With no sport on anywhere I’ve realised just how much a part of my life sport plays. It’s not a life or death matter but it is an ever present in my life.

For as long as I can remember I’ve always been a sports fan. Never much of a player; a very average footballer (Aussie Rules) and a slightly better cricketer. Both my football and cricket careers if you could call them that were ended in my early teens due to an eye injury caused by a flicked towel in the eye by a friend in the change rooms. It caused a series of eye problems that meant contact sport was out. I then took up golf which I also was OK at, but one “B” Pennant Match and “C” Grade Club Championship signifies that I was at best run of the mill. No matter.

I grew up in Tiger heartland. About a mile from the Bay Oval where, Glenelg, The Tigers, played in the SANFL. Back then we only had a vibrant state league that dominated interest. The SANFL was not as strong as the VFL ( which subsequently became the AFL our national competition). When I started going to the football we had a 10 team local league, dominated by Port Adelaide. Attendances were pretty good in those days around 50,000 across the 5 games. Games were played on a Saturday afternoon starting at 2.20pm except when there was a holiday Monday or Anzac Day when there was always a game between the previous years Grand Finalists.

Like so many kids, I looked to my father and supported the team he did – Sturt. He barracked for Sturt, largely because a number of his friends had come from the Riverland to play for Sturt. Dad stayed on the River and played country footy. He said he was at best a Second 18 footballer (whether that’s true or not I have no idea).

I remember when I made my decision him saying , it will mean you won’t see them play as much because they aren’t the local team.

That was true. In fact, the first game I remember going to was at Glenelg. I guess it would have been in about 1965. I went with my grandfather, something I did for a number of years. He was a very keen Glenelg supporter.

In those days you could hop over the fence at quarter and three quarter time and listen to the coaches talk to the players. You could go into the rooms before and after the game. And in those days it wasn’t uncommon for the payers to have a cigarette at quarter and three quarter time!

My decision to support Sturt proved a good one as they proved the dominant force in SANFL in the latter half of the 1960s and a power through the first half of the 1970s. After a close loss to Port Adelaide in the 1965 Grand Final, they went onto beat Port in 1966, 1967 and the 1968 Grand Finals before beating Glenelg in each of 1969 and 1970.

I have great memories of that era. I went to the Grand Finals in 1968, 69 and 70. Notwithstanding my father’s comments about not getting to see Sturt often, he took me to many games. I went a number of years without seeing Sturt lose a game. I have wonderful memories of finals series at the old Adelaide Oval and Anzac Day games also played at Adelaide Oval.

I remember having a scholarship exam on the day of the 1970 Grand Final. I have to say I was far more focussed in the Grand Final than the scholarship exam. It was a freezing cold and wet late September day, rather than the usual balmy Spring day that are the norm for Grand Final day. I was worried as Sturt a highly skilled team were not perceived to be the best in the mud. How wrong could I be, a Brenton Miels one handed pick running through the quagmire of Adelaide Ovals centre wicket is a memory I still cherish. I didn’t get a scholarship but Sturt wine making it five in a row.

I also have fond memories of days at Unley Oval, Stuart’s home ground, Thebarton, Richmond, The Parade, and the home of arch enemies Port Adelaide, Alberton Oval. One of my favourites was walking out of Unley Oval after a win and an excited supporter gleefully telling us that we were 2 games clear on top of the league – it wasn’t his telling of the facts it was the excitement in voice that I still remember 50 plus years on.

Mum made a Sturt Flag for Dad the afternoon Sturt won the 1966 Grand Final, just a year after the shattering 3 point defeat to Port Adelaide. The flag became a fixture. For years after I’d put the flag out on the mornings of games and if Sturt won, which they usually did I’d leave it out until Sunday night.

My mother and grandmother knitted me a Sturt Scarf. I still wear it when I go and watch The Blues play.

My favourite player of the era was Keith Chessell and when I was given a guernsey I had his number sewn on it – No 2. In reality I had so many favourites, John “the Baptist” Halbert, Paul “Baggy” Bagshaw, a gifted champion, Brenton Adcock, a fine defender and his companion in the back line, Bruce Jarrett. There was also centre-half back Phil “Sandy” Nelson, Malcolm “Greenie” Greenslade, Brenton “Snakes” Miels, M.E.Jones and Tony “Doc” Clarkson. Apologies to those I haven’t mentioned.

It was a golden era and as I said crowds were big. Unley Oval was a small ground, capacity about 15,000 although games often exceeded that. I have great memories of going to games with my father and his friends. Standing on the terraces and barracking so loud that I always lost my voice.

Amazingly, I often get to relive those memories with our apartment block’s groundsmen, who played for our arch enemy Port Adelaide, in that era. He played in three of the Grand Finals.

The late 60s were truly a golden era for Sturt. 5 Premierships a row. Unfortunately it had to end and did in 1971, with a loss in the first week of the finals. It was shattering at the time but finals performances in the next two years including a spine tingling win in the qualifying final in 1973 were ok, before a triumphant Grand Final win in 1974 and then the greatest triumph of them all, the 1976 Grmad Final win against Port Adelaide. Port were unbackable favourites.

For some reason the 1976 grand final truly captured the imagination of the public and unprecedented numbers turned up. In those days tickets weren’t presale, so we lined up for a couple of hours to get into the ground. I went with mum and dad and a friend. It was a sellout crowd, so big that the crowd spilled onto the ground – spectators sitting around the boundary line (no chance of that happening today).

Sturt won by plenty, a game dominated by Rick Davies, picking up kicks all over the ground. It was a win that veteran champion and captain Paul Bagshaw described as the clubs finest hour. I think I got my voice back on the following Thursday. I still watch a grainy video of the game from time to time.

There were of course sad days. The 1 point loss in the 1978 Grand Final after a season where Sturt had lost just one game going into the grand final being the most painful.

Sturt were patchy through the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. Sturt lost the 1983 Grand Final and another in the late 1990s.They flirted with bankruptcy and merger before emerging in 2002 with a flag. Sturt beat the dominant team of the era, Central District. I knew we’d win when Marty Mattner, kicked a running goal in the second quarter.

The 2002 Grand Final was special because it was the first game my mum had been too since Sturt’s 1976 win. It was also the last game she went too. By that time the national competition dominated football and the SANFL, as very much second string to the national competition. Crowds were no longer much more than a couple of thousand except for the Grand Final, which still draw pretty good numbers.

The 2002 Premiership while great didn’t erase the memory of the 1978 loss. That only happened after the premiership win in 2016.

Sturt won again in 2017, a one point win over rival of the 1960s, Port Adelaide who were full of AFL players. It was the first Grand Final Sturt played in that I hadn’t seen live since 1967. I listened to the game in the Orkney Islands on my phone. We were just 2 of 4 guests at a delightful B&B. I have to say that our hosts and the other guests an American couple were bemused by my fixation with the online radio broadcast over breakfast.

So that’s my fan story. Perhaps I’ll write another about the Crows, my team in the AFL. I’m not sure though, as while The Crows are the main interest these days I have a true love of the Mighty Blues.