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History of the Hobart Olympic Soccer Club 1957-1999

Hobart Olympic were originally founded in 1957 as ‘The Grecians’ and in their first competitive season only entered the annual knockout cup. One year later the club, under the new name of ‘Olympia’, were accepted into the southern division two and won the title, but did not gain promotion into division one due to a format change.

The club then amalgamated with City-United from division one and changed their name to City Olympia. By the end of 1960 however, the club had dropped the ‘city’ from their title. In 1997 the club conformed with the changes imposed by the administration naming the club ‘Hobart Olympic’.

J.Kalis, G.Valotis, M.Kenydis, and I.Skoulakis were instrumental in the forming of a Greek Community based soccer side from the Hobart area in those early years. In 1959 John Zurazjek coached the team (City-Olympia) to success with captain, Chris Syrginis, a big influence on the field. By 1960 they had laid the foundations for future success backed by a well organised committee managed by John Kalis.

The following year, the club made the final of the Association Cup, losing 2-0 to Rapid. Ted Huddlestone had signed from Hobart Rangers and Harry Alexiadis had arrived at the club from Melbourne. Both went on to represent Tasmania. They were signed by committeeman, Bill Casimaty, who could see then the long-term potential for the club.

The following year Barry Shacklady signed from Metro Claremont with Dick Girling and Alan Hall from the great Caledonian side. The loyal Greek supporters didn’t have long to wait before their first taste of success, but no one was prepared for how successful the club would be.

In those incredible years from 1960 to 1968, Olympia were southern premiers in 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1968, State title winners in 1965, 1966, and 1968, Ampol Cup winners in 1964 and 1968, Falkinder Cup winners in 1963, 1965 and 1967 and Association Cup winners in 1967 and 1968.

Remarkable years indeed for a club not yet 10 years old. The club’s squad, many of them state and souther representatives, oozed talent; Ioannou, Roussos, Syrginis, Vagianos, Quinn, Robertson, Kroustalis, Schwesinger, Hall, MacMillan, Petropoulos, Shacklady, Alexiadis, Girling, Whittaker, Richards, and Huddlestone.

Olympia went on to represent Tasmania in the Australia Cup after winning the state title in 1966, but went down to the more fancied Adelaide Juventus (Adelaide City) 3-0 in the first round of the national knockout competition. From thar game however, Harry Alexiadis was spotted and chosen to represent Australia against Peru. Also, the highly skilled Laki Vagianos, moved on the play for Adelaide HAllas after the South Australian visit for a large transfer fee. During the successful sixties, the name John Kalis was synonymous with the Greek backed club. He would be urging local sponsorship deals and even turned up to training nights to ‘help out’ in anyway he could. Kalis became a legend at Olympia. Nothing was too much trouble for him, encouraging players, helping the committee and generally always working for the club.

On the field of play, there was another popular figurehead, Dick Girling, affectionately known by the supporters as ‘Mr Magic’. His tricks on the field with the ball were only surpassed by his untiring energy for 90 minutes. He could lift his side, especially in crucial moments during a game. To his credit, Dick captained the club to three state titles, four southern titles and three Ampol Cup wins between 1963 and 1972.

F.A Agoston (the inaugural coach); Alex Sarfalvy (1963 – 1966 – The ‘Golden Years’) and Peter Cagialis (the ‘Re-Builder’) have been other influential coaches down the years. More recently, Ken Morton (1986 – 1988), helped Olympia to lift the elusive title one more time in 1987 after taking out the 1986 pre-season trophy. Nine years later, Olympia took out the 1996 title in the final year of ethnic names under the guidance of coach Dave Crosson. Other noteworthy players at the club have been; Brian McKay, Tommy Wright, Chris Hey, Darby Conlan, Ronnie Bolton, Michael Berwick, Roger Munroe, Perry Forster, Paul Xanthopoulos and Craig Nichols.

In the ninties, Olympic once again seemed to be always on the verge of dominating the game, but without much success until 1996. The reserves won their respective title in 1986 and 1987.

In the final state league in 1999 Hobart Olympic finished fifth but managed to gain a ‘grand-finals’ berth through the revamped “finals-series”. Coach Peter Vafakos did well to lift his charges at a crucial time of the season with striker Ivan Zilic in outstanding form throughout the season.

Credits:

With thanks to Chris Hudson, author of :A Century of Soccer, A Tasmanian History, for his permission to reproduce part of this work.