Our History

This section of the website contains a great deal of information about the Club’s glorious history. It is maintained by the Club’s 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 has changed very little :

Role

In accordance with the Club’s direction and correct lines of responsibility:

• Catalogue and store appropriately 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).
• Assist with planning and conducting events celebrating our history.
• Manage the past player database and assist with planning and conducting events for past players. 

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)
  • An Unshakable Will to Win (the story of the 1949 premiership year)
  • North's Record-Making Year (the story of the 1952 premiership year) 
  • Never Say Die (the story of the 1960 premiership year)
  • Two Glorious Years (the story of the 1971 and 1972 premiership years)
  • 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 100th anniversary of our 1905 premiership, the 60th anniversary of our 1949 premiership, the 50th and 60th anniversaries of our 1952 premiership, the 45th and 50th anniversaries of our 1960 premiership, the 40th anniversary of our 1971/72 premierships 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 near 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 few 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 Adelaide
• Preparing a comprehensive history of the Club for publication
• 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 NAFC.History2@nafc.com.au

Alan Mead Scans photographs and negatives  Searches for missing team photos

Barry Dolman  Chairman of the Committee Manages the NAFC Past Players and Officials Association Co-ordinates the tracing of past players Co-ordinates the preparation of a comprehensive publication detailing the Club's history Negotiates archiving of film related to NAFC

Bob Richards Assists with preparation for a comprehensive publication detailing the Club's history Assists with Past Player functions

Bruce Pointon Videos History Committee Functions Assists with preparation for a comprehensive publication detailing the Club's history

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

Gary Stork Assists with organisation of events

Geoff Sando Assists with preparation for a comprehensive publication detailing the Club's history

John Mitchell Prepares obituaries as required Assists with preparation for a comprehensive publication detailing the Club's history.

Julie Vranek Manages displays in the Hall

Lyn Roberts Secretary of the Committee Maintains the Committee's Procedures manual

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

Manfred Kern Scans and stores digital images of our memorabilia collection.

Mark Gilbert Conducts Library research Assists with preparation for a comprehensive publication detailing the Club's history

Nick Haines Organises order of priority lists for the NAFC, SA and Australian Halls of Fame Assists with preparation for a comprehensive publication detailing the Club's history.

Paul Smith Maintains a register of all film involving the NAFC Copies VHS and Beta tapes to DVD