IVANHOE AMATEUR FOOTBALL CLUB

‘Since 1910’

19 April

A HISTORY OF IVANHOE’S CLUB COLOURS

By Phil Skeggs

There is no record of what colours Ivanhoe wore when we formed as a social footy team in our first season in 1910. When the Heidelberg District Football Association was formed in 1911, Ivanhoe lacked a home ground and didn’t join the competition.

With the development of Ivanhoe Park, Ivanhoe joined the HDFA in March 1912 and according to a local press report the committee originally planned to field a green and gold strip. But a month later it was reported that the club had adopted the Collingwood colours of black and white stripes. The club may have got hold of a set of old jumpers from Collingwood for those first seasons. We were being referred to as the “Ivanhoe Magpies” by 1912. As evidenced by the premiership team photos from 1913 and 1921, the club wore the black and white stripes until the HDFA disbanded at the end of the 1921 season.

Ivanhoe wasn’t invited to join the newly formed Diamond Valley league in 1922. We joined the Melbourne Districts Football Association, which was later renamed the Sub-District Football League. Ivanhoe were dubbed the “Two Blues”, wearing a dark blue with a pale blue vee in front.  There are historic images of Ivanhoe teams wearing these colours on the club’s website under the heading “IAFC Picture Trove” https://ivanhoeafc.com/club-information/history/iafc-picture-trove/

We were still wearing the Two Blues when we joined the VAFA in 1934. We wore those colours for the first three seasons, as can be seen from the 1934, 1935 and 1936 premiership team photos. According to past president, the late Harry Thomas who re-formed the club post-World War II, the colours remained the same until the competition went into recess during the war.

During the war, the jumpers were placed in storage with Heidelberg Council for safe keeping. Club legend Tim Robinson said Harry recalled that the council was unable to locate the jumpers after the war and the coach, who had played at Collingwood pre-war, scrounged a set of old Collingwood jumpers from Victoria Park.

“Ron Dowling had been appointed coach and when the Two Blues jumpers could not be found he went down to Collingwood and got an old set of their jumpers. Thus the Black and white stripes,” said Tim.

“What happened to the jumpers was always a mystery. However, about 15 years ago I came across a photo of a West Heidelberg team in two blue jumpers. On inquiring I was told by a West Heidelberg source that when they re-formed after the war they had no money so the council gave them the Two Blues jumpers. This I suspect is the answer to the missing jumpers mystery.”

Others sources have told me they recalled seeing the club wearing green jumpers in 1946. It’s possible these may have been an emergency set supplied by the VAFA before Dowling obtained the Collingwood jumpers that year.

Being in Collingwood heartland, the black and white strip was popular with many players. Our under 19s won flags wearing the black and white in 1949, 1953 and 1955. The senior club enjoyed some its greatest successes wearing the Collingwood colours. The 1954 B grade premiership, 1956 A grade premiership, and the 1969 B grade flag. There was also a swag of reserves flags in those colours too.

Robinson said the club has never been called “Magpies” by players or supporters. It has always been ‘Hoes’ or ‘Hoers’.  But some Amateur Footballer scribes have mistakenly referred to our club as the Magpies over the years.

The Collingwood jumpers remained until the club forged an alliance with Assumption College old boys in 1999. The colours stayed essentially the same but the Assumption school badge was added on the left breast and the club was renamed Ivanhoe Assumption. It stayed like that until the school alliance dissolved at the end of 2006. When the club played in the 2007 D3 grand final, we were back in good ol’ Collingwood colours.

In 2008, club president Chris Tucker redesigned the club’s colours, switching to the all-black that the Ivanhoe Juniors had worn since inception in 1972. This was part of an effort to forge closer ties with the juniors and re-establish an under 19s team. Chris, a graphic designer, added a swooping magpie motif on the front panel as a nod to the club’s historic ties. These colours remained for 10 seasons, despite the junior club switching their jumpers to black with a white vee.

