Waratahs of Armidale Presidents and Yearbooks
Although Waratahs has been around since September 1950 and we have an extensive range of recorded history, we only have a record of the past Presidents of the club since 1971-72, the year that Brian Joice and Tom Cooke started the annual Yearbook. For thirty five years, the Yearbook provided a written record of each season and the start of the record keeping which is a hallmark of the club.
From those archives, here is a list of the men who have occupied the President's role since that first Yearbook was produced to celebrate Waratahs first A grade Premiership in 19 seasons.
The Presidents
1971-73 Graham Johnson
1973-75 Ian Campbell
1975 Merv Philp
1976 Ian Davies
1977-78 Graham Johnson
1978-80 Terry Betts
1980-82 Tony Bennett
1982-84 Graham Patterson
1984-87 Peter Langston
1987-88 Brian Rhodes
1988-91 Andrew Davis
1991 Albert Hofkamp
1991-92 James Campbell
1992 Chris Duncan
1992-94 Roger Roan
1994-95 Graham Patterson
1995-96 Andrew Willis
1996-97 Matt Griffith
1997-99 Graham Patterson
1999-02 Albert Hofkamp
2002-06 Dan McCulloch Snr
2023-25 Andrew Davis
The Yearbooks
The following link will take you to the repository of the Yearbooks, now all held digitally. Every Yearbook is available and a click will open each one to reveal season's stats and written highlights. They are a quaint relict which reflect past times and the changing nature of the society which the club existed in - from the order of business of the annual dinner in the early books, including a toast to the Queen, through to cartoons and more direct commentary about how the club was going.
There is a progression from the formal and proper to the informal more irreverent style of the latter years. Regardless, they are a lovely snapshot in the time each was written and compiled and often a telling look behind the statistics.
Clip from BeaconPoint Cricket with Chris Rogers - The First 20 balls