Remembering Parso

My uncle, James Joseph Parsons, sadly passed away on 2 July 2015, aged 82. Known as Parso to his many friends, he spent half a century on the Gold Coast and was a well-known sports official there. His two sporting loves were rugby league and surf life saving.

His friends in the Tugun Surf Life Saving Club paid Parso the greatest tribute by spreading his ashes into the ocean by the Tugun Surf Club. The speech that was delivered on that sad day is reproduced here.

Spreading the Ashes of James Joseph Parsons

into the Ocean off Tugun Beach,

Sunday 30 August 2015

It is fitting that today after just completing another season of the Tugun SLSC Winter Surfers, we will shortly spread the ashes of one of our most revered members, James Joseph Parsons.

Jim or Parso passed away 2 July 2015 at 82 years of age. He spent most of his early childhood at Tarro out of Newcastle NSW. He was always very quiet about this at State of Origin time. He was the eldest of five children and he is survived by sister Carole and two brothers. He led a very full life, but he never took a wife. As his old Navy mate Frank Osbourne bravely says, ‘It’s a wonder he didn’t live to be 100’.

Jim was a member of Australia’s Defence Force, having served a 12 year stint in the Royal Australian Navy from 1951 to 1963. In 1953 he served in Australia’s Peace Keeping Force in Korea on the cessation of the Korean conflict, and he also served for one year at our naval base at Tarangau on Manus Island. Parso was always quick to point out that regardless of what is happening on Manus Island now, he was not a refugee.

Jim loved a punt on the horses and it seemed that not a day went past without having an interest. This interest was very widely spread. Frank recalls him inviting him to the races one Saturday, saying he really wanted to go because he knocked off the trifecta in Hong Kong the previous night. He was a member of several clubs, Twin Town Services and Southport Tigers Rugby League Club, where he was delegate to Group 18 Rugby League, to name a few. However, it was his 39-year membership of the Surf Life Saving Association that was the most enduring and his greatest love.

Jim joined the Tallebudgera club in 1976 as an associate member. However, he transferred to Tugun in 1982. It was around this time when I first me Jim when I took up a position with Telecom Australia at Gold Coast in 1979. He was a maintenance telephone technician. In the years since I have never heard a bad word spoken of him, nor he of others.

At Tugun he quickly gained a reputation as a willing worker. He became a strong supporter of our Nippers. He was an inaugural member of the Legless Eleven who are still prominent in Nipper working parties for State Titles, particularly when staged at far away places. Their penchant for getting lost on-route is legendary but they always made it through with the assistance of copious doses of beverage on the way. At one stage Jim thought it was appropriate to introduce a strict rule that they would not have a drink on outbound trips until they got to the Tugun traffic lights.

Parso is also remembered for his efforts as Club Registrar. Club records were in a sorry state when he took over this job. It was one of those jobs no-one liked to do and as a consequence it seemed impossible for it to be done completely. Today, in the age of text messages, emails, computers and threats to cancel your fob it is still a formidable job. Parso did it all by hand and he did a meticulous job of endlessly chasing up members for information. He remained good natured at all times and I don’t know how he did it. Over a period of about 10 years he earned the respect of everyone. He also held the positions of club Home Director and R&R Manager.

However it was his involvement in Tugun’s Winter Surfers that Jim seemed to love most. He was a foundation member 29 years ago and remained in touch for the rest of his life. For most of that time he was the Fine Collector and Treasurer. His records were always fastidiously compiled. We still live in awe at his courage in later years, struggling with shortness of breath and heavy gas bottles, to retain his participation.

Parso was always approachable, happy and anxious to help. He was the quintessential Australian Bloke and was deeply admired. He will be missed and always remembered.

I will now hand over to our March Past Team led by Kev (Rooster) Watson as Jim’s ashes are carried to the water’s edge and transferred to the IRB for casting into the ocean.

Please join me in spending a few moments in silence as we remember Jim Parsons.

Thanks for your indulgence folks.

Geoff Wright

Mick Rochester

Alan [G - illegible]

Vandal Video Archive

From the University of Idaho Library's Digital Initiatives comes a fantastic archival film archive relating to the University of Idaho Vandals. The Vandal Video Archive contains footage of college football and basketball games involving the Vandals from 1925 to 1997. 