When the Ivies joined the inaugural VAFA women’s comp in 2017, they wore a reverse strip of white with a swooping magpie motif on the front, with black and white stripes below the motif.

The senior club returned to wearing its historic black and white jumpers in 2019 – a decision warmly welcomed by supporters and past and present players.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16 March

2019 OPENING LUNCHEON

Ivanhoe Amateur Football Club Warmly invites you to join them for the 2019 OPENING LUNCHEON

Held in our clubrooms on Saturday 13^th April from 12 noon

We would love to see you all as we welcome back an old foe, in Bulleen Templestowe, to Ivanhoe Park.

Come and watch your club back in its famous strip of our past.                                                            

Come meet and hear our new Senior Coach, Mario Bandera.                                          

Come and see the changes to your football club. We are excited, you will be too. 

Come and join old friends over a lovely 2 course lunch and enjoy their company. 

Come and hear guest speaker, Tim Robinson talk of the history of our famous jumper.

We are placing a huge emphasis on families and we would encourage you to join us and bring someone back to Ivanhoe Park who hasn’t been there for a while. For catering purposes please RSVP to club Secretary Fiona 0412 783 870 or to Emily Johnson on 0432 030 006 by Monday 8^thApril.

The cost is $30.00 and if you’re a Black & Whites member you are our guest. Drinks at the bar.

11 March

PRACTISE MATCHES – SATURDAY 16 MARCH & 23 MARCH

Another two rounds of practice matches for all teams before the VAFA seasons kicks off in April. Everyone is playing at Ivanhoe Park.

16 March:

9:20am – Senior Women’s Vs Brunswick
11:40pm – Reserves Vs St Mary’s Salesian AFC
2.00pm – Seniors Men’s Vs St Mary’s Salesian AFC

23 March:

11:40pm – Reserves Vs Mount Waverley
2.00pm – Seniors Men’s Vs Mount Waverley
4.45pm – Seniors Women’s Vs TBC

All friends and family of The Club are welcome to attend!

7 March

COACH REQUIRED – IVIES

Ivanhoe AFC are seeking applications for Senior Coach for our Womens team (the Ivanhoe Ivies) for 2019. Renumeration negotiable. Applications close Tuesday 12 March. Please contact Secretary Fiona Tansley on 0412 783 870 to apply.

21 February

PRACTISE MATCHES – SUNDAY 3 MARCH

Come join us on what will be an exciting Sunday in March to watch Ivanhoe Amateurs Football Club put their pre-season training to the test. All teams will be playing their first practise match for 2019 at Ivanhoe Park.

9:20am – U19s Vs TBC
11:40pm – Reserves Vs Manningham Cobras
2.00pm – Seniors Men’s Vs Manningham Cobras
4:45pm – Senior Women’s Vs West Brunswick

All friends and family of The Club are welcome to attend!

16 January

ADVENT OF THE IVIES – UPDATED HISTORY PAGE

Thanks to our wonderful club historian, Phil Skeggs, we have a new addition to our history section on this website.

The ‘Advent of the Ivies’ looks at the last two years at Ivanhoe AFC, including the addition of our first female team, the Ivies. Phil hasn’t left the men’s teams out, this is a complete piece on our club’s last two years. Please, take a look, just click here.

5 January

FAREWELL TO A LOYAL TREASURE – BETTY THOMAS (1927-2019)

