See photos of this exhibition in the Photo Gallery: North Sydney Bears Luna Park Exhibition, April 2004.

BIG-STEVE

Bears March Into History
By DAVID ROWLANDS
NORTH SHORE TIMES - 30/4/2004

The management of Luna Park deserves to be congratulated for the wonderful exhibition on the history of the North Sydney Rugby League Club that has been running for the past month since Sydney’s house of fun re-opened.

This temporary shrine to the mighty Bears contains everything from the boots of long-retired champions and old jerseys — including the one Greg Florimo wore in his first grade debut in 1986— to photos of past teams, such as the 1943 squad, which was the last time Norths reached a first grade grand final.

Apart from tributes to individuals like Duncan Thompson, Frank Hyde, Ken Irvine and Harry “Acka” Forbes who gave wonderful service to the club, the most striking image in the display is a huge composite photo of Norths’ greatest players, from early identities like the dynamic wing duo of Ces Blinkhorn and Harold Horder to those who took the club so painfully close to long overdue glory in the 1990s like Florimo, Les Kiss, Jason Taylor, David Fairleigh and Gary Larson, the Bears’ current Premier League coach.

Apart from it's engaging smattering of artifacts, the walls of this mini-museum are dotted with information and trivia which is extracted from Andrew Moore’s magnificent book on the club’s history, called The Mighty Bears.

Some of the lesser-known gems are that mouthguards were introduced to Sydney by a former Norths player in Norm Strong; the first ever televised game of rugby league in Australia was played at North Sydney Oval, between Norths and Balmain in 1961; and in the same period, the club derived its famous nickname from a sponsorship with the Big Apart from its engaging smattering of Bear supermarket at Neutral Bay.
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