Premiership ephemeral item – Fitzroy 1922 – palmam qui meruit ferat
1922 WAS A PREMIERSHIP YEAR FOR FITZROY FOOTBALL CLUB. Here is a handsome commemorative (OK not intended to be ephemeral) souvenir.
The Souvenir Card has a number of beautiful features: holes at the top for the football laces (maybe it was laced); handwritten annotation of the score; and nicely penned name of the person to whom it was presented (one of the trainers). Thinking about it, the score was an odd omission from the souvenir as of course everything else about it must have been finalised after they won the match.
The club president was Cr D.J. Chandler, known as Don. He had a long association with the club; he held this position from 1911 to 1930 during which time Fitzroy won three premierships and was runner-up twice.
Once again the card is annotated with the score and there is also an arrow pointing out ‘P. Nelson, trainer’.
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What an inspiring item! This is a souvenir of the Premiership Ball as much as it is one of the Premiership victory. Note the date on the front cover – it’s not the date of the Grand Final match (21 Oct 1922) but some three weeks later: the date is of the celebratory Ball, Thursday 9 November at the Fitzroy Town Hall. The organisers must have loved their witty idea – to provide a card version of the ‘premiership (foot)ball’ as a souvenir of the Premiership Ball event.
I suspect that the souvenir would indeed have been laced – not with leather thonging but with ribbon. Look at the way the designer has included illustrations of ribbons on three of the four panels of this card. I think that the festive ribbon that frames the club photo provides the clue as to what the lacing ribbon might have been like. Presumably every guest at the Ball received one of these souvenirs of the evening.
Yes good pick up re ribbon lacing – it is a feature of the design.
Hello. Just came across this and were wondering if you can help me. I have two jumpers over thirty years old of st Kilda and Fitzroy. I live in country w.a. And can’t find a collector. Do you know of any one I can contact.Many thanks Norma French Kalgoolrie w.a. Normafrench@ kalboulder.com
Norma
Do you have pictures of the jumpers? Were they worn by players or just jumpers worn by fans? Are there numbers on the back?