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Preface
From "Angels" To "Old Easts" To "Sharks" By Jack Lee.
Though
club histories usually concentrate on champion players and premierships
won, the East Fremantle Football Club is almost unique - and uniquely
fortunate - in having a huge band of supporters and officials whose
contribution has been as great as that of the players and we pay
tribute to all of them in 1997, our centenary year.
During the
Centenary, we have set a number of records in team and player
performances and years of service given by officials - and no other
club in the leading football states, WA and Victoria, can match us in
any way.
The foundation of the Club owes much to Tom Wilson and
David (Dolly) Christy, Wilson from North Melbourne, Christy from
Ballarat and Melbourne and both from Imperials, along with businessman
Sam Thomson.
The Club, known variously as the blue-and-whites (with
"Angels sometimes added), Old Easts (to distinguish us from Young Easts
- East Perth) and now the Sharks, has enjoyed phenomenal success over
the past ten decades.
To football supporters everywhere, a club's
reputation stands or falls according to the number of premierships won.
Our achievements are so numerous, and champion players equally so, that
several volumes would be needed to do justice to them.
In the first
ten years, six premierships came our way - and, according to the Club's
first historian, Dolph Heinrichs, we were blatantly robbed of another
three - 1898, 1905 and 1907.
After 20 years, we had lifted the
total to ten, and by 1946, we had won 21 and had been runners-up 17
times. The total now stands at 28 and 27 - 55 times first or second.
Thirty-six consecutive premierships in the final four from 1916 to 1951
were made even more remarkable by setting an Australian record of 35
consecutive victories from July 28, 1945 to May 17, 1947 - and included
in that run was the jewel in East Fremantle's crown - the unbeaten
seaon of 1946.
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