"...Melbourne University Football Club was founded in 1859, but had disbanded and reformed several times by 1908 when, with Richmond, it was admitted to the VFL, first sharing the East Melbourne ground with Essendon, then playing at the MCG. It lasted seven increasingly lean years before the overwhelming toll of war and study commitments on its players forced it out of the competition.

By 1928, the university club had become so powerful in the amateurs that it was fielding two teams, the Blues and the Blacks - playing in identical guernseys - and from 1955 there was a third team, the Reds. The Blacks won 12 premierships, and their 1940s halcyon era has been matched only by Old Xaverians, which won six consecutive flags in the 1990s.

The picturesque university ground, set in a crescent of stately colleges overseen by Ormond College's clock tower, became a powerhouse of amateurs football. "If a Blacks player is having a bad day, at least he can enjoy the superb surroundings," the club website still notes.

Latter years have been tougher. The Blacks slipped to the nether regions before fighting back this season to lie second in D section. The Blues remain in A section, under former Fitzroy great Mick Conlan, but have played in one grand final in 20 years. The club retains its split identity, periodic merger talks break down and the subject is touchy. For the sake of next month's festivities, at least, they are the Melbourne University Football Club United.

The Reds, tired of the inquisition of university authorities about the number of undergraduates in its team, left in 1997 to inhabit the body of Fitzroy. They now play as the Fitzroy Reds, in Fitzroy guernseys, at Fitzroy's old Brunswick Street ground, with Fitzroy's imprimatur, and when they won the D3 section premiership in 2001, were paraded at Brunswick Street on the morning the Brisbane Lions brought the AFL premiership cup there. The Reds' team of the century will be feted at next month's function. So will be a subsidiary university team of the modern era, consisting of players who did not move on to the AFL/VFL.

The wife of one modern-era candidate told me she was puzzled by his attachment to his amateur alma mater. I think it is easily explained. Many footballers have deeper feelings for their junior clubs, where they played because they were wanted, than their VFL/AFL clubs, where they played because they were sent. It is like the difference between a hobby and a job."