Pie 4 Life
Hall of Famer
January, 1976
Four relatively unknown men sat opposite each other inside a cafe in Sydney's Central Business District. They were largely from different backgrounds - one a city slicker who was a successful businessman; a second was a farmer who enjoyed heading to the pubs on weekends; third was a retiree who had a lot of spare time on his hands since retiring from his day job at the local newsagency; and the final man was a university student with big ideas. What had brought them all together was a shared vision - a game that anyone could play regardless of age, gender or handicap. One that could be tinkered with over the years and bring excitement and suspense to those involved. While . many believed it was similar to darts, hookey was a game which posed less risk for those inebriated or less skilful with object in-hand.
And such, the Australian Hookey League - an amateur league to begin with, was born. The four men who would go on to become the founding fathers of the sport, all began about establishing the league.
May, 1976
There were nine team licences that were on the table for the inaugural year. Of the three teams that were turned down, both Perth and Hobart were considered a little too far in terms of travel costs for the time being, while Newcastle was considered too close to Sydney - the first automatic entry based on the ruling that it was where the sport was born.
The six team licences that were approved for the inaugural 10-round season - each team playing each other twice - were the Adelaide Wizards, Brisbane Chiefs, Melbourne Knights, Port Macquarie Bears, Sydney Royals and Townsville Crocodiles.
Each team will be detailed in the next post...