Beautifully presented, and well worth a look: even if you aren't a Vandals fan!

 Neale Stadium, home of the Vandals until its demolition in 1969. Pic:TomandRodna.com.

Egon Pollak and the Palestine Football Team of 1939

Palestine Soccer Team, 10 July 1939.
Back row: G.Arazi (manager), S.Ginzburg, L.Fuks, A.Schneider, F.Neufeld, S.Viner, G.Machlis, E.Pollak (coach).
2nd row: A.Alembik, A.Resnik (captain), M.Mirimovitz, L.Werner, A.Greenberg, J.Lieberman.
Front row: J.Sidi, B.Mizrahi
PXE 789, vol. 45, no. 65.

I have been trying to find out more about this photo of a Palestine football (soccer) team that played in Australia in 1939. The photo is part of the incredible Sam Hood collection at the State Library of New South Wales. It's an awesome collection, but often the details are very sketchy. Seems this team was detained in Australia at the outbreak of World War II. The coach, Egon Pollak, had played in the legendary Hakoah team from Vienna, and later played for the New York Giants soccer team in the American Soccer League. Egon is in the back row, far right in this photo.

Using Trove Newspapers, I found a terrific article about Egon’s enforced stay in Australia (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78976051). He was an esteemed singer, and he refused to sing any songs in German after the war broke out. Later he became coach of the first Israeli national team. 

Definitely worthy of more research!

The Fightback

http://chrishoggthefightback.blogspot.com

Chris Fogg is an Inverness Caledonian Thistle player who had a horrific collision in a Scottish Premier League match against Dundee United last weekend. Fogg is coming to terms with the thought of being sidelined for a very, very long time.

Fogg has just created a blog in which he intends reporting his feelings as the long rehabilitation begins.

He's laying all his emotions bare for everyone to see.

Harrowing, gripping stuff.

Forty-20

From Scratching Shed Publications (UK) comes a new magazine about rugby league football. Just a quick look at the inside front cover and you'll know this is like no other rugby league magazine that has gone before it. There you will find a full-page ad for masters' degrees in sports history and culture from De Montford University, Leceister! My kind of sports mag.

The writing throughout is topical and intelligent. There is excellent coverage of the recent 'International Origin' match between England and the Exiles (consisting mostly of England-based Aussies and Kiwis). Not shying away from controversial issues, there's an investigation into acts of hooliganism after Halifax defeated Featherstone Rovers in the Northern Rail Cup semi last month. And great match analysis too.


History will no doubt play a vital role in Forty-20. The first issue has two fine pieces by rugby league's premier historian, Tony Collins. Tony investigates the 1958 British Lions' tour of Australia, uncovering a player rebellion and fiery clashes between coach and manager. In another article, Tony showcases a wonderful piece of ephemera: the menu for the 1908-09 Australian squad's farewell dinner before they embarked on the first Kangaroo tour of Great Britain. Dave Hadfield, Tony Hannan, Steve Kilgallon and other classy writers contribute thought-provoking articles on the game all over the world. If you're looking for reports on the spread of rugby league in Germany and Hungary, you'll find them here.


The inaugural issue of Forty-20 had me captivated. Look out for it on the 13th of each month. It's available in print, and will soon also be available in online formats.

The Day that Dally Messenger Nearly Signed for Celtic

Trove Australian Newspapers is helping sports historians to locate a wealth of stories never heard or long forgotten. This searchable database of many Australian newspapers dating from 1803 to 1954 - provided by the National Library of Australia and the Australian state libraries - is revolutionising historic Australian newspaper research.

I am truly excited about a story that I have just uncovered. This is taken from a 1947 article in the Cairns Post. Australia's representative rugby league football team, the Kangaroos, first toured Great Britain in 1908-09. They played an exhibition match at Celtic Park, Glasgow, and Australia's H. H. ('Dally') Messenger totally blew the opposition away. His play was so impressive that Celtic FC's manager, the legendary Willie Maley, approached Dally about switching football codes and signing with Celtic!

The mind boggles at what could have happened if Dally Messenger joined Celtic. He was a stylish, unpredictable footballer who was capable of anything. His kicking game was extraordinary, and he just might have made a successful transition to the round-ball game.

