The weekend to celebrate the centenary year proved to be extremely successful. A full account of the day comes from an article written by Aiden Lee, courtesy of the 'The Stawell Times-News'.
Navarre celebrates centenary
Navarre Football / Netball Club celebrated its centenary year on Saturday with a bigger crowd than expected and a winning day for all teams.
Being 100 years since favourite son Bill Bibby started Navarre's running as a club, the Grasshoppers threw the biggest celebration in the club's history.
People came from far and wide to be part of Navarre's biggest days, with many old faces coming back after 20 or 30 years.
More than 1000 members, supporters and onlookers flocked through the gates throughout the day to watch Navarre take on Natte Bealiba on the court and field, but mainly to throw their support behind the club.
Navarre's senior fotballers did what they had to do to retain the Hannett/Ross shield, which was presented by Minister for Sport and Recreation Hugh Delahunty.
Navarre president Wayne Driscoll was overwhelmed with the amount of people that supported the day.
"We're very humbled with how many made the effort to come along. Everyone was linked to the club somehow, with a lot of those people having family ties," Driscoll said.
"We thought we'd sit down around 400 people for tea, but a lot of people stuck around and we ended up doing between 600 and 700 meals. It's fantastic for our club, and to see so many faces enjoying themsleves made it worth it."
The familiar face of Bill Bibby's son, Keith, who at the age of 94 drove from Bendigo to join the fun. Bibby said, "I only played the one year here, in the Coonooer-Kara Kara League," but he said he enjoyed his time in the green and gold.
Several big announcements were also made on the day by and to the club, with Driscoll formally announcing the 'Teams of the Eras', 'Hall of Fame' and 'Legends' inductees on the night.
However, the biggest of all surprises came when Delahunty and the Northern Grampians Shire Council combined to give NFNC $53,000 for the upkeep of the Navarre sporting reserve. "We are very thankful for the shire and local government for their contributions. This will go towards the Recreation Reserve to help with the re-surfacing of the netball court and various other things," Driscoll said. "We also had multiple donations on the day from numerous people and businesses, which we appreciate greatly." Driscoll said the day couldn't have been achieved without the work of committee and members.
"This is and will no doubt always be the biggest day in the history of the Navarre Football Club," he said. "It's been a massive job done by the centenary committee, general committee and ladies committee, and I'm sure they're really happy and relieved with what has been done."
Club Formation
The Navarre Football Club was formed in 1911 with W.T. (Bill) Bibby as the first team Captain and Joe Darlington from Paradise as President. Bill, along with some mates who had been playing at Landsborough, established a team at Navarre.
Club Success
The club has been highly successful over the years winning 18 senior premierships in various leagues most of which are long gone today.
A reserve competition was started in the 1960s and between 1978 and 1995 nine premierships were won at this level.
An Under 15 competition started in 1964 with Navarre winning a flag in'66 followed by six more in various age groups up to 2008 with Uner 17s.
The then Lexton Plains League started an Under 14 competition in 2005 which Navarre won and then they won again int eh last year of the League (2010), making the Club's combined record an impressive 36 premierships.
Club colours were blue and white vertical stripes in 1911 and changed to green and gold in 1934 when a league change created a jumper clash. Originally just known as the green and golds, Navarre more recently became the Grasshoppers.
