Universal Love R.I.P Thaihawk

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WireHawk

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Aug 16, 2009
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I've spent a lot of time in Thailand over the last few years and I always
imagined Thaihawk sitting on a verandah, cool drink(non-alcoholic) in hand
on a steamy day watching/listening to his beloved Hawks amongst the lush
vegetation.

He had a treasure trove of Hawthorn history stored away in his memories which
is now sadly lost to us all. I hope he's having a lavish Thai meal with all the other
departed Hawks wherever he is.

Laagorn Krab Thaihawk!
 
Terrible news, but it puts to bed the wondering about his 'radio silence' this last while. Thank you Cryptor for chasing this up

Thai for me ws like a missing link to our past. I was born in the 70s and enjoyed the glory years. Put up with a drought, but never really experienced the pain that would have been all that Thai grew up knowing. I loved his stories of our struggle, because it was one of the few times when we were reminded that everything wasnt rosy like it is today. For those who think of the drought from 91 to 08, we always knew it ws going to end. And we always had the memories of better times, and great players to fall back on.

Thais journey, and that of others of that era (including my own family that arent around to tell the same stories), must have been all the sweeter watching us come from where we did, from so far behind the rest of the field. Suburban football, where players played, boarded and socialised together in the suburb they represented. And he was fair dinkum right in the thick of it, when our stars were alligning. Fortunute fella, I envied him when I read those posts, and I realised how blessed we were to have him, and others of his ilk sharing these memories.
What a fantastic journey. What immeasurable pleasure he hs derived from the club. I reckon the Hawthorn journey moulded him and helped make him the humble, gentleman we got to know through his postings. Well, in my mind anyhow.

Vale Thai.
 
Sep 22, 2010
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Oh no, such terrible news - I thought I hadn't seen any posts from him for a while. cryptor echo the thanks of others for going to the effort in following up.

Thaihawk was a wonderful contributor, his stories about meeting players and spending time in the clubrooms (or them coming over to his house!) as a youngster provided a certain insight into the family club that was wonderful. As others said also, he was a kind and considerate poster as well, a real gentleman, he will be missed. RIP buddy.
 
It's great to see the outpouring of support to his memory. I'm sure he'd be very humbled by all the nice things being said about him here.

I should mention that when I spoke to the family member I did say this is where I knew him from and passed on condolences on behalf of this board to the rest of his family.

While trying to track down a family member that would be able to see my inbox messages (as some require you to already be a friend or a mutual friend for them to receive them or even get notifications for them) I did see that a few of them are members of various Facebook Hawthorn supporter groups. Groups that I know a few on here are also members of. So potentially a few of those family members might be enough into the Hawks to decide to pay this board a visit if the part about BigFooty makes it to them.

It'd be great to hear about the great man from some of his family. They might even be willing to share a bit more about him on a personal level.
 

Wandering Hawk

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Vale mate. Thank you for sharing the memories of past days from before our time. A gentleman who will be sorely missed. Have a drink with the old worthies for us - until we meet again.
 

indianhawks

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Sep 29, 2014
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R.I.P Thaihawk. You have always proved great info and opinions
 
As many have noticed over the the last few months, one of our most active, long standing and quality members of this board has been unusually absent this year. Combining small pieces of information throughout his posting history I was able to track down his profile on Facebook and use what is publicly shared there to get in contact with a family member.

It's with great sadness that I pass on the news that Thaihawk has unfortunately passed away. I'm told that he was admitted to hospital in early January with "quite a few issues" (which I'm led to believe were likely cancer related) and that in mid-March he passed away.

Most regulars here would know that Thaihawk grew up in the Glenferrie area in the 1940's and bear witness to many a thrashing of Hawthorn throughout his youth. He was lucky in the sense that he got to watch Hawthorn transform from the easy-beat Mayblooms into the powerhouse Hawks of today.

The man we knew from his time on BigFooty was an elderly (late 70's), Australian expat spending his retirement years living in Northern Thailand with his Thai family after having remarried later in life. He taught ESL (English as a Second Language) in Thailand for some years before fully retiring to enjoy spending all his time with his wife and his 3 year old granddaughter (who is now a keen Hawk fan herself). We also knew that his wife was fighting a very tough battle with cancer the last couple years and that she sadly lost that fight late last year. No doubt the pain and stress of that loss contributed to his own ill health.

Thaihawk has a long posting history here and it is rich with fantastic, first-hand accounts of the early days of Hawthorn from the late 1940's through until the modern history of recent years. With Thaihawk's background in teaching English his affinity for writing quality posts has been very evident, and I'm sure many reading this would have been schooled by him on the appropriate use of grammar at one point or another! Throughout his tenure on these boards he was consistently adding plenty of quality to discussions with his sharp wit, sage advice and the occasional grumbly, old man rant.

While this is terribly sad news I think we should all be happy in the knowledge that Thaihawk led such a long and happy life and that he got to see the rise to power of his beloved football club. Experiencing all 13 wonderful premiership wins to date, and topped off with a historical threepeat!

Rest In Peace, Thaihawk


Very well written cryptor.

The only thing I can add - Thaihawk wrote a book whilst living in Thailand and I believe it is on utube
 
Jun 28, 2013
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RIP Thaihawk. Such a generous person who I never met in person. Loved Hawthorn and loved sharing his memories with us. Loved a laugh too. Huge loss to our board. Condolences to his family who he loved dearly (spoke about them often on here and how he had indoctrinated them as Hawthorn supporters). I’m not sure whether any of them will read this thread - but I hope they do. He has so much love on this board

Devastated
 
Oct 23, 2014
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Who knew there was such a complex and interesting life story behind that humble screen persona. A reminder that we're all people on here, even if it's just the Internet, what we say and how we treat each other has weight.

RIP thaihawk.
 

RobHawk

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Really sad news.Whilst only knowing him through his thoughtful and sometimes quirky posts you could believe the term a gentleman and a scholar was coined exclusively for him.Seemed to have a great affection for Hawthorn the suburb as well as Hawthorn the club.Loved it when he related stories that linked the two.
 
When that man spoke , we all listened. Was a very wise man with hugely respected opinions on our club. Very sad news. Rest in peace mate #alwayshawthorn
 
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