Update on an old Floros Dimitriadis post

A few weeks ago I finally made it down to the Public Record Office in North Melbourne. It's like the more uptight sister to the State Library.

I looked through files containing details of the hotel interests of one of South's founding vice-presidents, Floros Dimitriadis, principally the Duke of Kent Hotel on La Trobe Street - where South was born. That is, it was the place where the newly formed Hellas - the merger between Hellenic and Yarra Park - amalgamated with South Melbourne United, completing the triumvirate.

Check the comments section of the relevant post to see what we confirmed, and what other tidbits we've learned.

Ghosts from the past - Dimitriadis, Raftopoulos, Marmaras

I feel a little like Bob Dole, dissatisfied with the present and therefore digging a trench to the past asking no one to come with me. This photo has next to nothing to do with football or South. Except that it's a photo of the wedding of Apollo Athletic and South Melbourne Hellas founder Floros Dimitriadis to some bird called Poppie Lekatsas, taken in 1938. From hints in the public record, they did stay married for a while, until 1960 at least - there's reference to a civil suit the couple brought against the Bolte government or something like that.

In the squad are [Back row] G. Papageorge, H. Anastaciou, S. Doubaras, P. Polites, E. Mocenigo, C. Geralis
, N. Regos, J. Harlambe; [front row] N. John, T. Doubaras (Captain), H. M. Catsis, N. Raftopoulos (Vice Capt.),
 C. Kostas, G. Proios. (Thanks to Ian Syson and the librarian who transrcibed the names)

The photo comes from the Raftopoulo family archives donated to the state library. It also includes this photo of another of Melbourne's Greek clubs, Olympic, which disappeared circa 1952, just before the apparent birth of Hellenic - we don't know if this is a coincidence.

Obviously it's the Raftopoulos connection, as well as the name of the Marmaras trophy, that starts bridging gaps in the pre-South Melbourne Hellas genealogy. Hopefully when the National Library of Australia archives really start getting their shit together, we can start filling in even more gaps.

More on Apollo Athletic

I was looking for more info on Floros Dimitriadis (and Apollo Athletic) when I came upon this site. Unfortunately the book in question has not been released yet and will likely not come out in the forseable future. Note also the reference to the local Italian club Savoia, a predecessor of the once great Brunswick Juventus.

I am currently co-writing a book on the history of Greek-Australian soccer teams. The first official Greek-Australian sport club Apollon was founded in Melbourne in 1933.

The three young Apollo club members Martakis, Floros Dimitriadis and Basil Colligas were keen to establish a soccer team and already possessed some soccer experience from the old world. Martakis was an amateur wrestler in Constantinople but also played soccer, Floros played soccer in Cyprus and Colligas in Smyrna. The team was constituted in May 1934 so that it would be ready to compete in the Dockerty Cup competition. A cup competition open to all Victorian soccer clubs.
Colligas chose the name Apollon from the historic Apollon Club of Smyrna. On July 22, 1934 Apollo played its first unofficial soccer match against the Italian club Savoia at Middle Park, Melbourne. This is probably regarded as the first ‘ethnic’ soccer match played in Australia.

Apollo Athletic - another predecessor of what we have now

This is a partially colourised version of the photo I used to have on this article.
The previous version was hosted on a third party hosting site, which stopped
working. This one has been sourced from the La Trobe Greek archives.

Before Melbourne's urban sprawl was filled to the brim with little Greek fiefdom clubs, before even the days of Hellenic, Olympic, Yarra Park Aias, Alexander and Florina, there was Apollo Athletic, which is as far as anyone knows, the earliest Greek Australian club of them all.

The club was born sometime around 1934, and didn't last much longer than 1935, playing in the 3rd division at the time, and reaching the 2nd round of the Dockerty Cup, where they lost 3-0 to Shepparton East. Curiously, another club calling itself Apollo participated in competition during 1952, but disappears thereafter... and it's late in 1952 that Hellenic is formed... is there any connection? Who knows. There was also one final team using that name, but this was more of an amateur outfit playing somewhere out of Fitzroy/Collingwood calling itself Apollo 11, during the early 1970s.

Apollo Athletic had a mix of Greeks and non-Greeks in the team, perhaps the most notable of which was Floros Dimitriadis. Dimitriadis later became involved with Yarra Park, and through this association was one of the two founding Vice-Presidents of South Melbourne Hellas (the other being South Melbourne United's Des Hamilton). It was also at Dimitriadis' hotel The Duke of Kent that the amalgamation between newly formed Hellas and South Melbourne United took place. Whether it's the same pub as the current Duke of Kent on La Trobe street I don't know, and any information on that is more than welcome. *see comments section for update.

The following information is from a La Trobe Uni pdf I found on the net somewhere.

Athletes and members of the Apollo Athletic Club in the early ‘30’s. In 1934, shortly after its establishment Apollo appears as the first Greek Soccer Club in Australia. In 1935, despite its progress to the 3rd category in the Victorian State Championship, it dissolved mainly due to lack of interest on the part of the Administration. In the front row from left is seen Mr Floros Dimitriadis, the founding member of Melbourne Hellas.