More Hellenic history

This is a photo of Hellenic that I haven't seen before, found by Mark Boric, I assume in the old Greek sports paper Athletic Echo. The photo's a little dusky, and it'll probably be hard to compare the faces to other Hellenic photos to see if there are any resemblances with hitherto unknown players.

I'm guessing this is an away/alternate strip, but I don't have access to a Victorian soccer yearbook which lists the alternate kits for any clubs. The player listed here as K. Papadopoulos seems to have non-matching socks. I'm not sure what years this is from either, and though the article the photo came with mentions 1956 and '57, they are mentioned within the context of the club playing in the Victorian second division at the time.

Hellenic, 1957(?). The players are Arvanitakis (GK), K. Papadopoulos, George Karakyriakos, M. Karakyriakos, Paul Rivans, Alecos Nanos, Costas Tzinis (player-coach), John Tsarouchas, G. Pipis, Luchetti, Antonis Karagiannis.

Some of the names I haven't come across before, while others I've seen but only with an initial, not a full first name, as is the case here. The short extract from article below the photo, notes that G. Kararakyriakos was a George. Ozfootball digging says that along with P. Rivans, there was a separate player named J. Rivans. Missing from the team photo, according to the article, are D. and H. Moshakis (the latter possibly a Haralambos, and Anglicised into Charlie), P. Tzimboglou, G. Papadopoulos, P.  Paleogiannidis (a goalkeeper, also spelled elsewhere as Paleoyiannidis, and finally an initial for him), and D. Karagiorgis.



Of course adapting Greek surnames into English, especially when you don't have access to what would've been the standard Anglicised spelling for each individual, makes things much more difficult. And that's not even getting into the Greek conventions when it comes to the initials used for first names. There are also some non-Greek names, which for the Rivans we can be sure of the spelling; for the possibly Italian Luchetti(?), well good luck with that.

The funniest part of this article is the description of Antonis Karagiannis as a "well-known cowboy", whatever that means! In a part of the article not shown here, playing coach Tzinis is quoted as saying "these boys played for the shirt and for the Greek name. But behind the team was an unspoken hero, who gave his soul for the team, and that man was George Lekatsas".

Cheers to Mark Boric for taking the time to dig this photo out!

Ancient Hellenic history II

Back in 2009, I posted a team photo of South Melbourne Hellas predecessor club Hellenic. At that time, the photo had neither names nor a year attached. In 2012, I found a larger laminated version of the photo, which included almost all the names of the people in the photo. Now a second photo of Hellenic has come to light, which has thrown up a few mysteries of its own.

Team photo of Hellenic, year and location unknown.
Back row: ???, Con Pappas, Antonis Karayannis, ???, Bob Mihovic, Costas Tzinis
Front row: Alecos Nanos, P. Palogianidis/Paleoyiannidis (first name unknown), ???, ???, ???, Paul Rivans.

On the back of this photo, which was sent to me by club historian John Kyrou, is the following: "Bob Mihovic - back row, second from the right". Mihovic is a name I've never come across before in my limited dealings with Hellenic, and he doesn't appear either in any of the limited Hellenic team lists in OzFootball. A comparison of the two available photos seems to indicate that on the face of it, these are two fairly different Hellenic squads. I was only able to easily identify two other players, and make what I felt was a reasonable stab at one other. In the front row, both Kyrou and myself are certain of the first player on the left being Alecos Nanos. I am certain also that the goalkeeper is the same person in both images - a man for whom we still don't have a first name, but whose surname is Palogianidis/Paleoyiannidis. In the back row, furthest right, I am reasonably certain that the player is Costas Tzinis.

We have neither a year nor a location for this photo. As usual, any help in identifying any of these people is most welcome.

Ancient Hellenic history

"Hellenic: The first roots". Year and location of photo unknown. This version of this image is a replacement for an earlier (inferior) one which was taken down by the third party site which posted the image. I found this version - which is a laminated poster - in a drawer in the old social club.
Back row: Con Papapantos, Con Papas, Chris Picoulas, Alecos Nanos, Tony Karagiannis  (listed here as Carayiannis), Bill Gizoris, Charlie Moshakis, Costas Zinis/Tzinis.
Front row: Fotis Antipas, ??? Paleogiannidis, John Tsarouchas.