Sport
Geoff Dixon, Noel Hussey reflect on Hussey’s 1964 Stawell Gift win
It is 60 years since Echuca’s Noel Hussey won Australia’s oldest and richest short-distance running race, the Stawell Gift.
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Hussey was Shepparton News sports editor for 30 years and, at the time of his win, was a 21-year-old journalist at The Riverine Herald.
District resident Geoff Dixon also ran at the 1964 Stawell Gift Carnival and witnessed first-hand Hussey’s win in the prestigious race, which was first run on Easter weekend in 1878.
He shared his copy of the original handicap from that year’s Gift, as well as his memories of the event.
“This is the official handicap of the Stawell Gift in 1964 when Noel Hussey won it and (it shows) his mark,” he said.
“When you start, you have different marks. It’s not like the Olympic Games, where everyone starts off from scratch.”
Dixon and Hussey were both a part of a group of runners from Echuca that travelled to Stawell to compete over the weekend.
“We used to call them a stable — a stable of runners, same as horse racing — and our Echuca stable, we had seven or eight runners in it,” Dixon said.
Dixon remembers that Hussey had surprised the field once racing began, starting from his mark of eight-and-a-half yards (7.77m).
“Everyone was running the right times for their handicap and then all of a sudden Hussey flew out and ran 12-and-a-half seconds for his heat,” he said.
“He won his heat all right, his semi-final he just won it, and the final he won it by half a yard.”
It wasn’t just the other competitors that were caught off-guard by Hussey’s performance but the bookmakers as well.
“On the Good Friday, at the drill hall, the bookmakers started (Hussey) off at 33-1,” remarked Dixon.
“Within a couple of seconds, his price was down to 7-1, so someone got on (him) before we did.”
Hussey’s price finished at 10-1 and he won £600 ($1200) backing himself home, almost as much as the £750 ($1500) prizemoney for winning the gift itself, while his stablemates enjoyed a good payday as well.
“We won a couple of dollars, and he won a couple of dollars and that was the main thing,” Dixon said.
The remainder of this article was contributed to Shepparton News:
A former sports editor of the Shepparton News, 1964 Stawell Gift winner Noel Hussey, writes about his victory 60 years ago.
Noel Hussey wasn’t going to Stawell.
It was the Wednesday before Easter in 1964 and the 21-year-old cadet journalist had just run a trial over the Stawell Gift distance of 130 yards (120m) from his gift mark of 8.5 yards.
His time of 12.5 seconds didn’t impress him or his trainer George Nelson, the Echuca Aboriginal athlete who had already won the 880 yards and 220 yards at Stawell and the Maryborough Gift.
Hussey told Nelson he was wasting his time going to Stawell. Nelson, who was also entered in the gift, said they could head for Stawell the next day via Bendigo and run a trial over the gift distance on the fast Bendigo 1000 track, which was much faster than the Echuca Gift track on which Wednesday’s trial was run.
Before the Bendigo trial, Nelson told Hussey if he didn’t want to win the gift, he would win it himself, which fired up the former schoolboy middle distance star.
Hussey won the Bendigo trial in 12 seconds and was a lot more confident about his chances at Stawell.
The Murray River duo arranged to camp at the Stawell Caravan Park for Easter, which that year was in early April, with the VFL football starting the next week.
Parked beside Nelson and Hussey was former Fitzroy star Noel Price and his bookmaker mates who played cards into the early hours of Easter Sunday.
The van they had hired was that day taken to the backyard of a Stawell Athletic Club committee man, so a good night’s sleep was had for the rest of the weekend.
Hussey had given his last £60 ($120) to put on himself to win the gift and was determined to put time on the board, knowing he didn’t have to find time for the semi-final.
He ran 12.1 seconds to win his heat in a head wind, while the next fastest time was 12.3 seconds.
On Sunday, Nelson, Hussey and some mates from Echuca who had trained with him over the summer went for a drive in the Grampians to get out of Stawell and get away from race talk.
In Monday’s semi-final, Hussey just about blew his chances when he overbalanced on “get set” and was coming back on to his blocks when the gun fired. He was surrounded by potential semi-final winners, but with 30 yards to go he relaxed as practised for months and kicked home to win in 12.3 seconds.
Dual finalist Don Currie tried to get Hussey to break in the final, but the tactics didn’t work and the field of five was asked to stand up.
Hussey made an excellent start at the next attempt to get the race away and soon had sprinter Lindsay Kent off nine yards collared and the rest is history, with the Echuca footballer and boxer winning by half a yard.
Hussey and Nelson took £750 ($1500) in prizemoney and £600 ($1200) in punt money back to Echuca, where the green-and-white football colours of Echuca were waiting for him to play the next Saturday with the Murray Bombers.
The footy club colours were similar colours to those he had raced in on Easter Monday to win the 1964 Stawell Gift.
The Melbourne Cup of professional foot running was his along with a sash, gold medal, silver tea service and prizemoney.