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Past Brothers Rugby League Football Club
CLUB HISTORY
GOLDEN JUBILEE 1947 - 1997
The following are extracts from the Golden
Jubilee booklet, providing a record of the significant events
and achievements of the Past Brothers Rugby League Football Club
during the past 50 years.
The formation of the club in 1947 came some
17 years after an initial attempt to form a Brothers rugby
league club. In 1930, a delegation of three prominent Bundaberg
citizens, Jack Gilbert, George Stallard and my father Jack Byrne
approached the Parish Priest of Holy Rosary, Rev Dean OKeefe for
permission to form a Past Christian Brothers Football Club.
Permission for this request was refused.
Times changed and early in 1947, very Rev Dean P Bannan invited
his curate Fr John Leahy to chair a meeting on Sunday, February
16th at l0am in an effort to establish a club in Bundaberg. I
had the pleasure of attending that meeting and seeing the great
enthusiasm demonstrated by those present. At that meeting, it
was resolved that the players invited to join the club had to be
past students of Christian Brothers or Convent schools. After a
short period of competing in the Bundaberg Rugby League
fixtures, Dean Bannan granted permission for the club to accept
players who had not attended Brothers or Convent schools as the
club was finding it hard to be competitive with a limited number
of players.
The club was very fortunate to sign some excellent players to be
part of its first year of competition. Another outstanding
aspect of the club has been the excellent executives and
committees that have guided it over the years of its being
affiliated with the Bundaberg Rugby League. The citizens of
Bundaberg and district have appreciated the talent and the
quality of the players that Brothers have engaged to promote the
game in our city.
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The club is indebted to our many supporters since day one, the
marvellous financial support we have received from our
vice-presidents who joined the club by paying £1/ 1/- or half a
guinea 10 shillings and sixpence. Small raffles, country dances
at Kalkie, Sharon, St George Hall (South Kolan) and Apple Tree
Creek Hall, lucky numbers in the dressing room after the games
and social evenings at club members homes were some of the fund
raising activities which helped finance the club’s operations
and to cement the great fellowship the committee, players and
supporters enjoyed for many years.
The club could not have carried out all these fund raising
activities without the co-operation and help from an excellent
ladies committee. These ladies were a tower of strength in
providing supper for all the dances and decorating the Civic
Centre for our very successful club balls.
In 1958, a committee was formed to investigate the feasibility
of the club acquiring land and erecting a club house. Ten years
elapsed before Max King recommended in 1968 that a committee be
formed to assist the club trustees in the development of land
adjacent to the airport, and in August 1969, plans were
submitted and accepted to build a club house.
The opening of the Past Brothers Rugby League Football Club, the
first licensed league- club in Queensland, saw the beginning of
the realisation of a dream which has led to the magnificent
multi-million dollar sporting complex of today.
This club has always been a leader, in tough times and in good,
and I am extremely proud of the record we have established both
on and off the field. We have won many premierships and produced
many great players and administrators, and very pleasingly, most
of whom have also been wonderful ambassadors for our club, the
game, our city, our State and our country. These foundations are
given to the young people of Brothers of today to carry the
proud tradition of initiative, progress and success into the
future. Let’s all keep working together to make this great club
even greater and ensure that our next 50 years in just as
successful.
John Byrne
GOLDEN JUBILEE 1947-1997
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