Hi Folks, And to add to a history making day for the Geelong Football Club, it's worth remembering that 148 years ago, Thomas Wenthworth WILLS [from Point Henry] formed the Geelong Football Club, several months after he had formed the first Australian Football Club (Melbourne). In fact Tom WILLS is attributed with being the founder of Australian Football (Aussie Rules style). WILLS also captained the Geelong Football team and was an administrator at the club. I think Jennifer has been doing a lot of work for the club in this area in preparation for the 150th anniversary and can probably correct anything I've got wrong above. I think Tom WILLS would have been pretty impressed with our boys today! Regards .......... Susie Z

Dear Geelong List I think Susie's information about Tom Wills is spot on. Colin Hutchinson and Russell Stephens are the experts on the history of Geelong Football Club, I'm just a beginner and trying to track down the descendants of a few 'stray cats'. Managed to trace a few but still looking for information about the following five players: Stan ENFIELD debut season 1897 James (Jimmy) ROBERTS debut season 1904 Cornelius Francis (Con) RYAN debut season 1907 Joseph (Joe) SMITH debut season 1922 Thomas (Tommy, 'Gunboat') SMITH debut season 1919 Any help gratefully received. I understand that the Geelong Football Club is second to Melbourne Football Club by just a few weeks, in being the second oldest football club in the world including soccer and rugby clubs, what a grand history we have. An early drawing of indigenous Australian Aboriginal people playing a type of football recently found in Germany is an interesting development. Great result last weekend, the population is drawn together with a commonality of goodwill and fun. Regards Jennifer >Hi Folks, > >And to add to a history making day for the Geelong Football Club, it's worth >remembering that 148 years ago, Thomas Wenthworth WILLS [from Point Henry] >formed the Geelong Football Club, several months after he had formed the >first Australian Football Club (Melbourne). In fact Tom WILLS is attributed >with being the founder of Australian Football (Aussie Rules style). > >WILLS also captained the Geelong Football team and was an administrator at >the club. > >I think Jennifer has been doing a lot of work for the club in this area in >preparation for the 150th anniversary and can probably correct anything I've >got wrong above. > >I think Tom WILLS would have been pretty impressed with our boys today! > >Regards .......... Susie Z > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >For on-line indexes and information on Geelong and District >http://www.zades.com.au > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >[email protected] with the word >'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the >message

Hi all I have a photo of the Geelong Football team of 1881 and the names are Collins, Steedman, Shaw(ours) McPherson, Brownlow(C) Thomson, Kirk,Hall,Murphy, McLean, Austin, Wilson, Atkins ,DeDittle, Douglas(FM) Wilson, Douglas (HP) Robertson, Morrison, Broughton, Moffatt, Manfred and Curdie. A potted history of Geelong?? cheers Patricia McArthur