A Soccer Fan’s Forgotten Dream: The William Kennard Cup

Anthony Hughes School of History University of New South Wales

In February 1995 the University of New South Wales (UNSW) defeated University 2-0 in a pre-season friendly game. While this result is unremarkable given the former’s higher league status in the New South Wales Soccer Federation and their semi professional set-up—it was the catalyst to write this short paper. As a former Wales player of many years standing I was of course delighted to hear the Blue and Golds had been defeated and that games between the two clubs (outside of intervarsity competition) had been resumed after a nine year break. My delight, however soon turned to bewilderment as Wales’s young bucks related to me that Sydney University had ‘given us back’ the Jameson Trophy1 which they had described as the trophy for a former annual competition between the Universities of Sydney which they had held for some time. In the short space of nine years dependence on oral tradition had let us all down. Even members of my own beloved club had not been able to rebuke the Sydney claim- even though the symbol of supremacy in University soccer in Sydney-the William Kennard Cup— had been residing in the trophy cabinet in the Roundhouse at the University of New South Wales since 1986, when Wales had defeated Sydney University 3-2 to win the trophy for the tenth successive year. This monotonous winning run, the higher status of the Kensington side and their congested pre-season commitments had led to a loss of interest in the Kennard Cup and the abandonment of the annual fixtures. Why, you may surmise does any of this deserve a place in our learned Bulletin? The answer lies in the history of this trophy—the neglect of which is yet another example of soccer not hanging on to its traditions in . Kennard had gone the way of the famous Gardener,2 Rainsford and numerous other cups and trophies played for in state soccer over the years. Soccer in New South Wales (and Australia) has a way of forgetting its past. This self inflicted amnesia has been one of the many contributing 16 ASSH Bulletin No. 24 • June 1996 factors to the myth that soccer has never been a popular game in the state except amongst post-World War II migrants. William Kennard was a London East End Jew with a talent for numbers who served in the RAF as a wireless operator in World War II. He was wounded in a bombing raid in 1939 and later served in Brussells as the allies pushed towards Berlin in 1944-45. A fanatical Charlton Athletic fan he obtained tickets to the 1946 (a 4-l loss to Derby County) and 1947 FA Cup Finals. In 1947 he had the pleasure of seeing his beloved Charlton defeat Bumley — the only goal of the game being scored by Duffy. He migrated with his family from London to Sydney in 1947. His son Colin described him as a ‘typical pom’ who got away from to avoid the continuation of war-time restriction and rationing.3 His involvement in soccer before coming to Australia had been as a referee in local amateur soccer. He settled in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney and had soon established a thriving business. Kennard was, consistent with his faith, a supporter of the Sydney Hakoah club— then on its way to being Australia’s most successful club and one which was run by men of the calibre of Walter Sternberg, Ben Nathan and later on Frank Lowey— and many others.4 The 1950s was a propitious time for New South Wales soccer and the Hakoah club was to the fore in the controversial events which saw the newly emerging ethnic based clubs wresting control of the game from the Anglo establishment of the New South Wales Soccer Association. The meeting at which the breakaway New South Wales Soccer Federation was initiated was held in the Eastern Suburbs home of Hakoah club president Walter Sternberg on 5 January 19575 and William Kennard was one of those present. In that first season of the Federation Kennard served on its promotion committee6 and was one of several Hakoah men on the management committee of the Federation. The pre-eminence of Hakoah men at the helm of the game in NSW and indeed in Australia was to continue until the demise for Hakoah as a professional club in 1986. One of the initiatives of the fledgling association was to introduce preseason night soccer at Lidcombe oval in Sydney’s Western Suburbs. These games were an outstanding success story with double headers attracting large crowds; the Sydney Morning Herald reported in the autumn of 1957: Hughes • Kennard Cup 17

