Our History

This section of the website contains a great deal of information about the Club’s glorious history.  It is maintained by the History Committee. 

The History Committee

In an attempt to improve the Club's existing website in 1999, it was discovered that the Club's holdings of historical photographs and other memorabilia were not properly stored or catalogued.  To address this issue, it was suggested that the Club set up a committee to undertake this work.
The Board approved the establishment of a History Committee in April 2000 and its inaugural meeting was held on 31 May 2000.  The role of the Committee was laid out at this time - interestingly, it has subsequently been reviewed and is virtually unchanged :

Role

• Catalogue all historical material held by the Club.
• Develop standards for resolving the authenticity of historical records.
• Investigate and resolve particular questions which the Board may refer to it.
• Record the history of the Club faithfully and accurately.
• Advise the Club on storage and maintenance of its historical records.
• Provide advice on displaying photos and memorabilia.
• Plan and develop suitable displays of the Club's history.
• Where appropriate, seek funding to facilitate establishment of displays.
• Assist with the preparation of historical material for publication (eg on the website, in special publications etc).
  

Achievements

The main difficulty in those embryonic days was to work out what to tackle first.  But priorities were developed and slowly things began to take shape.  As the work of the Committee became better known more members joined and progress accelerated.  The major achievements of the Committee to date have been :

• Establishing a database to record details of the Club's memorabilia collection and then cataloguing and storing all memorabilia to archival standards
• Scanning the Club's photographic collection to archival standards
• Producing books :
  • North Adelaide's Greatest (about our Team of the Century)
  • North's Record-Making Year (the story of the 1952 premiership year)
  • Never Say Die (the story of the 1960 premiership year)
  • Power, Guts and Glory (the story of the 1987 premiership year)
• Acquiring the Farmer collection of scrapbooks and trophies
• Mounting two exhibitions :
  • Legends (featuring Barrie Robran and Ken Farmer)
  • Fabulous Forwards (featuring Darren Jarman, Grenville Dietrich, Dennis Sachse, Don Lindner, Ron Phillips and Ken Farmer)
• Organising functions to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our 1952 premiership, the 45th anniversary of our 1960 premiership, the 100th anniversary of our 1905 premiership and the 20th anniversary of our 1987 premiership
• Establishing the Legends Room at the Club (featuring displays of all of our premierships, photographic tributes to Robran and Farmer, the Magarey Medal bar, Honour Boards and a datashow of images of the Club's history)
• Producing and installing an explanatory plaque next to the Reedman Memorial next to Adelaide Oval
• Completing and displaying membership badges throughout our history
• Researching, documenting and displaying jumper designs used by the Club
• Recording interviews with past players and officials

Current And Future Work

As well as the ongoing collection, cataloguing and storing of memorabilia, the Committee has the following goals for the next 2 to 3 years :

• Completion of a Games and Players database, recording details of every match played by the Club and every player who has represented the Club
• Establishing suitable archiving procedures for preserving all film of SA football
• Collecting video of all matches involving North
• Digitisation of the Club's Annual Reports to produce a searchable document
• Establishment of a NAFC Hall of Fame
  

The Committee

The current members of the Committee are listed below with their main areas of responsibility to provide a guide to the kind of work in which each person is involved.  There are, however, many areas in which several members contribute to the outcome.

To Contact the History Committee email... history@nafc.com.au

Alan Mead Scans photographs and negatives and stores and archives images

Alison Galloway Secretary of the Committee

Barry Dolman  Chairman of the Committee Negotiates archiving of film related to NAFC Maintains player details in the Games and Players database Manages the NAFC Past Players and Officials Association

Bruce Pointon Conducts past player interviews and provides digital video for Club archives Researches and compiles books on NAFC premiership years Videos History Committee Functions

Colin Richardson Catalogues all memorabilia held by the Club

Daryl Thomas Contacts past players to get current details

David O'Hara Researches and records statistical information about all NAFC matches and players Provides match reports and statistical player’s records for NAFC Annual Reports

John Mitchell Contacts past players to ascertain whether they have memorabilia that the Club could copy or borrow

Julie Vranek Catalogues the Club's collection of newspaper clippings Assists with managing displays

Malcolm Ellis Assists with management of the Past Players and Officials Association

Manfred Kern Ensures that existing display areas in the Club are up-to-date

Mark Gilbert Conducts Library research

Nick Haines Organises order of priority lists for the NAFC, SA and Australian Halls of Fame Researches material for the next History of the NAFC

Tony Blackshaw Maintains the history section of the NAFC website Conducts and posts interviews with past players Assists with preparation of premiership books  Contact Tony on rooster1972@bigpond.com