them, football was the necessary distraction, a distraction that enabled them to sustain themselves. They had to have something that gave them the glue of life away from the orphanage and without parents to guide them. I can’t begin to imagine what that must have been like.”

Jack also furthered his professional career in radio. For years he called football matches for 3KZ in the lofty company of Norman Banks and Phil Gibbs.

Jack was truly a part of the fold at KZ, as an article and image appearing in an old edition of Listener In attests. He joined Banks in calling the 1947 Grand Final – a recording of which is now in the keep of the football club’s collection.

Jack’s son John can be heard in this recording, because the then nine year-old accompanied his father into the broadcast box on Grand Final day – Saturday, September 27, 1947.

“I was under strict orders to not make a sound whilst I watched the Carlton Essendon Grand Final,” John told this reporter in a previous interview.

“Carlton was five points down with less than a minute to the bell with the ball out of bounds near the Carlton goal. On the throw-in, Ken Baxter grabbed the ball and passed it to Freddy Stafford who, half turning, screwed a left foot kick over his shoulder and scored the winning goal.

“At that moment, I made my radio debut by shouting ‘HOORAY’ in the broadcasting box.”

But the last word for the story of Jack Green surely belongs to Genevra – and it’s a touching tale at that.

Jack Green’s certificate of appreciation. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

”Dad was with Norman Banks one hot summer’s night when there was an electricity strike (so no trams) and he and Norm decided to walk home from the city to our home in Queen’s Road so that Norm could get a lift to his home in our car,” she said.

“During their walk, on passing a unit opposite the Shrine, they saw a little old lady singing a Christmas Carol with a candle on her table and Norm commented how nice it was to hear Carols by Candlelight.

“That’s where it started, Norm followed up on his comment and so the tradition was born.”

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By Tony De Bolfo

Left to right, circa 1960: John Nicholls, Ken Greenwood, Maurie Sankey, Sergio Silvagni, Graham Donaldson and Brian Buckley. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

A young cowboy named Billy Joe grew restless on the farm
A boy filled with wanderlust who really meant no harm
He changed his clothes and shined his boots
And combed his dark hair down
And his mother cried as he walked out
Don’t take your guns to town son
Leave your guns at home Bill
Don’t take your guns to town

As the 50th anniversary of the tragic death of former Carlton ruckman Maurie Sankey nears, the words of the classic Johnny Cash ballad still resonate with Sankey’s old teammate Gordon Collis.

For the 1964 Brownlow Medallist, the old folksong offers a throwback to happy times when he, Sankey and John Reilly roomed at 19 Berry Street, Coburg – a “Percy” Jones tram ride from Princes Park where the three young men once chased the leather.

“The place was adjacent to an old army type of set-up. It was run by an old lady named ‘Vonny’ (Veronica) Curtin,” Collis recently recalled.

“Vonny was born in 1900 and was a dyed-in-the-wool Carlton person. She owned the place and a series of people passed through there. I know that Dave McCulloch was there for a while and Wes Lofts used to come around to play cards.”

Even after all these years, thoughts of Sankey and Berry Street are never far from Collis’ mind – as was the case when he and his wife recently tuned in to an episode of ‘The X Factor’.

“There was a girl on it who sang ‘Bang Bang’ and when she finished I said to Anne ‘This girl reminds me of Sankey’,” Collis said.

“In 1960 or ’61 when we were living at Berry Street, there was an idea put forward by the VFL or perhaps one of the commercial television channels that the clubs put up someone to belt out a number on the box. Now I got to know a couple of people who lived almost directly across the road who had a daughter who was a pianist, so I promoted this idea to Maurice that he should give a song a go to piano accompaniment.

“Sure enough we got him to the post. We had some rehearsals over the road and I suggested to him that he ought to sing this particular song that suited him, which was Don’t Take Your Guns To Town.

“Anyway he turned up to the studio in all the clobber, even down to the leather chaps. The song was recorded, but I don’t know if the recording’s still in existence.”

The Tasmanian-born Maurice Graham Sankey was recruited to Carlton from the Latrobe Football Club on the cusp of the 1959 season.

