A collection of Kodak colour transparencies of Carlton match day moments from the 1960 and ’61 seasons have been made available to the club.

The slides, numbering 130 in all, were recently shared by Phil O’Rourke, whose father Frank O’Rourke captured the moments on his trusty Contaflex 35mm leaf-shutter reflex camera more than 60 years ago. The slides have since been digitized for the Frank O’Rourke Collection, now part of Carlton’s online archive.

Frank’s images were taken in ten separate Carlton home and away matches across five inner-city VFL venues of the period. His snaps take the viewer back to the days of Benetti, Collis, Comben, Donaldson, James and Sankey – all plying their craft on the MCG and at long-gone League locales the Brunswick Street Oval, Lakeside Oval, Victoria Park and of course Princes Park.

The photographer, Frank O’Rourke, circa 1960.

Included are images of John Nicholls’s ruck contests with Ken Boyd in the Round 15, 1961 match with South Melbourne at home. This was the game in which Boyd was ultimately sanctioned 12 matches for striking Nicholls at a boundary throw-in and never played again. It was also the game that Carlton’s Martin Cross – great grandfather to the Hollands brothers Elija and Ollie – kicked a lazy eight.

Frank’s connection with Carlton was territorial, as he lived within close proximity to Princes Park at Victoria Grove, North Brunswick. Phil, who was born in 1958, can vouch for the fact that his Dad, who for years was employed with the Hickory hosiery company and died in 1989, captured thousands of images – most of them family-centric, but some football-related.

“Dad was a North Brunswick boy born in 1910 and he supported Carlton all his life,” Phil said.

“These slides are from the early days, and I was only two or three when he took them. At the time I would have been home with Mum when he nicked down to the ground from the house to spend an afternoon at the footy.

“We were a family of six, so there are many, many family slides, but my brother Adrian reminded me as recently as last Mother’s Day of those from the footy. These ones are from 1960 and ’61. I recently got hold of all the slides from Mum and I’m still ploughing through them now.”

Phil O’Rourke inspects one of his father’s treasured slides.

Included amongst the collection of Frank’s slides are:

  • from the Lakeside Oval - images of Bruce Comben leading Bob Skilton and John James in a race for the football; Maurie Sankey lining up for goal and John Nicholls casting an educate eye down the ground in the final home and away round of 1960;
  • from Princes Park - images of the long-gone Garton Street scoreboard at the north-eastern end of the ground (later replaced by the Olympic Tyres Scoreboard at the south-eastern end) and the WJ Northey spectator shelter on the city side wing, in matches with Geelong (Round 6) and Essendon (Round 16, 1960), and Footscray (Round 3), Richmond (Round 8), South Melbourne  (Round 15) and North Melbourne (Round 18, 1961).
  • from Victoria Park - images of Peter Barry and Collingwood’s Trevor Steer contesting the football with the Members’ Stand and the old Stratton & Co. flour silos dominating the skyline in the penultimate home and away round of ’61; and
  • from the MCG - images of Graham Donaldson leading Nicholls, Comben, Ian Collins, Gordon Collis and co. onto the ground, and panoramic images featuring the Southern Stand (forerunner to the Great Southern Stand (now Shane Warne Stand).

Given his decades-long and on-going research into the history of the Glen Iris Cricket Club, Phil’s appreciation of the historical value of the slides was evident – hence his decision, on a whim, to contact Carlton to gauge the Club’s interest in his father’s slides – and Carlton, as a beneficiary, is forever grateful that he did.

Colour transparencies, courtesy Kodak and Frank O’Rourke.