Even when Albert Thurgood was inducted as an inaugural member into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996, he remained a mystery to most fans.
He was an Essendon (Victorian Football Association) and Fremantle (West Australian Football Association) champion - before the Victorian Football League was formed in 1897.
He was renowned for his goalkicking exploits in two states and for his long kicking - his longest recorded kick was about 107 yards (97.8m) on June 22, 1899.
Named in Essendon's Hall of Fame and Team of the Century in 1997, he was ranked No.9 in the club's list of its 25 greatest players released in 2002.
Although he played only 46 games in the VFL, he dominated for six years in the VFA and the WAFA before the VFL started, and was named Champion of the Colony in 1893-94. During that span (1892-97), he led the competition goalkicking every season and played in five premierships in six seasons.
He was universally recognised as the best player in the country, having also played for Essendon in a match in Adelaide.
Inevitably, because of the era in which he played, the modern perception of a great such as Thurgood has been confined to short descriptions of his characteristics and exploits. It's only when you begin to explore the name in depth that the person comes to life, his career both brilliant and controversial, his life one of achievement and adventurewell beyond that of a footballer.
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Thurgood's father, the London-born John Joseph Thurgood, is likely to have arrived in Melbourne with his younger brother, James,in 1865 on the Norfolk ship from Plymouth. The voyage took 140 days.
John was the son of William Thurgood, a builder, and Ann from Middlesex, London. John married another British immigrant, the London-born Amelia Buckland, in 1869 and they lived in Errol Street, Hotham, (later known as North Melbourne).
On January 11, 1874, Albert Thurgood was born in Hotham.
John passed awayat home in 1881 aged 41 when Albert was just seven, the young boy joining the funeral parade along dirt roads to Melbourne Cemetery on September 17, 1881.
His mother remarried Wiltshire John Machen, the ceremony held at the All Saints Church in Hobart in February of 1884, marking the beginning of a new chapter for the youngster.
Although the marriage was in Hobart, the family was to remain in Melbourne.
Soon enough Albert was enrolled in Crowther Grammar School (which later became Brighton Grammar).
Read the full story in this week’s AFL Record, available at both preliminary finals.