Berkley Cox remembered Maurie from the old days on the Apple Isle. Cox, who celebrated his 80th birthday in May, vouched for the Sankey sporting pedigree in declaring Maurie’s father Joe an outstanding cricketer and footballer.

Awarded Carlton Life Membership for eight years’ service and named Best Clubman in Sankey’s final season of ’65 season, Cox regarded his old friend as “a great player, a top bloke and a terrific team man”.

“Maurie played for Latrobe and I played for City. I played against him in those days of the NTFA, NWFU and the TFL, and I also played with him at Carlton,” Cox said.

As with Collis, Cox shared digs with the free-spirited Maurie for a time.

“We lived in a house in Melbourne with another friend of ours who’s passed away called Allan Wilson. It was called ‘The Tasmanian Embassy’ because all the Tassie players who used to come over went there,” Cox said.

“There were a few blokes over from Tassie at the time – Maurie, John Heathcote, Johnny Chick and myself.

“One thing I remember is that when we had to move out of the flat in Coburg we had to get rid of the empty bottles (longnecks) – and when the chap came to collect them he said he’d never seen so many. He said ‘Do you mind if I ring The Herald?’, to which we replied ‘You better not’.”

Maurie’s cavalier attitude to life was borne out in his footy. To steal an old expression, the player sailed closed to the wind – which endeared him no end to the dark Navy Blue faithful.

Collis, Carlton’s No.17 who shared lockers with Maurie at 16, can personally vouch for the fact that his old pal never exhibited any fear.

Maurie Sankey and the legendary John Nicholls, circa 1960. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

“Before I started playing I can remember that Maurice came on to the ground in a finals match, not sure who the club was playing, as a 19th or 20th man. He ran around clobbering a couple of blokes and really sparked the team doing it,” Collis said.

“But you couldn’t say he was always judicious with his activities – I can remember playing against Essendon and I had Ken Fraser, who was such a fair player, pretty well under control. Anyway, the ball was in our forward line and for some unknown reason Sankey decided to wrestle Fraser to the ground – and the avalanche that this caused was incredible.

“I found myself ducking and weaving blokes like Don McKenzie who could fire up and we had a comfortable lead, so Maurice’s actions were totally unnecessary and we ended up losing by as much as we were leading at that stage.”

Watch Sankey’s highlights

Through his seven seasons at Princes Park, Maurie earned his keep as an acknowledged tap ruckman. Forming part of an accomplished following division comprising John Nicholls, Ken Greenwood, Sergio Silvagni, Graham Donaldson and the late Brian Buckley – Maurie was amongst the big six famously photographed for posterity at a Princes Park training session in 1960.

“He was a bit of an unusual build. He tended to be a little pear-shaped,” Collis said of Maurie.

“He was always pretty strong around the hips and thighs, but he tapered off up top. But typical of his determination he set about rectifying that and he built himself up into a really good physical specimen.

“He applied himself and it made a really big difference to his play. He started taking a lot of marks around the ground simply because he had that strength to stand tall and take them.”

Through the gruelling finals series of ’62 (brought on by the tied Prelim against Geelong), Maurie was a standout for his team. Such was the respect he commanded amongst the ranks that by ’64 he was named vice-captain to Silvagni, and with the emergence of the team under the great Ronald Dale, Maurie’s future seemed assured.

Maurie Sankey (second from right) celebrates a win with his Carlton teammates, circa 1960. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

Who was to know that when Maurie turned out for his 100th senior appearance (against Richmond in the 17th round of 1965), this would be his last.

On the evening of Sunday, November 21, 1965, Maurie was killed when the car in which he was driving was involved in a head-on collision on the Hume Highway, five kilometres north of Wangaratta.

According to a report in The Canberra Times of Tuesday, November 23, Maurie was one of three young men to have lost their lives.

The story goes that Maurie, then employed with the Beneficial Finance Company, was ferrying three workmates back from Wagga Wagga after they had competed in a golf tournament.

Those three men escaped serious injury, but the two occupants of the other car, who were heading home to New South Wales after the Sandown car races, got trapped in the chassis when it burst into flames on impact.