Nearly 4500 people last night saw the Federation of Soccer clubs successfully present its first soccer matches. The matches Austral v Auburn and APIA v Hakoah were played under lights at Lidcombe Oval. The standard of the play and the presentation of the matches left little to be desired. Federation officials were delighted with the attendance and the gate was nearly £300.7 William Kennard was the patron of this first Federation competition. He donated the magnificent silver cup which bears his name and a prize of £l00 for the winning team. The players in the final were payed additional appearance £4 10s—£2 paid by their club and the remainder made up by the Federation. The competition gave the Federation the opportunity to put its new ideas for soccer into action and to put on display some of the top class players it had begun to attract from Europe. Kennard, steeped in the traditions of English soccer and a shrewd businessman recognised both the opportunities available to the Federation to capture a new market by going to Friday night football- the first such competition run by any code in Australia— and the exposure his own business house could gain from being linked to the promotion. On his arrival in Australia Kennard had become involved in the rag trade but quickly diversified his business interests—by 1960 these ranged from the sale of sporting goods8 to property development. He became one of the first developers of former slum areas of Sydney into commercial space and the development of home units in the city’s Eastern Suburbs.9 He was a marvellous salesman but also a generous man and well known community worker.10 It was the combination of his business acumen, charitable nature and love of football that led to his sponsorship of the Federation’s first competition before it was even known if the organisation would be a success. He would have been gratified when Hakoah took out the first Kennard Cup by defeating Lane Cove 5-1 on Friday 27 March 1957 in front of almost 4500 people. Three of the goals were scored by European import Heinz Schussig and two by Frank Hearne. Former English professional Billy Walsh also turned out for Hakoah. This was an outstanding achievement by Hakoah who had been second division champions the previous season. They played irresistible football in that first Federation competition, Schussig in particular was a revelation. Apart from his hat-trick in the final he bagged two goals in the first 18 ASSH Bulletin No. 24 • June 1996 round 3-2 victory over Apia11 and an amazing six in the 6-0 demolition of Eastern Suburbs at Arlington Oval in the quarter final.12 Gratifying as this competition win must have been for Kennard and the executive of Hakoah it did bring to the fore issues that were troubling the Jewish club. The Jewish Board of Directors recieved complaints from the Jewish community about its use of non-Jewish players and the staging of competitions on a Friday night. In the end these problems were solved and Hakoah went on to play an important role in Sydney Jewish affairs as well as it’s leading role in professional soccer in this country. The 1957 Kennard Cup and the innovation of Friday night soccer was a promising start for the new Federation—it drew 19 000 people to its five rounds.13 The 1958 competition proved to be even more popular. The prize money was increased to £500 and the Petroleum Company began its long affiliation with the game by becoming a joint sponsor. Ampol saw the potential for soccer following the success of the Federation’s first season. Its chairman Sir William Walkley, who became one of the games best administrators becoming chairman of the Australian Soccer Federation in 1963, saw soccer as ‘the sport that could do most to bring old and new Australians together and aid the newcomers’ assimilation’.14 The first four nights of the 1958 competition at Lidcombe Oval attracted 20 858 people. When Corrimal United defeated Auburn in front of 4641 fans ‘two bus loads and twenty-nine car loads of people made the trip from Wollongong for the match’.15 The semi-finals, Canterbury-Marrickville versus Prague and Hakoah versus Corrimal, produced ‘the finest club football in Sydney since the war’. On display that night were players of the calibre of Billy Walsh, Jules Forgacs and Schussig of Hakoah, Keith Learmouth of Corrimal and Austrian international imports Leo Baumgartner and Karl Jarros of Prague. Hakoah made the final again on the back of goals by Schussig and Forgacs but were unable to defend their title. In front of 8028 people Canterbury-Marrickville defeated them by four goals to three in a thriller. Hundreds of people went home from the sports ground unable to find parking.16 The Kennard Cup had lit up the autumn nights of hundreds of soccer fans—new and old Australians alike—before soccer had fallen victim to its wogball stereotype. Kennard’s intuition had been proven correct—but 1958 was the last season his cup would be played for at this Hughes • Kennard Cup 19 level. In 1959 Ampol took over full sponsorship of the competition and raised the prize money to £1000. I7 The crowds continued to grow and the competitions success was assured for a number of years to come. It was the great Canterbury coach Jo Vlasits, then a work mate of William Kennard’s son Colin who suggested in 1959 that the Kennard Cup be donated to the two Sydney universities for an annual test of strength between the two clubs. The offer was accepted and the competition began when the first match was played at Randwick Oval on 10 July 1960.18 Sydney University won that first encounter and William Kennard presented them with the trophy. There was no prize money. In this way one of soccer’s most striking trophies became the property of the universities. Sydney did not win again until 1966 as UNSW began to develop into the highest-ranked university club in Australian soccer. (for List of Winners see appendix) The Macquarie University Soccer Club (now defunct) were admitted to the competition in 1968 on the initiative of New South Wales.19 For many years the Kennard Cup was a source of great pride and rivalry between