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The Glebe District Hockey Club
On the 20th of December 1932 the St James Sports club was elevated to District status and subsequently the Glebe District Hockey club came in to exsitence, with Bill Bourke becoming the club’s first ever captain. The St James Sports Club which formed in 1929 with it’s teams playing in a yellow shirt with a blue vee and white shorts virtually provided all the members with all the players living in the Glebe area. Hockey was introduced to the St James Sports Club by Patrician Brother (Bro Mcarten Keegan) who had represented the Punjab in India. He captained coached the St James Sports club in 1931 in their ingural season and played up unitl 1932, when he retired from playing. Brother McCarten conitnued as patron, providing yeoman service to the club until 1937, when he returned to India where he died on 12th of April 1941, aged 51 years. The Hockey Tradition in Glebe owes much to McCarten, who became something of a folk hero in the District. On Assuming District status the club adopted the traditional colour of Glebe’s sporting teams, maroon with a white vee. The colour of maroon was eledged to have been warn by the Glebe sporting teams due to an abatorrie located in Blackwattle bay which used to send the water a maroon colour. Since that time Jubilee Oval has been the Clubs home ground. The Railway Viaduct, which borders the oval, was built after the First World War 1, which ended in 1918. The railway link between White Bay and Darling Harbour was opened in 1922 and since August 1997 the Metro Light Rail which is the only operating light rail line in Sydney uses the old goods line to service inner city suburbs such as Pyrmont, Glebe, Annandale and Lilyfield. Up until 1940 the turf wicket at Jubilee Oval was rolled by horse drawn rollers. The horses were fitted with special shoes to avoid damaging the pitch. Throughout the 1930’s the grass at Jubilee was kept under control by 50-60 sheep which were yarded under the viaduct at night.