Bruce Hartley still remembers the first meeting that brought about the birth of the Brighton Seagulls Junior Rugby League club.
The club is celebrating its 50th anniversary this season and will commemorate the milestone with an anniversary dinner at Club Central, Hurstville on July 23.
Hartley, the club’s president and life member, said Brighton always had a history of looking after their own.
“It always was a family club in respect to it’s traditions,” he said.
“It was always a wonderful feeling to see [our] boys run on the field for Australia because they were solely Brighton players, they’d never played for another [junior] club.
“That era, the 80s was probably our prime period and we produced the most talent.”
It was at Coronation Hall at Arncliffe in December, 1965 that Hartley and John May began building the club’s foundations.
Since then Brighton, wearing their light blue and red strips, have won premierships, produced internationals and helped develop the sport in the St George district.
The Seagulls count internationals Brad Mackay, Jason Stevens and Keith Galloway among their favourite sons as well as St George top grade stars Michael Beattie and Jeff Hardy.
Tickets for the dinner are available online at brightonseagulls.org.
