Graham Bell has been involved with TooradinDalmore Football Club for 50 years after joining the club’s committee at the age of 18.By Marc McGowan
GRAHAM Bell has been a fixture at the TooradinDalmore Football Club for 50 years and hasn’t shown any signs of lessening his role.
“I just love footy,” he said.
“Tooradin has been the club I’ve been involved with and I haven’t really thought about going anywhere else.”
Mr Bell has become such a fixture at the club that he is known simply as ‘Doc’, rather than Graham.
“A lot of people wouldn’t know me as anything but Doc,” he joked.
It’s been his nickname for so long that he doesn’t even know how he copped the tag.
Mr Bell debuted for the club as an 11yearold in junior football, but his career came to an end after accidentally stepping in a pothole on the boundary during a match and ruining his knee.
He wasn’t fortunate enough to play in a premiership, but managed to play some interleague games, something he’s fairly modest about.
“There were better players than me around,” he said.
Fortunately for TooradinDalmore, his passion for football was such that he was eager to fill any role he could to stay involved and joined the committee at just 18 years of age.
“I wanted to be involved in footy. I couldn’t play anymore, so I decided I’d do this," he said.
His love for football is so strong that he even has a soft spot for the umpires.
“If it happened now [his knee injury] you’d probably get involved in umpiring. I have a lot of admiration for umpires, with all the abuse they cop over the fence,” he said.
Mr Bell’s early work with the committee grew to the extent that he spent 15 years as a selector and 35 years and counting as the treasurer at the club.
“I did a bit of recruiting for the club talking blokes into playing footy for Tooradin,” he said.
Surprisingly, his only son is not a fan of the game.
“He hurt his knee, so he couldn’t play any contact sport,” he said.
“He hates footy though.”
There is only one Graham ‘Doc’ Bell and since his son won’t be continuing the tradition, TooradinDalmore Football Club will be sure to cherish his many contributions.
