James Cuming and the Footscray Football Club

Footscray Football Club (now The Western Bulldogs) has won 11 premierships – one [in 2016] with the AFL, one [in 1954] with the VFL, and nine as ‘the Tricolours’ with the VFA (Victorian Football Association), four of the first nine under the presidency of James Cuming. The length of James’ presidency (1895–1911) still stands as the club record.

At the end of the 1895 season he gave a banquet for 150 players and supporters of the Footscray and Williamstown clubs. His son James, speaking as ‘an old footballer [who] had done battle often for the honor of Footscray’, proposed the toast to ‘Our Noble Game’. His father admitted that ‘he knew little of the game, but thought a friendly match would bring the Footscray and Williamstown teams together and aid the charities’. Although he said he had been ‘pitch-forked’ into the presidency, he came to champion the game and to relish his role.

When the Club gave him a great send-off as he left on an overseas trip in 1896, James said ‘He had been greatly interested in the struggles of the Football Club amidst [its] great drawbacks. Many of the best men had gone West [from depressed Victoria to the West Australian goldfields], and the club had not been as successful as he wished it in the past season. . . . He was going to the old country, but ‘although absent, his sympathy would be with the boys of Footscray in all their sports and athletics. (Great cheering)’.

‘The Boys’ came top in 1898. James’ daughter Grace unveiled Footscray’s first premiership flag, and James arranged a lavish celebratory dinner and smoke night at Footscray’s Royal Hall. To rapturous applause, Mayor Warne toasted him as ‘one of the biggest hearted men in the district’ and ‘one of Footscray’s greatest friends. If it were not for his liberal support and influence, the Footscray footballers would hardly have a ball to kick’. The Footscray Independent described James as ‘a real live president to be proud of, and not a mere figure head’. The Club presented him with a magnificent illuminated address, his photographic portrait framed by a horseshoe honoring his origins as a farrier and the good fortune he had brought as President.

The Club won a second premiership in 1899, and were heading for a third in 1900. James was again overseas, but always hungry for news of the team’s fortunes. ‘Remember me to all my friends,’ he wrote in a letter published in the Footscray Independent on 7 July, ‘and tell “My Boys” I am often thinking about them, and “blowing” about them when I get anyone to listen to me. Tell them that they have my prayers every Saturday, and that I would give something for the last edition of the Herald.’ A fortnight later: ‘I observe by the local papers that Collingwood were a bit too good for “my boys,” but I think we have a strong team in the field and I hope to hear good news of them every mail.’ In August a letter from Scotland advised ‘I have just received the Independent of 26th of May and . . . notice with pleasure that “our boys” are shaping well so far. North Melbourne, which used to be so strong, appears to have gone to the bad since the “Crutchy Push” [larrikins wielding crutches as weapons] took them under their wing. . . . I hope our lads won’t get careless through their first easy success, for there is no doubt that such successes have a tendency to make a team negligent.’

In October he wrote of his joy on returning to London from the Continent to find a ‘Footscray Premiers’ cablegram: ‘It was fourteen days old when I got it, but it was glad news anytime. My last news was after their match with Ports [Port Melbourne]. I would have liked to have been there . . . I am all anxiety to get the account of the great game between them and Williamstown, which I suspect was the deciding match, but I will get that along with other news at New York. I hope the boys . . . have been given a good time, for they are keeping our village well to the front. . . . Give them all my best wishes––I am proud of them.’ He had left instructions that if the boys won the premiership, their victory was to be celebrated at his expense.

James arrived home just before Christmas 1900. Early in the New Year the Club gave him a welcome home to celebrate their ‘hat trick’ as Premiers for 1898, 1899 and 1900. Presented with the silver tea-set they had won, James said ‘Mr Chairman, gentlemen and “my boys.” I cannot find words to express my thanks, you have surprised me altogether. I am not deserving of this presentation. . . . if you didn’t give it to [the club secretary], you might have given it to your captain, Dave De Coite, that is if he is married. (Oh, he’s married). Very well, then he should have it. My heart was with you all the time I was away. [When my agents in London received the cablegram “Footscray Premiers”] they didn’t understand what that meant, and it took me about half an hour to make them comprehend. (Laughter). . . . He saw a game of football in America, and he was disgusted with it, and he advised his friends to come to Footscray, so that they could see a proper game of football played. (Applause.)’

James was in New York again in 1908 when the Club secretary cabled the news of another Footscray Premiership. He was home by December, entertaining the team and supporters, presenting the players with their premiership medals, and placing a gold sovereign on each medal as the players came forward.

On James’ death in 1911, Club players, officials and supporters joined Cuming Smith’s employees to lead the funeral procession to the Footscray cemetery.

James’ presidency had been remarkable not only for its length but for the spirit of manly sportsmanship and good fellowship that he championed. May those qualities distinguish the club and its players as they face the challenge of the 2021 Grand Final!!

by John Lack