Barry McLoghlin joined the club in the mid 1950’s. He worked and played for the club for more than 50 years. Barry was in the Merchant Marine, before starting a career with ABC radio. He worked as a technician for morning presenter Peter Evans for many years, bringing him an element of fame around Melbourne. Barry soon became involved on the club committee and served the club for many years. He might have been one of the best players at the club, (along with Ken Curnick) to have not won the singles championship.

Barry met his wife Marie on a tennis court and they devoted many years of their lives to tennis and South Hawthorn tennis Club.

Barry and Marie never drove and never owned a car. His team members took him to away games and he managed to get by without a problem.

He was awarded life membership in 1991. Barry passed away in 2006.

MARIE MCLOGHLIN

Marie McLoghlin worked behind the scenes at South Hawthorn, as Barry’s better half, even though for many years she was not a member! Despite her husband’s involvement, some suspect Marie was nervous about facing the club selection committee! In those days, in order to keep the standard of tennis high, prospective member’s tennis had to be of a “certain standard” before they were accepted into the weekend competition and social membership. As things turned out, the club one year was short of Ladies to play in the mixed club championships. Marie was asked to play, but she agreed only if she was allowed to become a full member. The club showed great judgement in agreeing to her terms! As it turned out, she was more than capable on the court.  Marie was one of those rare people who could talk to anyone and was loved by all. She fought a long battle with illness before passing away at the age of 61. Soon after, the committee decided to name the trophy for the Women’s singles championship the “Marie McLoghlin trophy”.

ERIC MCLOGHLIN

Eric McLoghlin grew up in a house filled with a love for tennis and South Hawthorn Tennis Club. He joined the club at the age of 8 and joined the committee at the age of 17!

Eric served as President from 1977-79, 1981-83, 1985-93, 1999-2000.

He was singles Champion in 1997 and 1998. He was runner up on three occasions including losses to the club professional Dean Ashton.

The best player Eric has seen at South Hawthorn is Neil Maher, a ten time winner of the Singles Championship.

Eric was awarded Life Membership in 1996.

He made many contributions to the club, some of the highlights of which include………………

His committee incorporated the club, including re-writing the club constitution.

Along with Kerry Taylor ( Wundersitz ), Myrtle Taylor, Graeme Rodder and Russel Smartt he organised the re-building of all four courts over a five year period, then arranged a loan to install lighting to all four courts. The lights were new technology at the time and they are still serving the club well today. It was a difficult decision to go with the new technology but they tested them on a half built private court in Toorak before going ahead. With the ability to play tennis at night, the club grew both on and off the court and a liquor licence was gained for after tennis activities.

The bar might have led them astray at times.

The committee made a plan to re-paint the interior of the club house over 4 Thursday evenings. Eric, Barry McLoghlin, Peter Garrety and Russel Smartt all committed to the project.

Week one, went well with painting commencing at 7pm and finishing at 10pm before convening at the bar for discussion of progress.

Week two started at 7pm and finished slightly earlier at 8.30 for discussion at the bar.

Week three started promptly at 7pm but finished slightly earlier at 8pm.

Happily week four saw the project and its discussion completed.

Eric served the club for some years as judge of whether prospective members were good enough players to be granted full membership. It was a task he never relished, but at the time it was the way things were done. Applicants were invited to play for three Sundays, then on the fourth Sunday the committee would meet and decide if the player was good enough to be included in weekend play.

At the time the club constitution didn’t allow juniors to play on Sundays as it was felt they would not have the ability to play with the adults. However with the quality of some juniors the constitution was altered to allow some juniors, such as Eric and Kerry Taylor/Wundersitz, to play on Sundays. At the same time, the Hawthorn tennis Club was even stricter on standards. With their council lease up for renewal, they were challenged by a group called the “Rainbow Tennis Club” who wanted to take over the lease and remove the restrictions on weekend players. The council was sympathetic to their concerns and eventually the Hawthorn Tennis Club had to remove the restrictions and open weekends to players of all standards, in order to retain their lease. With the South Hawthorn lease up the following year, our committee saw the writing on the wall and removed our restrictions as well.

As it turned out, the club benefited by the change and saw an influx of members at a time when club membership was dropping ( see sometimes council does know best ).

On and off the committee, friendships and partnerships were formed. Many members went on trips to country tournaments with Denilaquin being a favourite venue over Easter. Groups of 20 or more drove up and made camp for the weekend. Matches were played for the day, before South Hawthorn members reconvened at the camp ground for refreshments and discussion of the day’s proceedings. Bonfires were lit and RSL’s visited before short sleeps refreshed players for the next days activities. Among the participants were responsible elders like Keith and Lola Young and wild oat sewers, David Wundersitz, Kerry Wundersitz, Gwynn and Mark Johnson, Di and Peter Garrety, Wendy Cooke and Noel Emmett.