“I remember when he got killed that he had been out playing golf,” Cox recalled.

“He was behind the wheel of a car when he tried to pass a truck going up a hill. When he got to that truck he suddenly found another truck in front of it. He went to pass the second truck when he realised a car was coming the other way, so he veered right, but the oncoming car veered left and that was the finish of him.”

Collis, then domiciled at 19 Berry Street, was one of the first advised about the unmitigated tragedy. Said Collis: “We had the cops come to the door and tell us the news. It was one hell of a shock”.

Carlton players and officials bid farewell to Maurie, who left behind a partner and four month-old son, at a funeral service held at the Brunswick Baptist Church on Sydney Road. Following the service, the cortege paused for a moment by the old Princes Park ground en route to Springvale Cemetery where in grave 01, Row F on the HN Featonby Lawn the young ruckman was laid to rest.

Today, some 50 years after his untimely demise, Maurie’s loss is still deeply felt.

“It’s hard to quantify, but I still think of him now,” Collis said.

“Maurice wasn’t one of those blokes you’d forget. In different ways his memory surfaces and I even have a pin number which includes his jumper number to help me remember.

“He was dedicated to the game all right. He wasn’t a pretend player and he hadn’t hit his prime either. He was just reaching the peak of his powers.

“He was a terrific bloke. You could almost classify him as the most popular bloke at the club really. He had a daredevil sort of approach to life. He personified courage, although you can get courage mixed up with foolhardiness at times and he might have had a mix of that. In fact it might have led to his demise too.”

It is here that Collis drew on a tale that in part tells the whole of the boy filled with wanderlust who was Maurie Sankey.

“I can remember we had a day up at Buller. None of us had been on the skis and we were going pretty carefully, but not Maurice. He threw caution to the wind and whatever happened down below happened,” Collis said.

“He was inclined to be a risk taker. I might be totally wrong, but this is the thought that has stayed with me forever, from the time I first heard that it happened.”

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By Tony De Bolfo

John Hands holds the 1945 medallion his father Ken won for his role in “The Bloodbath”. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

Ken Hands, one of the most influential figures in Carlton history, has graciously availed his glorious collection of memorabilia to the football club.

Included amongst the precious assortment are treasured Carlton and Victorian guernseys, club Premiership mementoes of 1945 and ’47 and framed VFL 200-game and Life Membership certificates, together with assorted press clippings.

Also there is a glorious portrait of Hands, resplendent in his dark Navy Blue guernsey, circa 1945, and a picture captured from the Robert Heatley Stand of him in the famous No.1, leading his players onto Princes Oval in game No.200.

A portrait of Ken Hands. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

On the reverse of that pic is a caption which reads; “Ken Hands – 200th game for Carlton. May 18, 1957. Carlton 16.22 d Richmond 13.16 at Princes Oval. Ken Hands (Captain) 5 goals”.

Hands, now in his 90th year, hoped that the collection would be of interest to Members when on future display at the Carlton ground. His son John, who handed over the prized artefacts, said the family’s rationale was simple.

The scene at Princes Park for Ken Hands’ 200th game. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

“These things were sitting in a vault, hidden away for no-one to see, so Dad, my sisters Janet and Robyn and I are quite happy for the club to showcase these things,” Hands said.

“We’re all so very proud of him, not only for what he achieved in his football life but for what he achieved in his business life too.”

A member of the infamous 1945 “Bloodbath” and ’47 Grand Final triumphs, Hands commanded authority as Carlton’s resident ruckman through 211 senior appearances in 13 seasons to 1957 – during which time he earned his club’s best and fairest in 1953 and ably served as captain.

Wearing the famous No.1 guernsey, Hands, a Carlton Team of the Century and Hall of Fame member, would also serve as mentor to the budding young ruckman John Nicholls, whom he signed as club recruiter.

A senior coach in six seasons from 1959, Hands is also one of only three coaches (joining Norman “Hackenschmidt” Clark and Brett Ratten) to have represented Carlton in a minimum 100 senior matches as both player and coach.

“Dad’s first coaching experience came when he coached the Victorian team in 1954. He won all eight games from then on,” John said.

