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.
