In a great start to Season 2021, Fitzroy teams battled it out for the first time beneath our new electronic scoreboard named in honour of club saviour and legend, Bill Atherton.

By Gabrielle Murphy

When it came to naming the new electronic scoreboard at Brunswick Street Oval, there was no contest. It had to be the Bill Atherton Scoreboard.

Over the years Bill has chalked up numerous wins of his own, on behalf of us all. Without him, there'd actually be no Fitzroy Football Club in the modern era, or a Fitzroy Junior Football Club for that matter.

And Bill wasn't just the saviour of our famous old club and seminal in the establishment of the Juniors - our crucial feeder club - he also personally built so many of the scoreboards we've relied on over the years to know the state of play.

It's been a long journey since the wilds of Ramsden Street in 1998 where the Reds had an old wreck of board and I decided to make a new one for them, says Bill Atherton.

It featured plastic sliding numbers and was also used by the Fitzroy Juniors for many years.

In 2000, Bill's hand-hewed scoreboard made its way to BSO. And when it was ultimately reconditioned to make way for the one in front of the ticket box, found pride of place as artwork on the wall of Celia Dowser, a Fitzroy parent who espied it driving past the ground, and rescued it from a skip.

It's been an incredible journey from the dark days of 1996 for the Fitzroy people, says Bill.

To think that Fitzroy now has seven senior football teams, underpinned by old FFC, the Reds, ACU and the Fitzroy Juniors.

No one could have ever planned that all those years ago. It has been a miracle.

With characteristic humility, Bill says that it's been his privilege to have been a part of a wonderful group of people who have worked so hard over the last 25 years, signing himself off as:

Your humble servant
Old Bill
Back Office

The thanks are all for you Bill. Club champion.