“He then won his first eight games as Carlton coach, so he had a 16-game run.”

“He still loves walking into the Carlton ground. Carlton was a very big part of his life, absolutely. His career as player and coach encompassed 20 years and that’s a big part of anyone’s life.”

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By Tony De Bolfo

Carlton coach David Parkin on parade ahead of the 1982 Grand Final. (Photo: Emil Govic)

Photographs of an understated Grand Final parade of 1982 – throwbacks to a time when there was less hoopla and fanfare – have been forwarded to the Carlton Football Club archive.

The images, as captured through the lens of Carlton Member Emil Govic, show a number of senior players (some appearing tense, others relaxed) in the motorcade winding its way through the streets of the Melbourne central business district.

Ken Hunter can be seen outside David Triaca’s long gone Café Latin at 55 Lonsdale Street. Carlton Senior Coach David Parkin is also featured, while long-serving club administrator Shane O’Sullivan appears resplendent in collar, tie and vest, in an animated conversation with the then captain Mike Fitzpatrick. Perched in a cream-coloured MG.

The 1982 Brownlow Medallist Brian Wilson is also there, with the late Frank Traynor and his Jazz Preachers belting out a tune behind.

“I used to go to all of these parades and have more pictures from parades of previous years . . . I just have to find them,” Govic said.

“I have followed this beautiful football club since I can’t remember, and my mum and my sister were the diehards. Sadly they no longer go to games, but still follow the club passionately from afar.”

If you have any Carlton-centric photographs or film you would like to forward to the club’s online archive, please contact tony.debolfo@carltonfc.com.au

 

Ken Hunter by Triaca Cafe’s Latin. (Photo: Emil Govic)

 

David Glascott and Ken Hunter. (Photo: Emil Govic)

 

Peter Bosustow and Frank Marchesani. (Photo: Emil Govic)

 

Peter McConville and Warren Jones. (Photo: Emil Govic)

 

Des English and David Clarke. (Photo: Emil Govic)

 

Robbert Klomp and Ross Ditchburn. (Photo: Emil Govic)

 

Mark Maclure and Wayne Johnston. (Photo: Emil Govic)

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John Raymond Brew in his Carlton guernsey. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

Player, captain, captain-coach, club solicitor, vice-president. Few, it’s fair to say, have given more to the Carlton Football Club than John Raymond (“Ray”) Brew.

It’s 85 years since Ray Brew last laced a boot for the mighty Blues – his 118th and final senior appearance in the fourth round of 1931 against Geelong – and with the passing of time stories such as his can be sometimes forgotten.

But the following bio, with the assistance of those nearest and dearest, is the definitive account of a Carlton career and a life well spent.
Ray Brew, son of Michael John Charles and Mary Ellen ‘May’ Brew, was born in Spencer Street, West Melbourne, on January 14, 1903.

Brew attended the local primary school at St Mary’s, St Joseph’s Christian Brothers College in nearby North Melbourne from 1914-1919 and finally St Kevin’s CBC in 1920. The Brothers ensured Brew was given a solid education accompanied by a strong focus on Irish Catholicism.

Whilst at school, Brew’s sporting prowess became evident. He shone in football, handball and athletics, and it’s likely he inherited his skills from his father who had competed in athletics and also captained the Wangaratta football team many years earlier.

At the age of 13, Brew represented CBC’s Senior XVIII and in 1920 he captained the team that took the Premiership. Simultaneously, he excelled academically and in 1919, for his firsts in English and Geography earned a resident Newman scholarship.

Upon leaving school, he studied Law at Melbourne University.

Brew was captain and dux of his school, and was later honoured at St Kevin’s when the senior English Prize was named after him. In addition to the Newman scholarship, he won other scholarships and bursaries, in total worth more than 600 pounds.

At university, Brew built on his sporting achievements by captaining the Newman first XVIII, playing cricket and competing in athletics in the long jump, shotput and 100 and 220-yard sprints. He also represented Victoria in squash, was a handball champion, and became a member of the Vic Anglers’ Club.

