THE NEW Museum facility, front and centre at IKON Park, continues to be the catalyst for Members and supporters to generously donate artefacts they believe best belong at Carlton.
A case in point, Simon Spivak, who recently handed over a certificate earned for his participation in a football clinic at the old Princes Park ground 50 years ago.
Simon was just a boy of ten when he joined hundreds of local schoolchildren in a clinic sponsored by the Mower Specialists Association of Australia and involving the great Carlton players of the era – including the then Captain-Coach John Nicholls, vice-captain Robert Walls and fellow Premiership players Barry Armstrong, Alex Jesaulenko, Geoff Southby and the late Vin Waite.
“It’s 50 years ago now, so the memory’s a bit hazy, but Carlton was putting on a lot of clinics for kids in those days and I just signed up for one,” Simon said.
“I remember that all the players featured on the certificate were there to take the kids through a series of drills, and there were hundreds of kids. At the end of the clinic those players kicked footballs out, and I got one. A big boofy kid momentarily stole it from me, but thankfully another supporter got it back.
“The footy was covered with the Carlton players’ signatures, and sadly I don’t know what became of it, but to have been out on the ground amongst the greats of the club I’ve supported all my life is a memory I keep with me.”
Simon’s connection with the Carlton Football Club and the Carlton area can be sourced to the early 1920s when his forefathers migrated from southern Russia. The settled in Carlton, the centre of the Jewish community at that time.
The family built a knitwear manufacturing business, Fetter Mills, on Lygon Street, which operated through to the late 1980s. Extended family members lived around Carlton in various locations from Pigdon to Rathdowne, Canning and Drummond Streets and soon enough their territorial connections with the Carlton Football Club was forged. As Simon explained: “My father was born in Carlton and for years he went to the football with his father and his older brother to Princes Park to see the team play”.
“I’ve only known Carlton as my club from the minute I was born,” Simon said, “and I was fortunate to have been around for what was probably the club’s greatest era.
“My older brother took me to the footy early on and by the time I was 12 I was going along on my own to Princes Park and the other suburban grounds. I used to stand on steel beer cans in the outer on the city side wing, because I was small and that was the only way I could see.”
Simon watched on from the grandstands as his beloved Blues accumulated the silverware – from Grand Final day in 1979, through to the Grand finals of 1981, ’82, ’87 and ’95 – and his matchday support endures to this day as an attendee with his wife and younger daughter, all fellow Carlton Members. His older daughter recently exchanged marital vows with the second cousin of Patrick Cripps.
Simon’s reasoning for parting with the certificate was prompted by a substantial house-cleaning exercise, given that he’s been a committed hoarder - “and I thought the club would appreciate it and find it a new home for safe keeping”.
If you would like to donate any of your football memorabilia to the Carlton Football Club please contact tony.debolfo@carltonfc.com.au