The Ivanhoe Amateur Football Club community has been saddened by the passing of Betty, a wonderful and kind person, a very loyal supporter of Ivanhoe and the loving wife of the IAFC Icon, the late, revered Harry Thomas. Betty’s connection with Ivanhoe Amateurs dates back to its earliest days in the VAFA and was fully engaged upon her marriage to Harry, who not only provided Ivanhoe with his well honed administrative skills, but was a great player over a 10 year period from the mid 1940s to the mid 1950s. Like Harry, Betty understood the purpose, vision and values of our community club, living all of her 91 years not only in Ivanhoe, but in the same Ivanhoe/Eaglemont house. Betty was always that calm person in the background, portraying her own thoughtful, caring and supportive manner. Betty sacrificed untold hours in order that the club was properly led and that everything was in place to cover the infinite needs of a football club which always had player inclusiveness, connectedness and security as its mission. Harry, President of the Team of the Century, VAFA Award winner, Inaugural IAFC Legend, Life Member, talked often of his indebtedness to his quiet-humoured, generous and loving partner and through the decades the vision of the Thomas family, together with other great families and individuals such as the Miles, Blackwoods, Flynns, Bill and Lorraine McWhinnie and Tim Robinson to name just a few, have maintained our great club in the good and turbulent times. Vale Betty Thomas, and our thanks to her children Graham, Anne and Robyn for sharing her with us all over so many years.

Betty’s funeral will be held at 10:00am on Thursday 10 January at Le Pines in Ivanhoe. Friends are also invited to celebrate Betty’s life afterwards at Sir Henry Barclays Hotel in Heidelberg.

21 December

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Ivanhoe Amateur Football Club would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a spectacular 2019. Go Ho Ho Hoers and Ivies!

20 December

VALE RON LUCAS, FOUNDING PRESIDENT OF IVANHOE JUNIORS

By Phil Skeggs

One of Ivanhoe’s great clubmen of the ’60s and ’70s, Ron Lucas, has passed away, aged 81.

In an era when Ivanhoe Amateurs was consistently in A or B grade, Ron was a devoted stalwart whose work on and off the field was recognised with life membership. Ron was a member of the under 19s premiership team in 1953, playing alongside future club greats Rusty Burt, Ian Anderson and John Miles. A brave and skilful player, Ron usually lined up as a small forward and second rover. Anderson recalls that Ron, whom he’d known since he was 14, was “a reasonable player”.

“He wasn’t a champion, but he was a useful player,” he said. And while Ron missed out on the Seniors premierships in 1954 and 1956, he enjoyed success with the reserves when they won a flag in 1958. He went on to coach the reserves, including the 1969 season when the seniors won the B grade flag.

Ron was also active on committee, organising the club’s entry into junior football via the Melbourne Boys League. The club fielded under 15s and under 17s teams in the boys league from 1966 until 1971. At the behest of under 15s coach Tim Robinson, the senior committee formed the Ivanhoe Junior Football Club in late 1971 and entered teams in the Doncaster and Districts Junior Football League in 1972. (The forerunner of today’s Yarra Junior Football League, which was formed in 1997). Ron became the Ivanhoe Juniors’ first president, with a committee comprising John Miles (treasurer), Robinson, Burt, Don Blackwood, John Burns, Peter Cairns, Euan Logan, and John Benetti.

“He (Lucas) was one of the world’s real gentlemen – just a lovely guy,” recalled Robinson. “I played with him a little bit when I was beginning and he was finishing. He was a bloody good player, he wasn’t a standout super champion but he was a good little player.” He said after the senior club committee unanimously backed his proposal to form Ivanhoe Junior Football Club, Lucas went about “quietly and efficiently setting up the new club”.

“It was Ron Lucas and John Miles who did all the work in getting it going,” he said.

Ron Lucas died on December 9 and was privately cremated. The club extends its condolences to his wife Jan, and his children and grandchildren Amanda, Melissa and John, Will, Nick and Anna.

12 November

PRE-SEASON STARTS TONIGHT!

Pre-season training for all players, Men’s, Women’s and Under 19s, will be held on Monday and Wednesday nights throughout Pre-season. Training will be held at Ivanhoe Park and will commence at 6:15pm.

3 November

WITH SADNESS

It is wth sadness that we report the passing of Mr Ray Foster, much loved father of Melissa Bandera and adored father in-law of newly appointed Senior Mens Coach, Mario Bandera. To Melissa, Mario and your beautiful girls, our deepest sympathy and we assure you of our love and care at this very sad time.

 

FOR MORE NEWS GO TO OUR NEWS PAGE OR CLICK HERE.