Brew’s talent for writing poetry also became evident when his poems, including “Pax Animae” (Peace of Mind), appeared in the Newman College Magazine of which he was editor. At some point, during his university studies, Brew also captained the West Melbourne CYMS football team. He was fond of reading and enjoyed the gentlemanly game of billiards. He was popular with the other students and savoured a full social life. He also studied hard.

A dux of Newman College when he completed his studies in 1924 at the age of 21, Brew’s law degree was conferred at a ceremony chaired by Sir John Monash, the university’s Vice Chancellor. Brew had been one of two students in the running for a Rhodes scholarship, but declined this possibility due to his commitment to his mother’s welfare.

The previous year, at the age of 20 and whilst still a student, Brew first turned out for the Carlton Football Club. The team met Richmond at the Punt Road Oval in the third round. Brew, so the story goes, was a late inclusion, and took to the field in a numberless Carlton guernsey. Never mind, he booted a goal with his very first kick and, in his ensuing career as wing, forward and rover, made the No.26 his own.

A caricature of John Raymond Brew featured in Table Talk, 1930.

In 1924, Brew was selected to play for Victoria in the Australian Football Carnival in Hobart. The side included one Roy Cazaly, the Victorians won the competition and later frolicked in the local snow.

The following year, at the tender age of just 22, Brew was named Carlton captain, and one of the youngest on-field leaders in League history. He was of stocky build, standing 5’9½ inches (175 cm) in height and tipping the scales at 12 stone 8lbs (83kg). He was considered a tough opponent and was also described as ‘dashing’. By career’s end, he had tied down almost every conceivable position except centre half-forward and centre half-back.

As he did in many other aspects of his life, Brew grabbed the ball and ran with it. Numerous newspaper articles reveal that he became quite famous for his skill and talent, and was hero-worshipped by many fans, old and young, from far and wide.

In May 1925, with discontent and disharmony rife at Princes Park, resident captain Maurie Beasy and playing coach Paddy O’Brien both relinquished their respective roles. Accordingly, Brew was elevated to the position of captain-coach on a caretaker basis, until South Melbourne Premiership captain Jim Caldwell took over in mid-June.

When Calwell accepted a coaching appointment with Rutherglen on the cusp of the ’26 season, the Carlton committee once again turned to Brew as captain-coach. With the welcome return from injury of Horrie Clover and the emergence of a rising star in Bacchus Marsh’s Harry Vallence, the team under Brew’s watch returned a series of creditable performances.

Carlton completed the season in sixth position, but on the eve of the ’27 season Brew’s profound influence on the team was cruelled when he was struck down with serious illness. He suffered a burst appendix and was lucky to survive.

The setback put paid to Brew’s on-field appearances for 12 months, and Clover assumed the coaching mantle until the former’s return in 1928.

The 1929 Carlton team, captained by John Raymond Brew. (Photo: The Australasian)

In all, Brew coached Carlton through 37 senior matches for 22 wins and 15 draws, and the respectable average of 59.46. Somehow he also found time to serve as secretary of his football club’s social committee and through ’28 participated in various radio broadcasts, talking football to listeners in both Victoria and Tasmania.

Brew was only 23 when he became a partner with Nicholas O’Donohue, in the law firm of O’Donohue and Brew, whose offices were situated in Capitol House on Swanston Street. When Brew ended the partnership, the firm’s name changed to Nicholas O’Donohue and Co; and offices were eventually relocated to 180 Queen Street.

John Raymond Brew in his office, aged 23.

Brew practised as a barrister and solicitor for some years, much of it with the Liquor Licensing Court. During the Depression years, any moneys he earned from football assisted in him paying members of staff and meeting his own living expenses. Indeed, it seems the only payments he received from many clients during the Depression was their heartfelt gratitude.

Brew always conducted his business dealings as he conducted himself, with the utmost integrity, and he was much admired and respected by his clients and his peers. Eventually he was offered admission to the Bench, but turned down that role. It is thought he didn’t want to be a Judge because he was uncomfortable with the prospect of passing sentence on people.

