http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/...n/news-story/516df1c06729c819609021150412e08d
The Pearson name also holds a special record in the Essendon District Football League region.
Playing in the EDFL in 1939, Pearson Snr booted 28 goals in one match for La Mascotte.
The league record still stands today.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/hot-form-with-dogs-and-footy-20101227-198k3.html
Meanwhile, his natural ability as a sportsman in the Ascot Vale-Essendon area attracted the attention of the Essendon District Cricket and the Essendon VFL (now AFL) clubs. One of his feats, kicking 28 goals in a single match in 1939 playing for La Mascotte, still stands as a district record.
World War II interrupted his rise in sport and he served as an AIF gun-layer guarding a RAAF radar unit at a remote jungle outpost in Dutch New Guinea. He was invalided home before the war ended, with tropical dermatitis, perforated ears and tattered nerves.
He made his debut with Essendon's senior football team in 1945 but had to spend a period of rehabilitation at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital with many other young men suffering from what Pearson termed "scarred minds".
Football was his saviour. His confidence returned playing VFL - he was a star in Essendon's 1946 VFL premiership team, although injury during the season perhaps cost him the first postwar Brownlow Medal. He polled 13 votes to 19 by the winner, Melbourne's Don Cordner.
Pearson played in all 18 home and away games in 1947 - the year he married Joan Muir - but a crippling knee injury in the final game against Collingwood at Victoria Park ended his career. He was only 25 and had played a total of 51 games for the Bombers and kicked 24 goals.
Nice overview of his life and career....but...articles written in 2010 only direct one's interest to an event in 1939...
Perhaps the local Essendon paper we need just hasn't been loaded onto Trove yet.
But at the moment I hesitate to accept the 28 goals claim as confirmed.
I've tried all sorts of variations on Trove - surname only and 28 and then filtering down to just those for 1939...variations of football, surname, club name etc etc. Have found a few match scores for La Mascotte in 1939, but average totals not huge ones...and no ref to a Pearson kicking a bag of goals. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/...01&dateTo=1939-12-31&q=essendon+"la+mascotte"