HISTORY is written by the victors. Sir Winston Churchill, the author of this oft-quoted sentiment, would look at the Port Adelaide Football Club with admiration. It is a living case example to his premise on the telling of the final story.

In February, three decades after enduring a Churchillian series of battles for promotion to the AFL from the tumultuous 1990 to euphoric 1994 seasons, the Port Adelaide Football Club honoured the men who put much more than their time and credibility on the line.

"We also had legal action started against each one of us, individually," recalls former club president Greg Boulton of the Supreme Court action launched by the SANFL and its clubs, in particular Glenelg, in 1990 when Port Adelaide had an agreement with the VFL to become South Australia's first entry to the expanding national competition.

Port Adelaide Football Club directors were facing the loss of their homes, their life savings, their businesses ...

Boulton - and 11 other directors tied to either or both of the 1990 and 1994 campaigns - have their names honoured with plaques in the Port Adelaide Football Club Hall of Fame.

And one - the leader of the first campaign that shook South Australian football to the core - is repeatedly mentioned as deserving more. A statue at the club's traditional home at Alberton. A grandstand at its home ground at Adelaide Oval - as was noted by the actions of a dedicated devotee who draped one of the five eastern pavilions at Adelaide Oval during Showdown LIII with a black-and-white sheet: BRUCE WEBER.

The sign did not last long ...

Victory is not always acknowledged universally through history.

Port Adelaide has honoured Boulton, the image-changing Brian Cunningham, fellow directors Jim Nitschke, Barry Wilson, Geoff Monteleone, David Judd, Phil Hoffman, Frank Hayter, Ian McLachlan, Robert Hoey, Tony Hobby ... and Weber.

"Bruce Weber," says former Football Times editor and South Australian football journalist Ashley Hornsey with no attachment to Port Adelaide, "is the saviour (of South Australian football), but don't expect him to ever receive the recognition he deserves.

"Bruce Weber was a trailblazer as a football administrator. His vision shook up South Australian football's lethargic establishment and forced it to enter a team in the AFL (after years of stalling). For too long, SANFL administrators ignored Adelaide-based fans who were no longer watching local games and wanted a team in the AFL.

"Bruce Weber was their saviour."

At this time 33 years ago, the somewhat appropriate July 4 marked on the calendar as "Independence Day" by the rebellious American colonialists in Boston, Weber took the call from VFL House in Melbourne that changed his life, the destiny of the Port Adelaide Football Club, the state of South Australian football and the context of a long-wanted national competition for Australian football.

No-one paid a bigger price for such ambition than Bruce Weber, both at his beloved football club and in his personal and professional life. A hero at Alberton, Weber was dubbed the treacherous villain elsewhere in South Australian football.

So who was this trailblazer who has left a legacy that merits Hall of Fame status at Alberton ... and will not get the same praise elsewhere?

Born in the Port Adelaide heartland on May 14, 1951, Weber was all that the image of Port Adelaide invokes. He became known across the other side of town - at the Norwood Football Club in particular - as "the Birkenhead boilermaker". The remark highlights how true to Port Adelaide traditions - that once might have tagged Weber as a "wharfie" - Weber appeared to his adversaries, of which he had many by August 1990.

"Bruce was break - or break through," says Boulton of the club leader whose off-field approach was true to the hard edge Port Adelaide sought to carry on the park. "He had massive enthusiasm. He was a big man with a big view on life and football. He would rile people easily. He was quite blunt.

"His heart towards the Port Adelaide Football Club was big. Port Adelaide meant a lot to Bruce, it was a high priority in his life.

"He was heart and soul Port Adelaide."

The transition from devotee as a fan to changing the club's destiny actually began in 1985. Yet again, as had become the script during the 1980s in South Australian football, the cost of putting a team on the field exceeded the revenue streams while spectators, star players and sponsors abandoned the SANFL for an expanding VFL thriving in exposure from live telecasts into Adelaide.

Weber - and his seven counterparts on the club's business committee that he chaired - turned Port Adelaide's balance sheet with a profit and $200,000 cash float.

"And Bruce was determined to never let (financial pain) happen again at the club," says Boulton. "He never wanted to see Port Adelaide broke again."

By 1986, Weber - and Boulton and Hoffman - were taking seats at the board table to ensure there were no more financial crises at Alberton and no more debt-busting campaigns. Weber succeeded the long-serving Ken Duthie as club president.

"Bruce led significant change to the structure of the club's administration," said Boulton. "He made sure the club turned its off-field numbers financially and its on-field fortunes by bringing John Cahill back to the club (as senior coach replacing Russell Ebert).

"He wanted the club to be sustainable (against a fast-changing landscape in the football economy). And he would grab any opportunity to make Port Adelaide bigger and stronger."

The 1990 offer to enter the expanding VFL was the opportunity that ultimately fulfilled Weber's vision, but on the second attempt completed by Boulton and his board in 1994.

Weber was deposed as club leader by a members' vote during the fall-out of the 1990 bid to enter the newly badged AFL.

"I left that meeting," recalls Boulton, "and called Bruce to tell him the result of the members' vote. I sensed his surprise ... He was disappointed. He thought he had the support of the members.

"People are unfair on Bruce. As leader of our club, he grabbed that opportunity to put Port Adelaide on the national stage. He did so with the support - majority support - of the board. He was not an autocratic leader, but he was singled out to take responsibility for our club not getting an AFL licence in 1990.

"In hindsight, we did not have enough gold in the bank to win that fight in 1990 - a lesson we learned for the second bid. But we were never short of leadership from Bruce when the AFL wanted a quick decision in 1990."

Weber did pay dearly for his boldness, suffering in his business as an engineer while many outside of Port Adelaide sought retribution for his alliance with the VFL in 1990.

As Port Adelaide president David Koch noted at the Hall of Fame inductions at Adelaide Oval in February: "We know the sacrifices you and your family have made to contribute to our club."

The Hall of Fame induction - and that banner draped at Adelaide Oval during Showdown LIII - reaffirm the place Weber has in Port Adelaide's heritage. His vision was true to all that is demanded by Port Adelaide's story since 1870.

History, no matter who writes the script, cannot ignore Weber's significant contribution to making the Port Adelaide Football Club bigger, stronger and prouder.

As Boulton declared in December 1994 at Alberton Oval in presenting the end result of Weber's dream - an AFL licence - "There will be a Port Adelaide Football Club forever."

Weber did see his vision fulfilled - and Port Adelaide rise to the top of the AFL rankings with the 2004 national crown - before his death in April 2006 in Jakarta, Indonesia.