The Hawks Museum re-opened its doors on Tuesday, March 30. The first visitors to arrive since the enforced Covid lock down were members of Pat ‘Blue’ Keary’s family, Kel and his sisters, Maureen and Angela. Their father, Daniel was Blue Keary’s brother and they were on a mission to find out more about their uncle’s time at Hawthorn.
Pat ‘Blue’ Keary played in Hawthorn’s inaugural season in the VFL, 1925. He had four sisters, Sheelah, Josie, Dot, and Joan and two brothers, Frank and Daniel. Their mother first followed Hawthorn when the team was playing in the VFA and she instilled the Keary family tradition of only following the Brown and Gold. This tradition now stretches to five generations.
Adding to this strong family of Hawthorn supporters, Blue’s sister, Sheelah married one of his teammates, Wally Lathlain who played 17 games between 1928 and 1930. A second sister, Dot married long-serving trainer, Cyril Kiley who received Life Membership in 1953.
Blue’s youngest sister, Joan Newcombe, joined the Friends of the Hawks Museum at its inception in 1995 and visited the museum at Glenferrie regularly on Thursday afternoons. She was so proud of her brother Blue’s achievements that when she was presented with his HFC Debut Order Tie number 22 at the Inaugural Hall of Fame Function in 2003, she had it framed. On her next visit to the museum, Joan presented a large photo of Blue’s framed Debut Tie to the Club Collection. In later years, she joined up all her grandchildren as Friends of the Hawks Museum and would take them on guided tours of the museum, telling them how good her favourite players - Stan Spinks, Jimmy Bohan, Butch Prior, Peter Hudson and Johnny Platten - were. Joan was a very popular person with the ‘Friends’ circle. Sadly, she passed during Covid. Her funeral was shown on Zoom.
Over a period of more than two hours, the three family members, Kel, Maureen and Angela took photos of the team photo wall, the trophies and the guernseys on display. They also enlightened the curator on their family’s Hawthorn links, with a promise to return with more members of the extended Keary, Lathlain and Kiley families.
Kel delighted in telling a story of when his parents bought their first TV in 1956 to watch the Olympic Games, football soon took over. The extended family of the Kearys, Lathlains and the Kileys all crammed into the living room to watch the black and white vision of the football on the TV. They barracked hard and loud as though they were at the game. They booed the opposition and urged on the Hawks while adding some brazen comments on the umpiring.
Pat ‘Blue’ Keary was born in Richmond on October 10, 1901. He was recruited from the Hawthorn Juniors FC in 1925 - the year Hawthorn joined the VFL. He played the first of his 61 games against Collingwood in Round 3, 1925, becoming the 22nd player to represent the Club at senior level. Playing mainly in the back pocket, Keary, who rarely played forward, managed only one goal, which he kicked in the last game of 1927 against Richmond. He retired from playing in 1930. He was then associated with the 2nd 18 for over 20 years as coach, team manager, treasurer, and in recruiting. He was awarded Life Membership in 1941. In recognition of his service, the Club named its Reserves Best & Fairest award the Blue Keary trophy. One could argue that Keary instigated the importance of the Club’s famed guernsey number 23 as he wore this number in his last four years as a player.
