The Game
Sporting history doesn’t just ‘happen’ and it certainly isn’t a level playing field. In the creation of history there are a lot of politics, serendipity and conflicting agendas involved. Ever heard the phrase ‘history is written by the victors?’ — this means two things: that the one left standing gets to record their version of events, but also; the one who makes a record of their version of events is remembered by history as the victor.
Those who recognize the economic and political power of creating sporting history are getting a jump on the competition by playing the long game.
The Players
As an example, let’s consider the AFL history creators.
The National Sports Museum captures the stories of individual players. Do you want to be remembered as an elite athlete by future generations? Make sure that you donate some items to the National Sports Museum.
Museum Victoria captures the history of sport within the community as opposed to focusing on elite sports. For example, Museum Victoria has in its collections an AFL hijab and the St Kilda jumper worn by Nicky Wenmar during this iconic moment in 1993.
As the cultural sector is strapped for resourcing, serendipity plays a big role. Museum Victoria senior curator, Dr. Moya McFadzean attended the first ever AFLW game. As a football lover herself, Moya recognized a watershed moment and arrived two hours before the first AFLW Carlton v Collingwood game. Luckily for us, Moya collected the available memorabilia to add to the Museum Victoria collection because even on weekends “curators never turn off”.
Whilst at the match, Moya collected any memorabilia that had been created by the AFL for the occasion but reflected that there actually hadn’t been a lot. This was a further indication that the AFL didn’t know what a success AFLW would be. Moya reflected that there might have been more memorabilia at future games, but she wasn’t there to collect those. Again, an example of serendipity.
Image: Rodney Start. Source: Museum Victoria
The Strategy
If the AFL had looked at the history of women’s AFL they would not have been caught by surprise by the general community’s interest in AFLW. It takes a 2 minute Google search to discover that in 1929 a women’s AFL game was attended by no less than 41,000 spectators.
Instead, “with the AFL’s seeming indifference to what had gone before, few clubs pitching for a women’s team in the new competition included any substantive historical links to bolster their bids” (Hess & Lenkić, 2017). If only these clubs had realized that history holds political and economic power!
Indeed, taking a more active interest in sporting history is hugely beneficial for sporting codes and sporting clubs, something which the strategic are taking advantage of to get ahead of the competition.
The Western Bulldogs recently created a relationship with Museum Victoria through the donation of;
“a collection which provides a snapshot of the Western Bulldogs Football Club in 2017. The collection includes early and recent sporting items relates to the evolving football careers of Lin Jong and Jason Johannisen, two of the AFLs higher profile emerging players, and ambassadors for cultural diversity in football for the AFL. It also includes guernseys representing the Western Bulldogs’ recognition of the diversification of AFL cultural and gender representation through guernseys from the 2017 Indigenous and Multicultural Rounds and a guernsey signed by the inaugural 2017 Western Bulldogs’ AFL Women’s team” (Museums Victoria Collections, 2017).
This proactive move ensures that the history of the Western Bulldogs club is being captured within a major Victorian cultural institution.
Strategic sports, sporting movements and sporting clubs are ensuring their place in history (not to mention getting free marketing) through the creation of these types of relationships. When we look back at the Indigenous rights and feminism movements in 20 years time, it is these collections (and Western Bulldogs colours) that will be shown in exhibitions, documentaries and history books.
The Game Changers: Diversity in Football exhibition has opened at the Immigration Museum and will be running until 15 October 2017. Visit the exhibition to see the items described in this article.
About the author:
Annelie De Villiers is a Research Archivist & PhD Candidate, interested in Indigenous archiving and the link between personal record-keeping and identity formation.