The article in question can be viewed at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page3039466, and a transcript follows:

Hugh Dash's Backstage of Sport
No penalty could be too severe
Journalist Morry Walsh over from Melbourne last week to collect names, personal histories, for an Australian Who's Who in Sport, got off to a bad start.
One of his courtesy calls was on Rugby League secretary Keith Sharpe. He had to wait in an ante-room for a few minutes.
On the wall was a large framed photograph of an old-time footballer. It was captioned "The Master."
Morry casually asked an elderly gentleman in the room who "The Master" was. There was a moment or two of shocked silence.
With a supreme effort at self-control the elderly gentleman recovered sufficiently to reply, ''Dally Messenger."
Morry then committed the unforgivable. He asked, "Who's Dally Messenger?'' The elevator halted abruptly between floors. A typewriter in the next door office stopped. Even the noise from the bar was hushed.
The elderly gentleman fought again with his mounting blood pressure, took a menacing step forward, then stalked out of the office leaving the infidel alone.
It took Morry only an hour of research to discover the boner he had pulled, two days to make his apologies. Dally represents Morry's biggest problem in compiling his Who's Who. He has to compress "The Master's" career into 200 words.
It is like writing a thumbnail digest of Gone With the Wind.
But the personal sketch of Dally should contain some reference to the fact that he went within a promise of becoming a Soccer star.
The recent South African Soccer tour jogged Dally's memory of a hitherto unpublished story.
It was while he was in England with the 1908-9 Kangaroos. The team struck a bad financial patch. The Lancashire cottonworkers were on strike, money was scarce.
The team was invited to Glasgow to play an exhibition game. Willie Maley, famous manager of Glasgow Celtic, offered them the Parkhead ground free of charge.
Maley was enthralled by Messenger's spectacular dashes down the wing, his uncanny kicking accuracy.
After the game he offered Dally the then fabulous sum of £1000 to sign on for Glasgow Celtic as an outside-right.
But before he left Australia Dally had promised his mother faithfully to return home, no matter what offers were made to keep him in England.
Playing League later at St. James Park he was spotted by directors of Newcastle United Soccer Club.They pestered him for days to switch to Soccer.
Later, the Kangaroos were training at Southport, where the Tottenham Hotspurs were having a training run.
The two teams had an impromptu game of Soccer. Daily's educated feet almost made the round ball talk. Hotspur directors made him a £1000 offer.
But Dally never broke a promise, his rule to this day.
The "Who's Who" details probably won't record that he was nicknamed "Dally" after W. B. Dalley, a well- known politician of that period.
Mr. Dalley bad an immense paunch. He called at the Messenger boatshed at Double Bay the day that Dally, then aged two, had just gorged himself on green apples.
He was crying, rubbing his distended stomach. He asked Mr. Dalley whether he too had been eating green apples.
From then on the family called him "Dally," and the name has stuck ever since.
The Who's Who probably won't record either that when Dally was born he was one of those rarities called a caul baby — a cocoon-like skin encased his entire body.
Old sailing skippers regarded them as undrownable, liked to have one in the crew on long voyages.
Dally went close to exploding the superstition. He has had five narrow escapes from drowning.
After his faux pas Morry went back to Melbourne last Wednesday with a feeling that he had not been completely forgiven.
And he's quite right, too.

Belfast Celtic

In this post, I'd like to champion the efforts of the Belfast Celtic Society. This is an organisation dedicated to preserving the memory of a great Irish football (soccer) club that folded in 1949.

Founded in 1891, Belfast Celtic FC provided a focal point for Catholics in the city of Belfast. Like its sister club in Glasgow, Belfast Celtic was not exclusively for Catholics. Non-Catholic players, managers and supporters were always more than welcome to join the club. The club became an icon in Ireland and was highly successful. Many of its players went on to glittering footballing careers in England and Scotland. But circumstances conspired against the club, and after violent encounters on and off the pitch, it was decided to pull the plug in 1949, after a very successful preseason tour of north America.

The Belfast Celtic Society formed in 2003 to raise awareness of a long-lost football club. The society has hosted seminars and public programmes on the club, and collected a vast range of archival material relating to Belfast Celtic. This includes the only two pieces of film footage of the team in action that are known to exist.