the University clubs in Sydney. However UNSW’s total dominance of the competition from 1977 to 1986 led to a loss of interest by all parties in continuing. Added to this a certain mean spiritedness had by the mid- 1980s crept into university soccer destroying the camaraderie that had almost led to a combined Universities team entering the Premier division of the State league in the early 1980s. The gap between the semi- professional organisation at Kensington, particularly in the late 1970s and early 1980s when they were a first division side bolstered by some non university players, and the other two metropolitan university clubs at this time was also a telling factor. In the nine short years between 1986 and 1995 the Kennard Cup stood forgotten in the Roundhouse at Kensington. The handsome trophy represents a bygone age in soccer. An age when men of vision rejuvenated the game dreaming of a day when soccer would be the premier sport in Australia. This dream faded in the 1960s—but that is another story. William Kennard had the foresight to sponsor Friday night soccer under lights—at the time a revolutionary thing to do. His idea for a cup competition, perhaps based on his memories of the cut and thrust of cup ties back in England, was taken up enthusiastically by the new Federation and made to work. While soon superseded by the bigger money of the rich Ampol company, the Kennard Cup represented the first step by 20 ASSH Bulletin No. 24 • June 1996 soccer in Australia into commercialism; night football, big prize money, imported professionals and the type of sponsorship more familiar in the 1990s than the 1950s. The donation of the cup to the universities speaks for Kennard’s community mindedness. Rather than see the beautiful cup go to waste he was happy to follow Vlasits’s suggestion and present it to them. Perhaps he was also influenced by the fact his son Colin had attended UNSW. Colin Kennard had also played a small role in the cup’s history— being official photographer for those first two series at Lidcombe and now the possessor of a fine photographic archive.” In the late 1950s and 1960s William Kennard once again became involved in refereeing amateur soccer and continued to watch his beloved Hakoah. He lived long enough to see them, in the guise of Sydney City, become the best club side ever to grace the soccer stadiums of Australia—and sadly to see them leave professional soccer at the elite level for ever on 30 March 1987.21 He died after a long and successful life in October 1989, aged 89.22 In February 1996 the current presidents of Sydney University and UNSW soccer clubs were brought up to date on the history of the Kennard Cup. The clubs agreed to resume a competition called Kennard, however a new trophy will be purchased and a valuable treasure of Australian Soccer history will stay in the Roundhouse trophy cabinet until the day Australian soccer has its own museum. Appendix William Kennard Federation Soccer Cup 1957 Winners List 1957 Hakoah 1974 UNSW 1958 Canterbury Marickville 1975 Sydney University 1959 not played for 1976 Sydney University 1960 Sydney University 1977 UNSW 1961 UNSW 1978 UNSW 1962 UNSW 1979 UNSW 1963 UNSW 1980 UNSW 1964 UNSW 1981 UNSW 1965 UNSW 1982 UNSW 1966 Sydney University 1983 UNSW 1967 UNSW 1984 UNSW 1968 Sydney University 1985 UNSW 1969 UNSW 1986 UNSW 1970 Macquarie University 1987 to 1995 not played for. 1971 Sydney University 1996 UNSW (New trophy 1972 UNSW will be purchased) 1973 UNSW Hughes • Kennard Cup

NOTES: 1 The Bill Jameson trophy was for competition between reserve grade sides of the Sydney Universities. The late Mr Jameson was an academic at UNSW and a committee man at the UNSW club for many years. The club’s scholarship fund is also named in his honour. Last won by Sydney University in 1986 it had been found by an old club member in his garage and returned to the Sydney club in very bad condition. 2 The Gardiner Cup was the NSW State Knockout Cup played for between 1888 and 1928. See J Blanch ed., Ampol’s Sporting Records, Sydney, 1978, p. 392 for details of the Gardiner and Rainsford Cups. For the split in NSW Soccer that led to the demise of the Gardiner Cup see P A Mosely, A Social History of Soccer in NSW 1880-1957, unpub. PhD Thesis, Sydney University 1987, pp. 107-16. 3 C Kennard, letter to the author 15 May 1996. 4 See R Fisher and P Morrison, Hakoah Club Sydney 1938-1994, the club, Bondi, 1994. 5 P Mosely, Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer: A History 1950-1990, p. 36. 6 NSW Federation of Soccer Clubs: Official Yearbook 1959, p. 2 7 Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), 9 March 1957. 8 Soccer World, vol. 3, no. 22, 8 July 1960 carries one of Kennard’s advertisements for imported footballs-available at his shop at 70 King St Sydney. 9 Interview with Colin Kennard, 20 June 1996. 10 R Fisher and Peter Morrison, Hakoah Club Sydney, p 9. 11 SMH, 9 March 1957. 12 SMH, 18 March 1957. 13 SMH, 30 March 1957. 14 Sid Grant, Jade Pollards Soccer Records, North Sydney, 1974, p. 16. 15 SMH, 15 March 1958. 16 SMH, 3 April 1958. 17 Soccer Year Book,, 1959, p. 61. 18 Soccer World, vol. 3. no. 22. 8 July 1960, p 1. 19 University of New South Wales Soccer Club Annual Report 1967, p 2. 20 Interview with Kennard. 21 R Fisher and P Morrison, Hakoah Club, p 149. 22 Interview Kennard.