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.
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.
 |    1914 Ipswich & West Moreton rep side |
Newton Grange 1905
Bundamba Rangers West Moreton Assn (Ipswich) Premiers 1922
Socceroo team #1... 1922 v. New Zealand @ Carisbrook, Dunedin.