Alan Schwab

Sports Administrator

Born 4 December 1940 - Died 18th June 1993

Attended CHS, 1955-57

Alan Schwab, sports administrator, spent three enjoyable years at Camberwell High School. He was an excellent student and a dedicated cricketer and footballer. Alan was captain of Form IIID in 1955 and for two years (1956-7) was a member of both the 1st XI Cricket and the 1st XVIII Football teams.

The 1957 XI was a 'young' team and 'sixteen-year-old Alan Schwab was the outstanding performer with the willow' (Prospice 1957). When he wasn't playing sport, Alan was reading about it. It was obvious from his early teens that sport would play a big part in his life.

Soon after leaving Camberwell High, Alan joined the powerful Victorian Football League (V.F.L.) as a junior clerk. He stayed with the League's administration team until 1965 when he moved to the St. Kilda Football Club as Assistant Secretary. St. Kilda had transferred its headquarters to Moorabbin that year and was only one year away from its first V.F.L. premiership. Alan was part of it all, involved in the running of the club and in the recruiting of players.

By 1969, the year he moved to the Richmond Football Club, Alan was hailed as one of footballs' best-equipped young administrators. Alan replaced Graeme Richmond, regarded at the time as the most dynamic of all football secretaries and a man from whom Alan learnt a great deal. He remained at Richmond in the chief administrative role until 1976, by which time Richmond had won three premierships. Alan was elected a Life member of the Richmond Football Club and served as its Director at the V.F.L..

Having seen at first hand how clubs operated, Alan returned to the V.F.L. in 1977 as its Administration Manager and put what he had learned to the best advantage. He became the League representative on the Junior Football Council and from 1978-1982 he was Secretary of the Victorian Country Football League (V.C.F.L.). He was also the founder and the first Secretary of the Victorian Metropolitan Football League (V.M.F.L.). In 1981 and 1984 he managed Victorian schoolboy teams on tours of Ireland.

Alan's great energy for football had not diminished. If anything he was working harder to help reshape the game, and its objectives, in the modern era. In 1982 he was appointed Assistant General Manager of the V.F.L. and was also made Executive Director of the Sydney Swans. Formerly the South Melbourne Football Club, the Swans had just relocated from Melbourne to Sydney. The V.F.L. honoured Alan with its Outstanding Service Award for his work in both the V.C.F.L. and the V.M.F.L.. In 1985 he became the Executive Director of the V.F.L. and its delegate to the Australian National Football League.

The V.F.L. made sweeping changes to its decision-making machinery in 1985 with the introduction of an independent Commission which was given the charter to implement its plans for the long-term welfare of Australian Rules Football. The V.F.L. appointed a Commissioner (Jack Hamilton), four part-time Commissioners and Alan Schwab became the Executive Commissioner. Both Jack and Alan had started as office boys at the V.F.L. and it was fitting that they had both been rewarded with such important positions after long and valuable service. Alan then became an Australian Football League Commissioner.

Alan's brother, Frank Schwab, was also a former student at Camberwell High School. Frank was a top flight field umpire until he was struck down by illness, but not before he umpired the historic 1961 Grand Final between Hawthorn and Footscray.