This Allan Studios photograph of a muscular Clark, complete with athletics kit, goes some way to explaining why one of the most feted figures in the early years of Carlton’s existence in the VFL earned his unique nickname from the world-renowned Estonian-born bodybuilder of the day, Julius Hackenschmidt.
Permission to publish this image for the first time was kindly granted by Clark’s surviving niece Judy Fleming, some 70 years after the great man’s passing in Fitzroy on Boxing Day 1943.
It’s a glorious sepia postscript to a truly colourful account of Clark’s streeting of the field in what was a controversial final as reported in The Stawell News And Pleasant Creek Chronicle of Tuesday, April 4, 1899 - the day after the Gift was run and won.
Clark, then a young man of 20 hailing from the South Australian locale of Roseberry, declared himself one of 43 starters for the Gift’s heats over 130 yards. Turning out for the first time on the Saturday, he won his first heat off 14 and a half yards in a time of 11 4/5 seconds, from Bathurst’s Aboriginal footrunner S. Murray and a certain J. Lang . . . as the Stawell Brass Band under Bandmaster Spangler “contributed greatly to the afternoon’s pleasure by discourcing sweet music at intervals”.
Stormin’ Norman then backed it up in the semi-final on the Sunday, with victory with the utmost ease from nearest rival King.
“Backers laid odds of 2 to 1 on the South Australian Norman Clarke (sic), the absolute favourite with most of the books for the Gift itself,” The Chronicle’s correspondent wrote.
“Clarke stripped a little nuggety fellow, one mass of solid muscle, reminding one of the dictum of the trainer who averred he had seen them run in all shapes. There are, doubtless, instances of runners performing well in Clarke’s shape, for he won with consummate ease from 14 and a half in 12 seconds dead, and his price immediately shortened for the final.”
The credibility of the entire meeting of the 1899 Stawell Easter Gift was at one point called into question when a runner going by the name of ‘W. McLean’ and backed at odds of 3 to one for the last heat, after once or twice slowing down “to allow (EJ) Noonan within ‘cooee’ of him, romped home the easiest of winners”.
Noonan promptly lodged a protest on the grounds that ‘McLean’s’ performance was incorrect and that he was not the man he purported to be. Another runner, A. McFarlane, then came forward, testifying to the committee that he had seen the real W. McLean run at Gympie in Queensland “and that the winner of the last heat was nothing like him”.
When ‘W.McLean’ subsequently refused to front the committee to answer the allegations, he was promptly disqualified - allowing Noonan to run in the final in his place.
Noonan, Murray and Clark made up a group of six finalists for the 1899 Gift, together with Narre Warren’s J. Horswood, Germanton’s S.H. Nolan and Sydney’s W. McManus. Together they would vie for total prizemoney of 80 sovereigns, with a whopping 70 sovereigns guaranteed to the first placegetter, seven for second and three for third.
A then record attendance of more than 5000 people gathered at Central Park on Easter Monday, April 3, 1899, for the 22nd running of the Stawell Gift. The betting ring afforded odds of 6 to 4 on McManus, 6 to 4 against Clark, 6 to 1 against Murray, Nolan and Noonan, and 10 to 1 Horswood, as the competitors readied for the gun of the starter.
Beneath the headline “CLARK WINS THE GIFT”, The Chronicle carried the following account;
Breathless excitement pervaded the vast assemblage as the above champion athletes made their way to their marks. The six competitors were sent away to a beautiful start, but before half the distance had been traversed it could be seen that there were only three in the race - Clarke (sic), McManus and Murray.
Clarke was apparently running with the strength of a locomotive, but McManus’ former heat appeared to have taken a good deal out of him, for though his long strides covered as much ground as ever, they did not succeed one another in such rapid succession, while Murray, though slowly overhauling the South Australian, was too slow to actually catch him, with Clarke winning in 11 4-5th sec., with Murray and McManus close up, placed second and third . . .
The win proved a very popular one, as Clarke had for some time reigned as favourite . . . the winner of the Gift is a young unassuming man of sturdy build and hails from Roseberry, S.A. He is twenty years of age, and has only been identified with pedestrianism during the past 16 months. He has only won a few minor events in S.A., and was trained for the Stawell Gift by Mr. J. Coates of Adelaide . . .
On the Tuesday after the race, at the “settling up” at the nearby Albion Hotel, Clark graciously accepted his 70 sovereigns from the Club President JC Matthews - and a further two sovereigns for running second to F.E. Muller in the Stewards Purse Handicap over 220 yards. Stawell’s latest hero would put his winnings to the purchase of a sterling silver pocket watch upon which the initials “NCC” for Norman Childers Clark were engraved.
He also took the liberty of acknowledging the great kindness and courtesy that had been extended to him and the other footrunners by the Club’s officials - and, “after some further complimentary remarks concerning the conduct of the club’s affairs Mr Clarke invited all present to partake of a glass of wine, and subsequently a number of toasts were proposed and duly honoured”.
Meritorious victory in the 1899 Stawell Gift would serve as a stunning first-up lodgement in Norman Clark’s illustrious sporting CV. Within 18 months he would represent the North Adelaide Football Club in its maiden Grand Final victory, and he’d also be there in 1902 for North’s second successful premiership tilt.
He would then form what would be a long and famous association with the Carlton Football Club, as a stoic backman in 125 senior appearances including the Grand Final triumphs of 1906, ’07 (as vice-captain) and ’08, and as an astute Senior Coach in the premierships of 1914-’15.
Clark is one of three Carlton footballers to have won the Stawell Gift. The Kyneton-born “Harry” Rigby, a 29-game player between 1900 and ’02 was first to chest the tape in the 1909 race with a time of 11.45 seconds over 11 and a half yards, while Maldon’s Bill Robinson did the noble deed (off 12 yards in a time of 11.8) in 1914 - a year before he lined up at centre half-back for the Blues in the Clark-coached Grand Final victory over good old Collingwood.
Today, on the 111th anniversary of Norman Childers Clark’s famous run in Australia’s most famous footrace, the great “Hackenschmidt” is remembered.
Carlton team 1908
