History

The East Brighton Football Club has been kicking the footy around since 1948. The club played its first four years at Dendy Park and relocated to Hurlingham Park in 1952.

Whilst there was a suggestion of adopting the Collingwood or South Melbourne colours for the “strip”, the committee settled on a red jumper with a white “V” and collar, red socks and black shorts. The design changed the following season to the then South Melbourne colours but reverted back to its original format in 1955…and we have been wearing the original mighty Vampire jumper since.

Our first senior premiership came in 1966 after two unsuccessful attempts in 1955 and 1964. They followed up with another two grand final appearances in 1967 and 1968, finally snatching another premiership flag in 1973. We have played in a further nine grand finals, securing the ultimate prize in 1973, 1976, 1988, 1991 and 1993, 2002 and our most recent achievement, the 1st Division Premiership 2004,runners up in 2005 and 2011. 1st Division Premiership 2012.

The reserves tasted success a little earlier with a flag in 1962 and have followed up with a further five flags in 1964, 1966, 1972, 1976 and 1988.

A comprehensive history of the Club and its involvement at Hurlingham Park covering the first 50 years of the Club was compiled by a dedicated team of members led by Ross McCulloch. This involved many hours of research and accessing old City of Brighton archives and similar records. Its 192 pages make interesting reading, not only from the footy club perspective but a as general insight into the history of the area. Hurlingham park for instance was once a racetrack.

The whole document cannot be posted here because of the file size, but we have attached a small extract so you can see the type of material it contains. If you would like a copy of the full document on CDROM in PDF format please ask any Club officer or email the Club secretary via secretary@thevampires.org