Fred Joughin honoured with Australia Day honour

Fred Joughin, 82, has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the General Division for his services to soccer.

Joughin OAM is an institution at the University Soccer Club, which is 60 years old this year.

Joughin has been president and chairman of the club since 1959 and served on southern and state administrative bodies during the 1960s.

He has served on the board of the now defunct Southern Tasmanian Soccer Association and also on various committees, where he played leading roles.

He played regularly for University until he was 51, and after that, as often as he could, until he was 58.

“I played intermittently for the Grads team whenever I could persuade the coach to give me a run,” said Joughin, a lawyer by profession, but now retired.

Joughin has seen many changes and many fine players at the club over the past 60 years.

“We’ve had a lot of good, hard tackling, hard playing sides, including a very good side in the early 1960s with players such as Raja Ram, Aslam Buksh, Robert Surrendra, and a Swiss player, Fritz Hadorn," Joughin said.

“We were often known as Uno rather than Uni because we had players from many countries.

“We had a Sikh, who wore the special turban they use for playing sport, and a Fijian winger who discarded his boots after 20 minutes of his first game because he preferred to play in bare feet.

“The other teams complained because they were frightened of breaking his toes, but no-one ever did him any damage because he was too quick on his feet.”

Andy Galbraith, a centre-back, Jack Atkinson, an old-fashioned centre-half who never missed a ball in the air in three seasons, and goalkeeper Eddie Klassen were other great players to play for University, according to Joughin.

University is noted for the number of players who just seem to go on for ever, gradually dropping down through the ranks but remaining active as players.

Graham Smith, Tom Ballantyne, John Nicholson, Les Jackson, and Michael Thompson are just some who spring to mind.

“It’s a club with a great camaraderie and loyalty amongst the old players, and we have 30 life members,” said Joughin.

“There have been so many changes, from our first year when we struggled to put eleven players on the field, to now when we have more than half a dozen senior men’s and women’s team.

“The girl’s teams are very loyal and they do everything possible to help.

“When the club started, we played at Bell Street in New Town, where there was one tap in the middle of a paddock to wash the mud off ourselves, and the changing shed was as big as four telephone boxes, with a wooden partition down the middle to separate the opposing teams.

“I remember one team would always hit the booze for refreshment at half-time and we could hear them through the partition and, even if we were behind at that stage, we knew we’d beat them in the second half.”

And how long will Joughin stay as president?

“Until the boys decide they’re sick of me,” he said.