On 3 July 2010, a museum devoted to Belfast Celtic opened in the Park Centre, the shopping centre built on the site of the old Celtic Park. The opening was a huge success, and even Celtic's old rivals, Linfield, were there for the opening. Congratulations to all!

Big Blue Sports Archives

A Google News Alert has tipped me off about an incredible collection at the University of Kentucky Archives. The Big Blue Sports Archives has 4,000 videotapes, 1,500 audiotapes, 1,500 films, 10,000 photographs, 30 scrapbooks, and 150 boxes of clippings, programmes, and media guides related to the university's sporting body, University of Kentucky Athletics and to its teams, known as the Wildcats.

According to the media release, major plans are afoot to provide electronic access to the collection. The project is dependent on funding, so several fundraising initiatives are in place.

I will visit the Big Blue Sports Archives site regularly to watch it develop.

Harry Sunderland Conference Paper

Here's an example of another conference presentation available online, and this one is my own!

The State Library of New South Wales has started adding videos to its website, along with its increasing lists of podcasts.

The paper I presented at the Rugby League in Australia Centenary Conference in 2008 can be viewed in full from the Library's website:

http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/podcasts/videos/comrade_rugby.html

Enjoy, and be sure to send me your (constructive) comments.

Google News Archive

I have long been a fan of newspaper digitisation projects whose contents are available freely on the web. Paper of Record and the Australian Newspaper Digitisation Project spring rapidly to mind. These are of extraordinary value to sports historians so accustomed to winding their way through dozens of microfilm reels of unindexed newspapers in search of gold.

The Google News Archive has been around for a while. I was never a huge fan, because much of its content was not available for free. Just returning to it last week, I find a massive chunk of Fairfax newspapers (i.e. Melbourne's Age and the Sydney Morning Herald can be searched and viewed for free. I am not sure of the exact date range, but I am finding articles on Sydney (soccer) football and rugby league from a century ago. The articles appear in PDF and are beautiful to look at. However, I am not quite sure yet how to print successfully.

Still, definitely a development to watch out for. I had thought the Fairfax newspapers were going to appear on the Australian Newspaper Digitisation Project one day. but it seems someone has beaten the NDP to the punch.

Sport and Oral History

A recent conference in the UK caught my eye (and ears). The Sport and Oral History Conference was hosted by the University of Huddersfield last month. There was quite a bit of Australian content, with particular regard to rugby league football. Greg Mallory spoke about his oral history project concerning the Brisbane Rugby League. Charles Little presented his findings on supporters' memories of South Sydney, and Simon Foster talked about the 'Indomitable' British Lions' tour of Australia in 1946.

All these presentations can be downloaded or streamed as .wma files.

Other highlights include a feature on the Gaelic Athletic Association Oral History Project coordinated by Boston College, and Up and Under, the rugby league oral history project undertaken at the University of Huddersfield.

Let's Go to the Video

There's an awesome amount of video footage out there for the sports historian on YouTube and on other sites accessible from a Google video search. Some videos are posted legally by copyright owners, but a lot of videos are posted illegally. For example, there has much controversy recently over all the footage of English Premier League goals that is linked from 101 Great Goals. Many TV networks - and especially pay TV networks - are not pleased to have their content accessible in this way.



Some of my favourite historic sporting footage is from the Mitchell and Kenyon collection that was discovered in a pharmacy's tea chests in the UK in 2001! English sports historian Tony Collins delivered a fascinating presentation on rugby league films in this collection last year at the Centenary Conference of Rugby League in Australia. Check out the 1901 Northern Union (i.e. rugby league) clash between Oldham and Swinton as an example. The Mitchell and Kenyon collection is now part of the BFI National Archives, and collection footage may be viewed online and purchased on DVD.

RSS Feeds

I've signed up with Google Reader, and started to explore the world of RSS feeds. It's funny: for years I've noticed that little orange and white logo on the right hand site of certain websites, but I've never been curious enough to take the next step.

Well, I am glad that I have. I've started with the Powerhouse Museum's brilliant Photo of the Day, some library sites, a football club, and what I thought was a sports history site. The feed that Google Reader identified as the Routledge Companion to Sports History is only a general feed for the publisher Routledge. Apparently one of its news items was about its book, the Routledge Companion to Sports History, and I mistook it to be a news feed dedicated to this book. Oh well, just another tip for young players.

