The University hosted a very special group of visitors this week – 15 of the class of 1938 graduates of the Footscray Technical School, the original incarnation of the current VU.
Aged in their mid-80s, the men (it was an all boys school in those days) toured Whitten Oval, where they had a surprise chat with Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade. Rocket may not have been aware of the group’s distinguished football record before the meeting, but he now knows that their ranks contained dual Brownlow medallist, Essendon captain Bill Hutchinson and South Melbourne premiership rover Bill Williams.
“We were keen on football and all sports as schoolboys,” spokesman Bernard Wilson said. “We won the football premiership six years in a row, plus the cricket and the baseball.”
But they were not only great sportsmen. Many graduates of the school went on to become engineers, businessmen and civic leaders in the west and beyond.
The University hosted a lunch for the group and their partners and carers at the Cityscape restaurant on the Footscray Park campus – the site of their old school.
Director of Development Ros Casey said the group had a very strong affection for their old school and many of them had children or grandchildren who had studied at VU over the years.
The Development Office will be recording interviews with some of the men that could form part of an Alumni Archive in the future.
