MORE than 35 years after Footscray nearly merged with Fitzroy, Ross Oakley jokes that the iconic bumper stickers Up Yours Oakley helped save the Bulldogs. The former VFL CEO isn't being serious, but believes that period encapsulates the spirit of the blue collar club.

In the weeks after the famous 1989 Grand Final, a debt-ridden Footscray was presented with two options by the VFL: become the Fitzroy Bulldogs or become extinct. 

Footscray was bankrupt and on the verge of being placed into administration at the time when the VFL had the unenviable task of making a change, at a stage when the League was expanding to become a national competition. 

The club was granted the chance to raise the required funds for survival after a legal battle was waged. In the space of just three weeks, more than $1.6 million was raised through a variety of methods, most memorably bumper stickers that also read Merge Oakley into outer space and quickly spread across the western suburbs of Melbourne and beyond. 

Now Footscray, which changed its name to the Western Bulldogs at the end of 1996 to market to a wider region of the west, will celebrate 100 years in the VFL/AFL in Friday night's centennial fixture against Collingwood at the MCG. 

"I jovially say, 'I saved the Footscray Football Club because they raised a lot of money from the Up Yours Oakley bumper stickers'," Oakley told AFL.com.au this week ahead of the anniversary game. 

"They needed something to fire them up. The passion was there, but they were almost asleep at the wheel. They had had a bit of a financial campaign running for a year and a half at that time and they'd raised $20,000 or $30,000. 

"It wasn't until the board said we are in terrible trouble here, let's take an offer from the League to get this done; Fitzroy was of the same mind that the passions all of a sudden came to the fore. 

"It really demonstrated what Australian Football is all about. They owned this club and they weren't going to give it up easily. That passion is so important in our game, it always has been. They raised a lot of money at that time through not just supporters, sponsors, the government and important people – that's really what saved them."

Oakley was comfortable playing the villain. The League didn't necessarily want the merger, but it was considered the only course of action at the time. It was a bloody battle, but the leadership of the club's two leaders – president Peter Gordon and CEO Dennis Galimberti – plus passionate supporter Irene Chatfield changed everything.

"It was a done deal until Peter Gordon and Irene Chatfield intervened," Oakley said. "They were having a meeting and there was some concern if they get sued by the League they had a lot to lose these individuals. Irene Chatfield said, 'Use me as the one because I don't have any money and they can sue me for all I've got, which is nothing'. That's why she became the focus of the whole lawsuit. 

"Peter Gordon was critical in saving the club. It was his knowledge, legal expertise, all that came to the fore and he wasn't going to let go for anything. He knew what was required. He had to fire his supporters up and get them in behind the club. I was used as the tool to do that, which is understandable. 

"We had some interesting moments then, but Peter and I are good mates now. We both understand our relative positions at that time and what we both had to do. We can sit there and have a bit of a laugh and joke about it now."

Footscray coach Luke Beveridge has always invested in the storied history of the club, connecting the past with the present in many ways, including via Chatfield, who has been handwriting him letters for years.

"Irene Chatfield, when you think of her place in our history, I said to our players this morning we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Irene. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for many others, but to think for someone who thought they could make a difference absolutely has,” Beveridge said on Thursday.

"Irene writes me a letter every week and she expects that I read that out to the playing group. I read her letter out this morning. It was a hard copy, and traditionally they have always been hard copies. She hasn't been too well, but a friend of hers emailed me a scanned letter. This morning I read her letter out and it was magnificent, beautiful and quite quirky. We soak that up."

Oakley, who is now 82, was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame as an administrator for his integral role in growing the game. That growth came at a cost in Victoria, with Fitzroy eventually merging with the Brisbane Bears, while Melbourne and Hawthorn also came close to merging in 1996. 

Amid the fervour of the 'Fightback' campaign, the Up Yours Oakley stickers were the least of the boss' problems. Oakley required 24-hour security at his family home in Wheelers Hill. He copped death threats, violent outbursts and his children were persecuted at school. 

"It was pretty bloody ordinary really. It shows while passion for your football team is fine, you can take it over the top with some people," he said. 

"The guards at home had to remove a guy from our property one night, which was a little bit scary. I didn't tell the kids that, they were fast asleep. 

"We had to be very careful with the kids going to school. They had to be escorted to school. My son was bashed by one of the kids at school. It was pretty tough, to be honest. My daughter was upset that all this public tension was placed on me and how ugly it got. All the kids were. 

"I had a few death threats. They were handled by Ros Desmond my PA. She did a fantastic job handling all that on the phone. She was my gatekeeper. She didn't let too many of those things get through to me. We all copped it at the League during the time."

The League was based in Jolimont near the MCG back then and only had 60 employees. Since the VFL became the AFL in 1990, the competition has expanded from 12 teams to 18. Expansion clubs in Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland have grown the reach of the game. AFL House has grown exponentially. And the Bulldogs still exist. 

They are no longer known as Footscray, although they have reverted back to that name this week, but the Bulldogs spirit is stronger than ever. Oakley is thrilled the club survived and is now thriving at a time when they celebrate a significant milestone.  

"We were actually quite delighted in a sense they were able to muster the enormous strength and support they got," he said.

"It encouraged us that this club could survive because the western suburbs was very important to the League. It was a massive issue to see a team not playing out of the western suburbs. 

"I'm quite delighted that they have not just reached 100 years in the League, but are healthy and thriving."

Beveridge is one of just two men to coach the Bulldogs to an AFL premiership, after iconic club figure Charlie Sutton in 1954. He was a central figure to that special month in 2016, but like many, the 54-year-old believes 1989 is the moment that epitomises Footscray's special spirit. 

"Every club who plays in this competition would love to have as many premiership cups in their cupboards as Essendon, Carlton and the Pies," Beveridge said. "No one would every say anything different; we've only got the two and they are quite special. The struggle and the fight to survive to exist, the hardiness, the blue-collar aspect of the football club, I know people are proud of that."

Beveridge was just 19 and playing for Melbourne when the Up Yours Oakley stickers swept across Melbourne. He didn't have one, but Oakley still sees one every day. His son still has one on his bumper. A reminder of a period that galvanised the Bulldogs.