Waterloo Grammar School Old Boys Club History

Waterloo GSOB have been very lucky in that a treasure trove of meticulously kept records were passed down by Fred B. Davidson and Authur H. Winn, who assisted in founding the club on the 7th December 1924 (a number of games were played the previous year). Back then the club name was Waterloo with Seaforth Secondary School Old Boys FC, before changing it to its current name in 1932.

A recent trawl through archives revealed many hidden gems, such as a detailed record of the 1937 season donated by Sam Charles, as well as a list of team captains duties from the late 1920's. This list included tending of the gas lamps after the match and provision of the half time lemons. A practice worth reinstating?

Links are maintained with the Grammar School Old Boys association by Eddie Jones and Lol Sinclair, our current chair and vice chair respectively. The football section formed the association in 1937. Many of the legendary names from the early years have sadly passed away in recent years, but many past players fondly remember Dick Thompson, Ted Toby, Ernie Coutts and Stan Vaughan. For many decades they remained staunch Saturday supporters through all kinds of weather and styles of play! In recent years, like many local clubs, we have reduced our playing strength from 7 senior teams to 4. In the combination we are proud to be regular winner of the fair play trophy and were able to purchase the old shield for our Brownmoor Lane clubhouse.

Post war the club was restarted by W.B. Cowie, following up the good work of Oscar Fowler. 1974 saw the Golden Jubilee Dinner held at the sadly missed Blundellsands Hotel and attended by 122 of the many thousands of former players who have donned the glorious black and white colours. As Dick Thompson was often quoted, If its good enough for England….

Over the years we have had great fun touring such places diverse places as West Hoefflen in Germany, the Isle of Man and in 1982, the Cayman Islands – while there the club played against the national side and one player Rob Marchbank, married his fiancé at a surprise wedding!

Waterloo's good club spirit has seen players remain at the club for 10, 15, 20 years and more, although never quite living up to their potential and winning lots of trophies, outstanding individual performances have been there for all to see. If we can leave you with just one thought… some players may be downright ugly but it can still be a beautiful game! Keep supplying the Corinthian spirit and ENJOY!!