Whilst playing for Carlton, Brew lived in Lygon Street, but during his spare time enjoyed hitting the beach (he was a keen swimmer), dancing and reading detective fiction. He also liked to play cribbage. His first car purchased was a Buick, and amongst his favourite pastimes was long drives through the countryside.

In 1930, Brew was rewarded with Life Membership of the Carlton Football Club for eight years’ service as a player. The following year, at the age of 28 years and 129 days and as a result of the many and varied injuries incurred, he opted to hang up the boots.

Brew maintained his active association with Carlton as its Vice-President from 1932 until 1934 and in ’35 extended his involvement in the sport by coaching a team at his auld alma mater, St Kevin’s.

Later, whilst still committing to his frenetic legal practice, Brew took up part ownership of the iconic Prince Of Wales Hotel in St Kilda – and he lived there until he enlisted for the Army in 1942.

As a member of the Legal Corps, he was posted to the Army Barracks in Keswick in South Australia and by 1943 had once again been elevated to a position of captain.

That same year, he married Jean Cale and together they raised two children.

When The Footballers’ Club was established in August 1944, Brew was elected President. In February of the following year, he participated in a charity cricket match to raise funds for the Royal Children’s and Prince Henry’s Hospitals, and so maintained an active involvement in sport until the age of 42.

Along the way, Brew also pursued an interest as a racehorse owner. He boasted ownership of a number of successful horses, amongst them Pushover, the winner of the 1956 Adelaide Cup.

Although he and his family were domiciled in Adelaide for some time, Brew maintained his strong Victorian links, and he eventually returned to Melbourne.

John Raymond Brew passed away on August 21, 1979 at the age of 76. Ironically, he died in Spencer Street, the same street in which he was born – a fact which would have greatly amused him.

He is buried with his beloved wife, Jean, in Adelaide.

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Philip McCumisky with his late father’s Life Membership certificate. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

In recently revisiting the listings of early Life Members (some of whose memberships pre-dated the VFL), it is clear that amongst the household names are the many and varied unsung heroes, whose dedication to the Carlton Football Club made Carlton a better place.

Amongst them is the nine-game former Carlton footballer and long-serving resident honorary doctor, Philip B. McCumisky, who replaced the long-serving E.A. Strahan in that role in 1932, and whose association with his beloved Blues in that capacity spanned more than a quarter of a century until his regrettably unpleasant departure in a difficult period for the club in the late 1950s.

The accompanying photographs show the fair-headed McCumisky in his playing days, with coach Norman “Hackenschmidt” Clark a powerful presence over his left shoulder. A later image features Dr McCumisky between the then Carlton captain Ern Henfry and long-serving President Kenneth Luke, on the team’s 1950 tour of Adelaide.

Recently, Dr McCumisky’s son Philip came back to Carlton armed with the good doctor’s Life Membership certificate. Later, he took the liberty of penning a few words in tribute to his father’s significant contributions, an edited version of which appears as follows;

Philip McCumisky (front left) in Carlton’s 1918 team. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

My father (Philip) was recruited to Carlton from the VAFA, having played for Old Xaverians, and previously Xavier College and St. Patrick’s College Ballarat.

He played for Carlton from 1917 until 1919, having completed his senior debut at the age of 20 in the sixth round against Fitzroy, and his last game came in round 11 against Essendon. In between, he wore the guernsey numbers 32 (in 1917-18) and 30 (1919).

In 1919, on completion of his Carlton career, he studied medicine at the newly-opened Newman College at the University of Melbourne. Though he pursued other sports at Newman, he was also appointed inaugural captain of the college’s 1st XVIII.

After Newman, my father did locum work in various Victorian rural areas in order to build up his skills and medical knowledge. He was instrumental in setting up hospitals in a few rural towns – a legacy well appreciated and dear to his heart, although the establishment usually took the credit.

My father then went to England as a ship’s doctor to further his medical knowledge and then to Edinburgh to pursue a degree in surgery and to specialise in both the finer art of surgery and urology at the Hull Infirmary, where he was head surgeon for quite some time.

He also met his future wife, Josephine Fletcher, whilst in England. She later joined him in Melbourne in 1938 when they were married.

