One Hundred Years of Australian Sport
Australian History Reference Cultural History Sports History Biography & Memoir Australiana Club History
First-edition hardcover copy of One Hundred Years of Australian Sport by M. T. Daly – a scarce 1996 collector’s item that is personally signed (not just inscribed) by the author, making it the standout centrepiece for any Australian sporting library. Published by the New South Wales Sports Club Limited to commemorate the centenary of one of the country’s oldest sporting institutions, this 230-page reference work is the only comprehensive, single-volume chronicle that traces organised sport in Australia from colonial club life in the 1890s through to the professional era of the 1990s. Because the print-run was small and most copies went straight into club archives, signed first editions rarely surface on the secondary market, so this copy offers genuine rarity for collectors and historians alike.
Inside, Daly blends meticulous year-by-year club records with lively biographical sketches of the players, administrators and grassroots volunteers who shaped Australia’s sporting culture. Readers will find first-hand anecdotes of Sheffield Shield drama, the birth of the NSWRFL, the rise of women’s netball, and the social impact of two world wars on community sport, all illustrated with archival photographs that have never been reprinted. The book’s strength lies in its balance of hard data—fixtures, premiership tables, life-member rolls—and the author’s eyewitness commentary, giving collectors both a ready-reference almanac and a compelling narrative that reads like a conversation with a veteran sports journalist.
For enthusiasts of Australiana, cultural history or sporting memorabilia, this copy is especially desirable: it is clean and tightly bound, with pages free of dog-earing, and it carries the author’s bold ink signature on the title page alongside a short personalised inscription. The boards show only minor shelf evidence commensurate with age, and the binding remains square and solid—ideal for display or careful reading. Whether you are completing a first-edition Australiana collection, sourcing a unique gift for a sports lover, or adding primary-source material to a school or local-history archive, this signed, first-edition hardcover delivers both enduring research value and long-term collectability that mass-market reprints simply cannot match.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
Buy Now