There is no shortage of web feeds devoted to sports news, whether from news organisations, sporting associations or particular clubs. However, there really is at this time a lack of feeds relating to the study of sports history. I had expected the major scholarly bodies (such as the various societies for sports history, and groups studing the history of particular sports) to have feeds. No such luck! Closest thing I could find was the blog of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. Pretty interesting, anyway, so it's on my list. For now.

Now that I've overcome my fear of that little orange and white logo on the right hand site of certain websites, my list of feeds on Google Reader will soon grow exponentially. Now, if only I can find the time to read them all ...

Libraries, Wikis and Sports History

Wikis can be a good introductory source for sports history research. Wikipedia is the obvious starting point. In fact, Wikipedia pages are often the first results one finds via a Google search. If you'd like a potted history on a sporting club (e.g. the mighty Celtic FC) or a brief biographical sketch of a sporting figure (e.g. legendary Australian rugby league administrator, Harry Sunderland), then why not begin with Wikipedia? Just be wary that information may be 'borrowed' directly from other sources (e.g. the Australian Dictionary of Biography). Best of all, if you aren't happy with an entry, you can make the necessary changes yourself!

Some 'closed' wikis can be more useful than Wikipedia for more specific subjects. I love the subject guides at the Montana Historical Society's wiki. For example, the Montana Pronunciation Guide is a wonderful innovation, and I would love to see similar guides relating to regional Australian names. I like the fact that while users cannot edit the Montana Historical Society's guides, they can contribute their own stories.

Energy and Teamwork

Following on from last week's post about Flickr, I have been exploring Flickr in search of photos that illustrate our library's values. Here's my favourite so far: a striking image taken by Vegan Butterfly that typifies the value Energy and Teamwork: our pulling together in pursuit of a common goal. We may be of different shapes and sizes (i.e. we have different talents and temperaments) but that doesn't get in the way of coming together and all doing our bit for the State Library, its collections and its clients.

This sculpture sits outside the Drayton Valley Municipal Library in Alberta, Canada. 'Pulling Together' is not only the name of the sculpture, but it's the motto of the town of Drayton Valley as well!

Flickr

This cracking shot of a cricket crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground c.1900-1910 was my introduction to Flickr. The State Library of New South Wales has started to add some of its photographic treasures to Flickr. They make an interesting counterpoint to many of the post-modern photos that anyone with a digital camera can create and upload to Flickr. I have never seen so many photos of the State Library buildings taken from bizarre angles!

Tagging photos is an interesting exercise. I can certainly see the value of applying tags to images. My only wish is that there could be some control over the tags, some kind of standard. For example, digital photographers have uploaded photos of the State Library and tagged them with various headings. These include statelibraryofnsw, statelibrary, slnsw, statelibraryofnewsouthwales, old library sydney, and possibly several others as well! A controlled vocabulary or authority file would be a wonderful idea. However, it is probably asking way too much. (Who would be in charge? One of the beauties of the internet is that nobody is in charge!)

Or maybe I need to stop thinking like a librarian.

The Opening Whistle

In embarking on this learning journey, a heap of sporting cliches spring rapidly to mind. Waiting for the starter's orders ... not wishing to make a false start ... hoping all the training has paid off and that I've turned up ready to play. Please excuse the cliches, as my love of sports - and of sports history in particular - will figure prominently in this blog.

As many coaches have emphasised to me over the years, you only get out of it what you put into it. To gain the maximum benefits from the Learning 2.0 programme, I intend to relate all that I learn to the practice of sports history, to engaging with other sports historians in galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM for short!) and to making sports archives more accessible to those who require them.

I discovered the sports history discipline at an opportune moment. Now more than ever there are researchers interested in sports history. At the same time, more records are being created, and hopefully more are becoming accessible. Traditionally, my role would be to unite researchers and those records, but in this 21st century post-modernist electronic world, I'm not too sure. Facilitator, intermediary, anonymous benefactor? Active, passive, proactive or something I haven't yet considered? Join with me as I discover the world of the Web 2.0 and try to make sense of what these technologies can mean for GLAM sports historians like me.

All the while I hope to use and discuss examples from the collections of State Library of New South Wales. This stunning photo above of a bumper crowd at a representative rugby union match in 1903 (http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=430479) is but the tip of the iceberg!