In terms of football memorabilia it’s a rare gem – an 1897 Carlton Football Club membership booklet, complete with matchday vouchers for the various opponents the old dark Navy Blues confronted in that maiden VFL season almost 120 years ago.
Through the generosity of the Jurkovsky family, the booklet has found its way to Ikon Park, for inclusion in the football club’s extensive collection. For decades it was in the keep of Kathleen Jurkovsky - a long-time Carlton resident and lifelong supporter of the club through the ‘Thursday Ladies’ group with the likes of Lois McCormack and Maureen Evans, who still gather at the old ground on the aforementioned day through the course of each football season.
For the past ten years, Kathleen has been domiciled in a Melbourne nursing home with Alzheimer’s disease. But for Kathleen’s family, the booklet is a sentimental reminder of her great passion for the old dark Navy Blues – a passion inherent from her childhood days of the late 1930s according to son Peter.
Kathleen (left) with Maureen and then Carlton captain Brett Ratten in 2002. (Photo: Supplied)
“I can remember from as far back as when I could first walk that Mum took my brothers, my sister and myself to every ground in Melbourne, as well as Kardinia Park, for a Carlton match – and if it wasn’t a home game we’d get there at seven in the morning to ensure we got a seat,” Peter said.
“Mum was pregnant with my younger brother at the 1970 Grand Final when there were more than 120,000 people in the place. That’s how religious she was in terms of her support. She used to get white line fever at the footy too, so you wouldn’t argue with her when it came to Carlton.
“She loved the club, she loved the game and that was my life with her from the age of three.”
By his own reckoning, Jurkovsky and his siblings Paul, Genevieve and Nicholas accompanied their mother and father to every Carlton match between 1965 and 1980, “and I can recall one year back in the ’70s when Mum and her girlfriends joined the team on an end-of-season trip to the United States”.
The 1897 booklet was recently found amongst Kathleen’s belongings, and forwarded to the Club by Peter following consultation with his siblings – at a Carlton President’s Luncheon earlier last year. Peter thinks the card may have been owned by Kathleen’s great grandfather, himself a rabid Blues man.
The rare 1897 Carlton membership booklet. (Photo: Carlton Media)
The perforated-edged vouchers within the card were valid for the Blues’ pre-season games against Royal Park Crescent, Albion United and All Comers at the Carlton Recreation Ground (now Ikon Park), together with season proper fixtures with Fitzroy, South Melbourne, Essendon, Geelong, Collingwood, Melbourne and St Kilda and the first two finals matches.
Photo: Carlton Media
Printed by typographer JP Donaldson of 398 Lonsdale Street, the card also carries the names of Carlton President AH Shaw, the Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary and Committeemen, along with the following patrons – The Mayor Cr. Strong, Ald. Pigdon, Crs. Cook, Brenan, Ievers and Hennessy, TS Marshall esq., S. Quirk esq., Lt. Col. Robertson, Drs. Cole, Fletcher, Miler, Griffith and Lynch.
Photo: Carlton Media
