"Seven sporting legends have now been immortalized by statues at the MCG, none more emotionally than the unveiling of the tribute to Haydn Bunton on Saturday.

The sight of the former Fitzroy champion in full flight - he now sits alongside Don Bradman, Ron Barassi, Betty Cuthbert, Keith Miller, Dick Reynolds and Shirley Strickland, with Leigh Matthews, Dennis Lillee and Bill Ponsford yet to complete the great stadium's Parade of Champions - thrilled the Lions' old-timer because they can now be certain that their colours will fly there forever.

"To see that Guernsey up there is very, very important," said one of Fitzroy's greatest stalwarts, former star player, captain and coach Bill Stephen, 77. "It brought a tear to my eye."

Brownlow meddalist Kevin Murray didn't cry, but the look of sheer pleasure on his face as he listened to the speeches at the lunchtime ceremony said it all.

The Lions live.

Several hundred of the faithful, including the last two presidents, Leon Wiegard and Dyson Hore-Lacy, turned out for the ceremony, some wearing their old maroon and blue guernseys, just as the Brisbane Lions - the last link with Fitzroy - were preparing to do inside against Hawthorn.

Bunton's sons, Haydn Jr, 68, and David, 66, and a third generation, another Haydn, were guests of honour at the MCC committee's lunch.

It is 50 years since Bunton died in a car crash at the tragically young age of 44, long enough ago that his legend has been allowed to fade.

It shouldn't, because not only was he one of the finest footballers ever to play but, from all accounts, a fine man, too, way ahead of his time in trying to combat racism.

Five years ago, historian and folk singer Ken Mansell wrote and recorded The Ballad of Haydn Bunton, the words of which contain edgy references to the champions relationship with Pastor Doug Nicholls, a fine Aboriginal footballer who starred with Fitzroy after an unhappy stint at Carlton, where he was shunned by other players simply because he was black.

The song tells how Carlton "… wouldn't let him in, no one saw his blinding pace, just the colour of his skin". "Haydn Bunton offered to be his friend, and when Nicholls was accepted by him, he was accepted by all the Fitzroy players.

Haydn Bunton was a great human being," Mansell said. The song also refers to Bunton the footballer as "the best we'll ever see" - and that mightn't be far off the mark, either, although there aren't many people still around who could provide first-hand testimony.

You only have to look at the stats, though. He was the first to win three Brownlows, two of them in his first two years. He averaged better than one vote for each of his 119 games, and was also runner-up once.

Weigard told the crowd Bunton should have won four. In 1934, he dominated the last game and as he walked off the ground he made a flippant remark to famous umpire, Jack McMurray, along the lines of: "That wasn't bad today, Jack."

"Never try to bribe an umpire," McMurray apparently replied - and left him out of the votes. Bunton lost the medal to Dick Reynolds by one vote. And his great run might have started earlier except he was barred for a year because Geelong complained Fitzroy had broken the rules by lending him a car to get to training.

As the afternoon wore on and Hawthorn inflicted an old-fashioned thrashing on the men in the Fitzroy guernseys, the faithful were wishing the former No. 7 could materialize out in the middle.

But at least he - and his famous old club - are now a permanent feature of football's finest stage, as they should be. "