Photo copyright Tim Webster, courtesy of the City of Yarra
The scoreboard at Victoria Park, the spiritual home of Collingwood Football Club, was pulled down on February 10 2011. The former home ground fortress is being opened up to the community to the tune of a $7.2million redevelopment.
“It’s like a part of me is getting destroyed, really,” former scoreboard attendant Bob Hill told the Herald Sun last September.
“I’m not too happy with it being knocked down. It’s history, isn’t it?”
The scoreboard at the Trennery Crescent end of the ground was built in 1966 and used bicycle chain mechanisms to turn over the numbers.
Photo copyright Tim Webster, courtesy of the City of Yarra
The Herald Sun reported that Mr Hill, a Collingwood-born 69-year-old, and a 48-year Magpies member, started work on the turnstiles to pay the rego on his old Holden. When a scoreboard operator died, he was offered that job.
“I said ‘Too right I’ll do it. I’d like to see all the game’.”
Mr Hill started on Visitors, but another death saw him elevated to Pies scorer. He did the last Collingwood game, at Victoria Park in 1999, a dark day that ended with a rare wooden spoon. (The scoreboard read: Collingwood 8.4 (52) Bris.Lions 13.16 (94) )
Photo copyright Tim Webster, courtesy of the City of Yarra
Photo copyright David Collopy
Photo copyright David Collopy
Victoria Park currently has generic boundary line scoreboards, diagonally opposite each other, for local matches.
As for the site of the scoreboard that was Bob Hill’s Saturday home for 30 seasons, there will be a sculpture measuring about three metres by five metres.
See Victoria Park’s scoreboard sculpture This page also includes photos of the demolition of the 1966 Collingwood scoreboard.
See Scoreboard quotes for a Gavin Brown quote from 2010, plus another pic.
The new scoreboard at Victoria Park was unveiled on 4 December 2011, at a ‘community celebration’ day to mark the redevelopment of the ground. And given that electronic scoreboards can be pretty intrusive, credit must be given where credit is due. This modern scoreboard looks okay.
Herald Sun material from Wednesday September 15 2010, page 13, Score it another loss to progress by Terry Brown
David Collopy is a Collingwood resident (but not a Collingwood supporter). “I have been documenting the area for quite a few years since moving to Collingwood in 1992. I took a sequence of shots around the ground as I feel that our recollections of things that once were quickly fades.
“Standing in the middle of the ground you can’t help but think back to the black and white television footage of VFL matches with the city skyline in the background. Was it really such a comparatively short time ago that footy was played there?”
Scoreboard pressure 
hi great site. I am looking for any part of the old scoreboard from princess park would pay good money for right parts. 0450481594 thanks brad
Well, the Council have commissioned for an artist to use parts of the Victoria Park scoreboard for public art, or as they’d say, an artistic installation.
Why didn’t they just look after what was already there … that fantastic scoreboard was the best installation imaginable, and it belonged to Collingwood people.
Now it’s been pulled apart, in our name, to give us art as they interpret it.
I’ve got unbelievable treasures from Victoria Park, and I’ll be damned if I’d allow some artist to re-make them into something other than what they already are … icons, pure & simple. And loved as they are.
[…] reading: Scoreboard Pressure’s earlier page about the Victoria Park scoreboard WP_SLIDESHOW_IMAGES = { load: […]
[…] which now stands in its place, check out Vin Maskell’s blog Scoreboard Pressure. Click here for the old scoreboard and here for a piece on how the new sculpture was […]