Sunbury’s Kevin Andrews was among those honoured at this year’s AFL Premiership Players Club stamp launch.
Each year the club committee selects 20 premiership players, coaches and umpires to feature on Australian postage stamps. This year’s group included some of the biggest names in the game, with the late great Norm Smith and John Coleman among them.
Andrews was honoured for his role as a goal umpire, specifically in the 1985 and 1986 grand finals. He umpired 114 VFL-AFL games in all.
And while Andrews made his name in football for his work between the posts, in 1959 the then 16-year-old penned what would become Essendon Football Club’s theme song.
At the time, Andrews was living with the parents of former Bomber Jeff Gamble.
“Every Friday night, there was a variety [television] show on called
Sunnyside Up,” Andrews said. “Jeff came over to visit his mum and dad one Saturday morning singing this [theme] song …instead of singing the first line of the song, he changed the words to ‘see the Bombers fly up, up’.
“I asked … for a writing pad [and] started to pen the words to what is now known as the Bombers’ theme song.”
