The Grassroots Football Project
  • About
  • Gallery
  • Socceroos
  • Matildas
  • The Clubs
  • Blog
  • The Local List
  • The OS List
  • Programmes
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • "A" International Players

Alec Gibb

11/15/2016

2 Comments

 
2 years ago today I set forth on the Odyssey that is the GrassRoots Football Project to uncover the GrassRoots clubs of ALL Australian internationals, male & female whether they were capped 100 times, or just once off the bench. To celebrate our 2nd birthday I am very excited to bring you this latest & most significant post to date.
The most unique place in our game is held for the first man capped, our initial skipper, Alec Gibb, Socceroo #1.
Alec, born in Ireland, the son of a military man posted to County Kildare but a Scot through & through. He was brought up in Musselburgh, east of Edinburgh at the mouth of the River Esk, where he played for a juvenile, now defunct, Musselburgh Union side. At 16 he played with Newton Grange before spending a season with Musselburgh Athletic. Emigrating to Queensland in 1911 he spent a season at Bundamba Athletic before becoming ensconced at Bundamba Rangers where he would become, a legend. The photo below is the oldest known shot of an Australian international, it was taken in 1905.
He would go on to father another Socceroo, Lex & thus become the first father/son selection in our history. 
Alec was 34 when selected to skipper the first Australian side on the 1922 tour of NZ and football would play a huge part in the rest of his life in the Ipswich district, he was 16 in the NewtonGrange team.
My thanks to the Gibb family and to Andrew for impeccable record keeping.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
1914 Ipswich & West Moreton rep side
Picture
Newton Grange 1905
Picture
Bundamba Rangers West Moreton Assn (Ipswich) Premiers 1922 
Picture
Socceroo team #1... 1922 v. New Zealand @ Carisbrook, Dunedin.
2 Comments
Peter Eedy
4/5/2020 02:41:28 pm

Good writeup, Greg

Reply
Peter Eedy
7/21/2020 11:00:41 am

Hi Greg
A couple of suggestions
--The photo of Alec in his 'A' jersey more likely 1922 than 1905?
--Bundamba Rangers won the Queensland FA comp in 1922 (rather than the Ipswich comp--beating out the very strong Thistle FC):
http://www.socceraust.co.uk/1922/QLD/Div1/fixtures.html
Feel free to delete this post after you have considered these comments
Regards
Peter

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2023
    November 2022
    May 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015

    the author

    Greg Werner began playing in 1965, with the GrassRoots club of Socceroo skipper Murray Barnes, a change of suburb at age 6 and a new club, one that would become the GrassRoots club of Rob Wheatley & after a 27 year hiatus came back to playing with the GrassRoots club of Socceroos Steve Perry, Richie Bell, Chris Iconomidis & Matilda, Justine Fisher, one could say that the links with the NT are ingrained.
    At age 55, when his body gave up on playing, he took up the whistle to stay actively involved. In November of 2014 he created the GFP on Facebook to fill the void left by those in control of the game & in January 2016 launched this website.
Proudly powered by Weebly