The origins of Chadstone Lacrosse Club
My recollections 37 years later!
(Important note: As these are personal recollections, the author would very much appreciate receiving any suggestions for amendments, additions, etc)
In 1958, I was playing lacrosse with the Melbourne Cricket Club Lacrosse Section in their “A Section” team. In that year I began a two-year period teaching science at the Boys Junior School at Caulfield Technical College. I was able to encourage a number of junior boys at Years 7 and 8 levels to learn to play lacrosse and introduced inter-house lacrosse as a sports option. On 25th July 1958, there were more than 50 lacrosse players at Caulfield Tech., and with the help of Bill Gray Sr. and Keith Buchanan (both from the M.C.C. Lacrosse Club), we held an inter-house Lacrosse Gymkana. This also included a Lightning Premiership and both Accuracy and Long-distance Throwing Competitions. A also managed to start two new Under 14 Caulfield teams, called the Hurons and Golds, which I coached regularly at Caulfield Park oval, to play under-age competition on Saturdays. I believe that many of these boys, between 30 and 40 in total, subsequently became successful senior Caulfield Lacrosse Club players. Incidently, I concurrently was pioneering, first the program called “Popular Science” on the Judy Jack Channel Two children’s television program, and then later, I produced, prepared and presented the unscripted “Fun With Science” as a weekly segment on the daily children’s television program known the “Happy Hammond Tarax Show”, always taking groups or three or four Year 7 students to appear with me before the cameras. With a move from Caulfield Technical College imminent, I canvassed this idea with my colleague and friend the late Bill Gray, Snr., with whom I was playing lacrosse with the Melbourne Cricket Club Lacrosse Section, of founding a brand new lacrosse club. I raised this possibility with Bill to cater better for boys further out in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and so extend the lacrosse boundaries further out. It immediately interested Bill quite a lot, and he volunteered to assist me in my plans. He was enthusiastic and pledged his support if I was able to get the new club up and running. His network fortuitously included some local residents who were active in founding the Chadstone Community Centre as I think it was then called.
In 1960, I was appointed as a Lecturer in Education at the Toorak Teacher’s College. I decided to call a mid-week evening community meeting in the pavilion alongside the Chadstone oval and Bill, Sr. and I invited representatives of the Executive of the Victorian Lacrosse Association (VLA) to attend. On 10th March 1960, this meeting was held. From memory, the VLA representatives were Phil Shappere, Frank Landsbury and, I think, one other, while Bill Gray, Sr., and I were also in attendance. We endeavoured to publicise the meeting amongst the schools and the community in the area.
However, when the designated night arrived, I recall that it was a cold and miserable evening. From memory, one couple arrived with their son – and that was all. The reaction of the VLA representatives was : “You’re wasting your time, David. You may as well forget about it.” These words were like a red rag to a bull to me and the challenge was down!
My response was to organise an Exhibition Match to be held on a Saturday afternoon (19th March 1960) on the oval concurrently with a Chadstone Civic and Recreation Club Fete being held at Chadstone Park, just a few weeks prior to the start of the season. (This pre-dated the existence of the Chadstone Shopping Centre.) The Caulfield and Malvern Lacrosse Clubs were most cooperative and provided teams to play an exhibition game, as I requested. Together with a few volunteers, I set up two trestle tables. Each was equipped with note-pads on which parents and children could sign up if they wished to have free coaching sessions with a view to joining under age teams as the embryo Chadstone Lacrosse Club to start playing in the 1960 season. The VLA agreed also to provide a junior stick free for each new player initially signed up. By the end of the afternoon, if my recollection is clear, we had enough young lads to fill at least two teams.
Pre-season practice began at 9.45 A.M. od the adoption ofn 26th March 1960. Over the next few weeks, Bill Gray, Snr., and I conducted training sessions on a regular basis. Largely because of my personal knowledge of the famous Canadian team known as the Cardinals, Bill Sr., and I decided to recommend the adoption of the club colours of cardinal and gold – these matched well with the local Chadstone Park State School also. By the time the season began on 23rd April 1960, the Chadstone Redcoats and the Chadstone Giants were up and away, and the Victorian Lacrosse Association permitted the late entry of a third team, the Chadstone Bears, to allow later enrolled boys to participate in the competition. Our home ground from the outset was Chadstone Park. Our away games were played far and wide, and the boys were transported by one or two willing parents and me. The youngsters soon got to know each other and their respective coaches, as we travelled crowded in to cars and station wagons to nearby grounds in Caulfield and Malvern, and to faraway grounds such as Williamstown, I used to stack the boys into the rear of my station wagon, and development of strong team bonding and exercising of vocal chords. In our first season, the Redcoats (captaind by Bill Gray, Jnr.) finished the season by reaching the semi-finals, winning ten of their 15 matches.
This was a remarkable effort, as many of the players in this Under 14 competition were still only nine-years-olds at the start of their first season! In no time, I think we had at least four full teams together with reserves – very keen and eager youngsters ready to make their mark in the lacrosse world. In the early days, the relative inexperience of the teams meant that we suffered some quite heavy defeats, but as experience and skills were developed, we started winning matches and making the club a force to be reckoned with. Many of these youngsters went on to play A grade lacrosse.
Quite a few parents participated actively on committees to ensure the organisation of the club developed concurrently with the on-field strength of the club. It became a genuine team effort. I was elected as Foundation President, and “W.L. Gray” was Foundation Secretary/Treasurer. I also provided a loan of 20 pounds to the Club to help get it started!
In 1961, I was promoted by the Education Department to teach in the nearby former Oakleigh Technical College. I observed that few boys at the school had any constructive out-of-school activities in which to engage, especially in weekends, and sought to get some of these students involved in lacrosse which was then non-existent in that area. My time there was interrupted soon after the 1962 season began – I was married in May 1962, and soon after left Australia to study in the U.S.A. until September 1964. It was then that I resigned as Club President. Bernard (my first son) was born on 31st December 1963.
On my return to Melbourne at the completion of my studies, I resumed my active association with the Chadstone Lacrosse Club, and baby Bernard was a team mascot at matches, wearing his tiny Chadstone sweater. When my daughter Tamara was born in 1966, she too often accompanied her daddy to matches, sitting in her stroller on the sidelines. However, mu departure to work in Sydney at Macquarie University at the end of 1968 meant that my association with Chadstone Lacrosse Club became inactive, until my return in 1990. However, I certainly stayed in touch with Bill Gray, Snr. Until his death, and also managed to attend an occasional match, AGM or other function when I was visiting Melbourne. Bill Gray, Jnr. And Lyle Chynoweth were among other familiar faces on my visits back. Incidentally, while seconded to work as Directed of Studies in the N.S.W. Department of Education in 1980-81, I managed to get lacrosse introduced into a number of schools up there, with the help of the Lacrosse Promotions Officer ( Phil Humphries?).
It wasn’t until 1996 that I was able to resume my playing career, when invited by Bill Gray, Jnr. To play in the Veterans match against Williamstown! Unfortunately, damage suffered to my left retina while playing footy with my six-year-old Benjamin on the MCG after an AFL match three weeks earlier precluded my participation in the veterans’ match on 31st May 1997 – for the W.L.Gray Memorial Trophy between Chadstone and MCC!