Years on Committee and Positions Held

Maureen started work for the Gymea Bay kids in 1972.  She held various positions on the GUFC (GUJSC as it was known) Committee including Publicity Officer using the old Gestetner Printing Machine – where their kids and a group of diehard mums used to have to manually collate the old news sheets for each player of the club whilst drinking cups of tea and home made cakes.

Maureen was also Social Secretary and Assistant Secretary.
Apparently Maureen in her time as Publicity Officer used to include a little poem in each edition of the news sheet “singing the praises” of other members of the club. Maureen never revealed the victim (sorry I mean subject) of these Odes. It was challenging to those who read them to see if they could guess “The Name”.

Terry always a step or two behind Maureen (just ask Maureen) joined the GUFC Committee in 1973. Like Maureen, Terry held a number of different positions at GUFC including Delegate to the SSFA and Organiser of the Pre-Season Trials. By far Terry’s most outstanding achievement was an astonishing 13 years as the Club Secretary.

Maureen and Terry were both made Life Members of GUFC in the early 1980’s (1979 committee photo – Maureen is far left/bottom row; Terry is 2nd right/bottom row). Maureen must have slowed up temporarily to let Terry catch up. She was a year after Terry. The Giant of the year was introduced and Terry was very proud to be one of the early recipients of this. President Rob Glass being the first.

During their long association with the Club, an association that still continues today all four of Maureen and Terry’s children Steven, Kevin, Greg, and Susie have played for GUFC.
Indeed all of their grandchildren have also spent time in the green and white –
Susie’s 4 kids – Rebecca, Emily, Jackson, Chelsea; and
Greg’s 3 kids – Zac, Ashton and Ben.
At one stage there were 3 generations of Hibbins’ terrorising opposition teams within the SSFA.

Terry coached a team at GUFC continuously between 1972 and 2014 – 42 Years!  For much of this time Maureen acted as manager for the same team or for another team containing one of the Hibbins’ clan.

Favourite Memories

At 5 years of age Susie Hibbins was selected to be a flower girl at the very prestigious SSJFA Miss Soccer Pageant. Susie’s partner and page boy was Glen Ottaway. The event was as usual an outstanding success … but there was one serious concern. Apparently a certain flower girl was particularly miffed with the present she received for her contribution to the pageant. This particular flower girl, who I will not name,     received a lovely dolly for her efforts. This may seem to the reader as an age appropriate and thoughtfully given gift for such an event. However there was hell to pay apparently when our unnamed flower girl discovered her page boy partner had been provided cool hard cash in a brand new wallet for his efforts.

Enter Susie again. On reaching school Maureen and Terry fully expected Susie to return home from school full of beans after her first afternoon of school sport. Imagine their confusion when Susie returned head down and completely out of sorts. When they inquired as to the reason for Susie’s demure it was all they could do to hide their amusement when Susie quite put out exploded “Dad that school plays on your oval”!!!

One of the less famous members of the Hibbins family previously unmentioned in this piece was the family dog Blondie. Apparently Blondie used to attend soccer meetings and provided most of the sensible inputs to the meeting. Anyone blessed with attending a GUFC management meeting across the decades would sympathise with this view. Blondie also has her paw prints pressed into the canteen steps to honour her contribution to the club. As the Hibbins had young kids at the time a number of management meetings would be held at the Hibbins home so that the kids could get a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately while this arrangement was put in place with good intentions after much vigorous debate, and perhaps the odd vino and lager, it was usually up to the kids to close the meeting and kick the committee out of the house.

One of the Maureen and Terry’s favourite memories of GUFC involves cross dressing. It seems there was a period in the clubs development where this sort of behaviour was rife. The annual Dads vs Mums game was the highlight event celebrating this sub culture within the Club. Terry is pictured in the 1979 ‘Dads Team’ – he is in the front row with the ball.

Maureen also had the privilege of playing in the first GUFC ladies team competing in the Revesby Soccer Club Mothers Tournament for Gymea with Sid Slingsby as coach … an event Gymea won in its first year!

Terry and Maureen also have wonderful memories of their time involved with our current O35A team. You would not know to look at them now but this team is very well credentialed having won numerous premierships, State Cups and Champions of Champions. The Hibbins have great memories of State Cup weekend trips to all parts of the State. Apparently it was only on reaching Over 35’s when the team started addressing Terry as Terry (previously Mr Hibbo) and Maureen as Maureeen (previously Mrs Hibbo). The Hibbins’ put this down to the good manners of the gentlemen involved. I think it more likely they are just a bit slow on the up take.

Terry played along with a few other “old members” of the club in the inaugural Over 35 competition when it began all those years ago. Which they were very proud to WIN and Terry has been an avid supporter of this division, either as a player or as a coach or as a parent, to son Greg who is a current member.

Achievements

Terry is responsible for one of the great institutions at GUFC, the Boomerang Bar. Terry, with David Birch, commenced operations and they were soon joined by (Uncle) Harry Johnson. The Bar has seen many stories of football genius retold, reshape and enhanced over the years it has also inspired a few tales of its own.

The name of the ‘Grasswatchers’ who have held a “meeting” every Friday afternoon at Gymea Bay Oval for some 40 odd years. ‘Grasswatchers’ was originally named because Terry’s children used to ask where did Dad go each Friday and the answer was “To Watch the Grass Grow”.  Many famous Gymea men have been or are still part of this special group.

What message would you like to give to current GUFC members

“Just to focus on spending time with your kids, time travels very fast, the garden, the house and all the rest can wait”.

You will receive much more happiness and satisfaction watching your kids and/or grand kids play the World Game than you would painting and decorating.

You will also, like Maureen and Terry, make lifelong friends.

Please note: the above Hibbins Life Member Memoir was ghost written by Michael Blumor (LM).  Thank you MB