The previous year, he had completed his travel experiences, returning to Australia via America as a ship’s doctor (very frugal was our father!). In Melbourne he furthered his studies and established a medical practice – during which time he also renewed links with the Carlton Football Club, this time as its resident doctor. Thus began a lifelong association with Carlton, which was to last until the late 1960s, during which time he was also elected to the positions of Vice President, VFL delegate and Chairman of Selectors, most of which he held until his retirement.

In those days there were many fine officials and administrators in the VFL, and clubs were served by their own particular leaders and captains of society. The Carlton Football Club was then considered (and still is now) an elite club, and in those days was presided over by Kenneth (later Sir Kenneth) Luke – the well-known Melbourne industrialist, benefactor, racehorse owner and philanthropist.

Dr McCumisky (centre) on Carlton’s 1950 tour to Adelaide. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

“KG”, as he was known, was Carlton President for almost 20 years. He and my father were very close and Dad was also the doctor for KG’s business, Paramount Steel, which manufactured stainless steel hardware for hospitals and the catering trade in general. KG used to employ many players who were recruited from throughout Australia at the time. Paramount Steel still exists today, but is not controlled by the Luke family.

I was always keen to go with my father from boarding school at Ballarat in the winter months to see Carlton play, whether it was Princes Park or elsewhere. Michael my brother if I remember correctly was not all that keen on football, but still went with Dad to view some games . . . mother’s influence perhaps. I always had a ‘special’ seat in the grandstand in the CFC officials enclosure where I would be educated by some of the finest men I have ever met – men like Harry Bell, Newton Chandler, Horrie Clover, KG Luke, Jim Francis, Perc Bentley and others. They were good times.

In 1947, Horrie Clover who was the then Vice President of the Carlton Football Club, presented my father with a Life Membership certificate.

I was able to mix with players in the rooms at half-time, had my own jumper and football, and enjoyed the sandwiches and soft drinks after the game. I have fond memories of players in the years 1950 through to 1958 – Ern Henfry, “Chooka” Howell, Keith Warburton, Bert Deacon, Ollie Grieve, Bruce Comben, John Nicholls, Graham Donaldson, John Chick, Ken Hands and many other well-known players of the time.

John James, who was at St Patrick’s College with me but in a senior grade. I remember while at St Pat’s that John was playing full-forward, we had never been beaten at that time all year and we always won the premiership each year. In one particular Grand Final, John had three Ballarat High School players on him all match as he’d kicked 30-odd goals, and they were doing everything possible to stop him. We won the match and the Grand final, and Ballarat High School if I remember correctly only scored a point. It was an absolute rout.

Many players were recruited to VFL clubs in those days from St Pat’s. Brother O’Malley was the school’s well-recognised football coach and talent spotter for many years. He and Dad had many discussions through my school years about who had the best potential for VFL glory. Dad would have done the right thing and passed that information onto the selectors at the club during that time – after all, Dad was also the Carlton chairman of selectors – and John James was recruited to Carlton after leaving St Pat’s.

Football was our father’s main ‘relief’ from his work. He enjoyed the whole thing about VFL and was at the clubrooms at least three days a week, probably more when there were matters that had to be discussed/settled if and when he was involved in an official capacity.

There would have been many players attend to by my father, whether at his professional rooms or in various hospital operating theatres in Melbourne.

Dad usually attended to other teams’ players also, especially when it came to an operation to correct or relieve a football injury, as most VFL teams’ doctors – if the teams actually had a doctor on staff – were not surgeons. Hence, the referral.
I can remember meeting many men in later life who had been ‘under the knife’ to correct a football injury, all of whom were always in praise of my father’s ability as a doctor/surgeon.

In later years there was a ‘changing of the guard’. A new and commercial viewpoint was being ‘introduced’ and many of the older principles and ways that had been with the Carlton Football Club for many years went out the door, along with many fine administrative and service-oriented men who did not favour the ‘new direction’ that was being mooted as ‘the way forward’ by the new management and chose to either resign or move on.

I am sure that my father was one of those men.

– Philip McCumisky

More By Tony De Bolfo