Bev was there in person at the Crown Palladium to receive the award from the three-time Carlton premiership player Kevin Hall, in acknowledgement of Vin’s well-earned induction.
In accepting the trophy, Bev took a moment to pass the following observation - “My Uncle Vin died a long time ago . . . but he was Carlton through and through”.
Later, she shed a little more light on the Vin Gardiner she knew.
“Vin’s wife Jessie died and they didn’t have any children, so the Carlton Football Club was his life,” Bev said.
“What the club has done is wonderful, and when you read his record it’s only right he should be acknowledged. At only five feet six he must have been a fair player . . . and I think he was he fast too.
“He used to placekick the ball like they did in rugby, and the story goes that he held the record for the longest placekick for a while - until St Kilda’s Dave McNamara broke it.”
The son of long-serving Carlton player and President John “Tiger” Gardiner (after whom the old grandstand at the ground is named), Vincent Sidley Gardiner was one of four Gardiner siblings, born on October 23, 1885.
Secured from rival club Melbourne, Gardiner would represent the old dark Navy Blues in 157 senior matches from 1907-’17, including the successful Grand Finals of 1908 and ’15, for the collective return of 341 career goals - which still has him in tenth position on Carlton’s career goals tally some 94 years after he last laced a boot.
Gardiner took out his club’s goalkicking awards for the seasons 1908 (34), 1910 (42), 1911 (46), 1912 (47), 1913 (27), 1916 (44) and 1917 (22) and will be forever remembered as the first Carlton footballer to top the League’s goalkicking tally, sharing honours with Melbourne’s Harry Brereton in 1911.
History also records Gardiner as the first Carlton footballer to boot 10 goals in a match, posting an extraordinary 10.11 against St Kilda in the 15th round of 1911.
Bev’s memory of her great uncle was also triggered by a Carlton team photo projected onto the big screen during the function. The image, in which both Vin and his father appear, depicts Vin in his military uniform posing with members of the 1917 team.
“I don’t know when he enlisted, but Vin did enjoy a party and they had all these farewell parties for him before he went off to war,” Bev explained. “Anyway he boarded the military ship, but not long after the ship passed through The Heads peace was declared and he came back.”
Fondly remembered in later life as a doorman to the Carlton players’ rooms, Gardiner died a fortnight shy of his 87th birthday - and just four days before the 1972 Grand Final, when his beloved Blues landed their 11th premiership with a record-breaking scoreline of 28.9.
Almost 40 years later, he was represented at the induction ceremony by Bev and her son Stephen, who made the trek all the way from Trafalgar.
Carlton’s four other Hall of Fame inductees for 2011 - Ron Barassi, John Goold, Anthony Koutoufides and David Parkin - were all on hand for last Saturday night’s ceremony, which underpinned the club’s 30th anniversary celebration of the 1981/82 back-to-back premierships.
So too was Robert Walls, the three-time premiership player and premiership Coach elevated to the status of Hall of Fame Legend - who became only the eleventh man in the old dark Navy Blues’ long and illustrious 147-year history to be so honored.
More than 850 people were in attendance on Saturday night, including Carlton premiership players Ian Collins, Peter Dean, John Nicholls, Sergio and Stephen Silvagni, Geoff Southby and Bryan Quirk, together with Chris Judd and fellow members of the team’s current leadership group.
Twenty members of the 23 who were part of the 1981 and ’82 Parkin-coached Grand Final teams were also there, with Mario Bortolotto, Bruce Doull and David McKay the notable absentees.
Alex Marcou was a scene stealer in recounting his colourful post-Grand Final experience at The Lodge, with Jim Buckley, Wayne Harmes, Val Perovic and Mark Maclure all offering glorious insights into the existences of a driven core of Carlton footballers who played as hard as they lived.
But as Maclure so rightly observed: “We never lost sight of the goal”.
