Dedicated fans recall the fightback that saved the Bulldogs

Almost thirty years ago, thousands of fans from Melbourne’s west rallied for a furious fight to wrangle their footy club back from the brink of extinction. Here’s how the Footscray Bulldogs were saved.

Footscray Fightback legends living large at Burnside retirement village include Ursula Glonek, Ted Beachley, June Whelan, Shirley Knight, Marie McKellin, Ken Boot and Pat Spivey. Picture: Rob Leeson.

They were never expected to win, never expected to come up with $1.5 million in three weeks.

The working class west was expected to roll over, like dogs.

But in 1989, when word leaked that the then-VFL’s Footscray Bulldogs were finished, the howl that erupted from the industrial backbone of Melbourne lasted long into the night, and sparked a groundswell of community support.

The proposed merger with Fitzroy to become the Fitzroy Dogs, which would have seen the red, white and blue stripped from guernseys, home games played at Princes Park, and players dropped, acted as a call to arms for the west.

The looming merger as reported on p1 of The Sun, October 4 1989.

The looming loss was front-page news throughout October 1989

Bulldogs supporters at the Barkley St drill hall.

Even before it was announced, work was happening behind the scenes to silence Footscray forever.

Four months before news of the merger was leaked, the factory making Bulldogs tops had stopped production.

Sunshine’s mayor at the time described it as a “cold-blooded execution”.

Diehard fan Roger Blair remembers October 2 1989 like yesterday.

He had just arrived at work when a colleague said “your club’s gone”.

Roger Blair was part of the Footscray Fightback 30 years ago.

“Devastation. I couldn’t believe it. It was like a death in the family,” Mr Blair said.

“I had taken my boys to see Footscray since they were five. My grandfather lived near the grounds and was a Bulldogs supporter.”

The 82-year-old’s eyes filled with tears as he remembered the thousands of people, from Eltham to Altona, who rallied to raise the money needed to keep the club afloat.

Bulldogs supporters stopped traffic while marching through the streets to save their team.

The VFL — under its then-boss Ross Oakley — was about to become the AFL and the Bulldogs were shoulder-deep in debt.

The club that had been in existence since 1877 was given an ultimatum — merge or die.

On that fateful day 30 years ago, Mr Blair and his wife Beryl vowed they would never watch an another match if the merger went ahead.

“We were going to give AFL away if it happened. We couldn’t trust them,” Mrs Blair said.

Footscray’s Barkley St drill hall became the front line for the west’s effort.

The famous bumper stickers slapped on cars throughout the west.

Men, women, and children rattled tins on the streets, knocked on thousands of doors, sold scarfs, hats, toy mascots, and the famous “UP YOURS OAKLEY” bumper stickers and pins.

For three weeks, the Blair family and countless others, dedicated every waking moment to the cause.

They were met with fierce resistance; Bulldogs players were banned by the AFL from attending the October 8 rally. But they showed up anyway.

More than 10,000 people walked onto Footscray Oval (now Whitten Oval) on that windy and rainy Sunday.

Mrs Blair said footy was different back then. It was more than a hobby, and it brought communities together.

“Every Saturday you knew where you would be,” she said.

Mr Blair said he and others became the shoulders that older, lifelong Bulldogs supporters cried on.

“We were grief counsellors,” he said.

Fellow fighter Margaret Boot still has her donation tin from all those years ago, and her husband Roger still wears his 30-year-old Bulldogs hat with so many faded autographs he can’t remember who signed it.

The couple stood on the corner of Somerville and Williamstown roads from 7.30am to 4.30pm in 40 degree heat, rattling their tins at drivers and using the Pizza Hut toilet next door.

But it was worth it, they said, to heave tins filled to the brim with coins back to the drill hall everyday.

“One woman gave Ken her fortnightly pension,” Mrs Boot said. “Kids gave 20 cents.”

A common thread among those who remember the fightback was the support from Collingwood fans.

Mr Blair remembered a man who walked into the drill hall and said he didn’t like what was going on and handed over $1000.

Three other dedicated Collingwood supporters went into bars and restaurants every night, rattling tins.

They never came back to the drill hall empty-handed.

“You don’t forget that,” Mrs Blair said.

Despite their intense efforts (the couple had no idea how their four children were fed during the campaign), the Blairs insisted on no recognition.

“I want to stress I don’t like the ‘I’ or ‘we’. Everyone pulled together, it was amazing.”

Twenty-one days after Mr Blair first heard of the merger, the fightback successfully raised $1.1 million, and secured a sponsorship deal worth up to $1.5 million with British chemical company Imperial Chemical Industries.

Mrs Boot said the west didn’t just win their footy team back, they won respect.

The Western Bulldogs are commemorating the fightback with Sunday’s clash against Melbourne at Marvel Stadium. The club has also published a fan-voted countdown of the top 30 Footscray and Bulldogs moments from the last 30 years and a podcast hosted exploring the people who played key roles in saving the club.