Roy Simmonds, Jack Hale and Harry E. Miller are three men honoured in 2013 for their contribution to the Club.
Find out more about the three new inductees below.
Roy Simmonds
Born: 29 December 1928Died: 9 August 2008
Recruited: Koondrook
Guernsey: 27
Debut: Round 12, 1950
Final game: Round 14, 1961
Played: 1950-1961
Games: 192
Goals: 78
Vice captain: 1955-1958
Best & Fairest: 1956
Second Best & Fairest: 1952, 1954
Third Best & Fairest: 1951, 1953, 1955, 1957
Most Brownlow votes: 1950
State games: 4
Match committee: 1971-1973
Reserves Coach: 1972-1973
Reserves Premiers: 1972
Hawthorn Life Member: 1959
Hawthorn Team of the Century: 2001
Simmonds is considered to be one of the great clubmen, famous for leading many a rendition of the club song with his banjo, very popular with both his teammates and fans alike. He was also one of the most consistent players to pull on a guernsey for the Hawks. He finished in the top three for seven consecutive years in the Best & Fairest, winning the award in 1956. Only Leigh Matthews and Michael Tuck have a better record of consistency at this level.
As a player he was versatile and courageous, being particularly strong and could play with equal effectiveness as a rover or in the back pocket. Simmonds was also fast and being strong would attack the ball fiercely, pushing the opposition aside and lifting the side with his inspiring dashes down the ground. The year he won the Best & Fairest he represented Victoria four times in the 1956 VFL Carnival. Sadly he missed a place in the 1961 premiership through injury. “Simmo” as he was popularly known as was the idol of the Hawks faithful; he became the face or the voice of Hawthorn through his role as a panel member on the popular radio show London Stores and the early years of TV’s World of Sport.
Simmonds served on the Match Committee for three years and was appointed coach of the Reserves in 1972, winning the Premiership that year. He was part of a group of players and officials who continued to give ongoing service to the Club from when they joined in 1950. Even when retired from official roles at the Club they continued to attend training to watch over their boys and offering their encouragement only when asked. His status as a player was rewarded when he as named on the Inter-change bench in Hawthorn’s Team of the Century in 2001.
Jack Hale
Born: 2 January 1913/1914
Died: 25 June 25, 2001
Reserves Coach: 1950
Senior Coach: 1952-1959
Games: 146
Hawthorn Life Member: 1959
As a player Hale played as a rover at Carlton, 1933 – 1941 including the 1938 premiership and only retired when he broke his leg. After coaching for two years with South Melbourne, Hale was appointed coach of the Hawthorn Reserves in 1950. He took over the senior coaching position from an ailing Bob McCaskill in 1952. As the first person to coach 100 games with Hawthorn, he is credited in putting the fight and spirit into the Hawks that saw them rise from last in 1952 to playing in their first finals appearance in 1957, thereby laying the foundations for the club’s first premiership in 1961.
It was often said that he taught the Hawks to hate defeat. He was also responsible for introducing the good-natured Protestant v Catholics banter at the Club that endured through a succession of coaches and typified the spirit that the Club built in later years. Considered by many of the playing group that he coached as the person along with his wife as the driving force responsible for creating and forging the values that Hawthorn the Family Club became renown for.
Harry E. Miller
Born: 1894Died: 1985
Club Trainer/Physiotherapist: 1925-1978
Hawthorn Life Member: 1947
Miller was one of the longest serving servants of the club. He was a very loyal and diligent worker for over 50 years, the greater part of it in the chopping-block era from when Hawthorn joined the VFL in 1925 through to the late 1950s, a time during which the club experienced virtually no success.
A veteran from Gallipoli where he was wounded and lost an eye during the First World War, Miller offered his services to the Hawthorn Football in 1924 the last year that the Club played in the Victorian Football Association. Miller was a great favorite with the players, renowned for his feathery touch when rubbing out the aches and pains with many a player. Somewhat of a father confessor he always had a bag of lollies in his pocket offered to relax the player or as “his boys” as he referred to the players when they came for his specialized treatment.
Of interest the museum has Miller’s rub down table, saved for prosperity by Club Identity, Andy Angwin and his 1925 membership ticket donated by his daughter-in-law, Jean Miller on permanent display.
