HE won no car. There was no song written for him, as there was for South Melbourne-St Kilda cult figure Roy Cazaly of "Up There Cazaly" fame. And there was no public poll to award him "Mark of the Year".
"But I did appear somewhere in the Sunday Mail ...and I was chuffed about that," says Brian Luke, the Port Adelaide player who soared higher than the "Eagles" around him at Thebarton Oval on September 3, 1960.
"There was not much fuss made about those things at the time" when South Australian football was still a few years from being a staple of weekend television in black and white, added Luke.
Those who walked through the double doors of the RB Quinn MM Stand at Alberton, from the oval to the upstairs bar during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s will remember the image etched in glass: Luke on the shoulders of a West Torrens opponent in the perfect pose for one of Australian football's most-spectacular features.
"It was a very windy day," recalled Luke, who remains in the Port Adelaide heartland with the northern gates at Alberton Oval in direct line with his front porch at Cheltenham. "That is the only reason I made it up that high ... with help from the wind."
It was indeed a significant wind that heavily influenced the flow of the game and its scoring, not just Luke's rise to the heavens. The scoreboard underlines Luke's point: Port Adelaide had first use, kicking six goals in the first term. Against the wind in the second, it scored just 0.1.
A five-goal third term - when Luke took his memorable mark nearing time-on - from Port Adelaide while holding West Torrens scoreless allowed the Geof Motley-coached defending premiers to lead by a seemingly safe 56 points at the last change (11.9 to 2.7). However, "they (West Torrens) came home fairly well," recalled Luke. "They almost made up the deficit."
Port Adelaide won by just five points after being held scoreless in the last term, 11.9 to 9.16.
The thrilling finish - that secured another minor premiership for Port Adelaide - and the extraordinary mark are not foremost in Luke's memory of that gale-affected game that closed the 1960 SANFL home-and-away season.
"I tore my hamstring that day ... and did not play in the finals," said Luke.
"It was my worst injury ever; it felt like my leg had been smacked hard by a wooden board," added Luke, a member of three Port Adelaide premiership teams from his 95 league games from 1958-1964. "And I have only myself to blame for not playing finals that season.
"(Port Adelaide key forward) Wally Dittmar was madly in love with a girl from Yorketown (230 kilometres from Adelaide on the Yorke Peninsula). After the game, I had no treatment; I disregarded the injury because I'd promised I'd make that trip on the road with Wally ...
"(Long-serving Port Adelaide committee member) Charlie Darwent had arranged for me to see an osteopath to get some special treatment away from the club ... but it was all too late. We know now that I should have been putting ice on the hamstring (for 24 hours after the tear) ... but I did not know anything about hamstring injuries then."
Port Adelaide's premiership defence - and chance to make it seven consecutive flags - started with a 10-point loss to second-ranked North Adelaide in the second semi-final at Adelaide Oval. The preliminary final against Norwood was a lockdown game with Port Adelaide not able to score a goal in the second or third terms after managing two in the opening quarter. Norwood was no better as it was without a goal in the third term and just three to the last change ... "when Jerry Harrison was moved to full forward," added Luke, reflecting on Norwood's decisive five-goal last quarter.
Port Adelaide did not feature in an SANFL grand final for the first time since 1952.
Luke has no doubt his grand leap under the flightpath to the then new Adelaide Airport was his greatest mark.
"There aren't too many others to chose from," Luke noted. "That's why I say I was very lucky that day at Thebby.
"I wasn't one for big marks; it wasn't really me," said Luke, who picks Melbourne high flyer Shaun Smith's leap on the back of his Demons team-mate Garry Lyon in the goalsquare at the Gabba in AFL round 22, 1995 as the mark he admires and remembers most. "That was the best I have seen.
"In my day, it was (Essendon legend) John Coleman. I'd get to see him in State games when we'd play Victoria. He was one of those rare players."
Luke followed to Alberton his older brother Ron, a member of Fos Williams' first Port Adelaide premiership team in 1951.
Ron Luke played 46 league games for Port Adelaide after his SANFL debut in 1950 - and had his club and State career, that included an Australian carnival, cut short by a knee injury in 1954.
"I loved being at Port Adelaide; it was a total privilege to be there," Brian Luke said. "And I kept asking myself, 'What am I doing in this team?'
"I was in the side with Geof Motley and Neville Hayes, two Port Adelaide players I always admired.
"I was blessed to be coached by Foster (Williams), a man who was concerned for people - a coach who took interest in all his people."
There is one mystery that remains with the Brian Luke mark. What ever happened to those glass doors etched with his famous mark?
"(Former Port Adelaide chief executive) Brian Cunningham answered that question for me," Luke said. "They are in a shed there somewhere at Alberton."
The Dad's Army Shed that is the Alladin's Cave of Port Adelaide's devoted volunteers.
Some of the Port Adelaide players' great leaps - from Harold Oliver soaring in a final against Sturt at Adelaide Oval before World War I to the game-defining marks of Magarey Medallist Scott Hodges - feature in the club's Archive Collection, along with Luke's mark from 1960.
The limited-edition Archive Collection is a must-have for Port Adelaide fans - and true devotees of Australian football - wanting to savour the rise of the Port Adelaide Football Club from its humble beginnings at North Parade, Port Adelaide in 1870 to a member of the Australian Football League today.
The collection gives never before seen access to the moments in time that made Port Adelaide the most-decorated club in Australian league football and includes rare photographs, profiles of star players from the club’s 150-year history, and unseen lift-out memorabilia including replica player medals, premiership cards, Fos Williams’ coaching notes and so much more.
Click here to order your piece of history.
This week in history - and history's lessons
THURSDAY: Happy 143rd birthday SANFL. On April 30, 1877 - with the Port Adelaide Football Club at the table - the first and longest-running governing body of Australian was formed: The South Australian Football Association, now the SANFL.
At the now-lost Prince Alfred Hotel on King William Street, next door to the Adelaide Town Hall, two delegates from 12 football clubs met to establish order in a game that was played to varying sets of rules, in particular those of the Adelaide and Kensington clubs. Port Adelaide would have to travel to games not only with an umpire, but two sets of rule books depending on which rules were in fashion with its opponents.
Most significant at that foundation meeting for the SA Football Association was the vote to adopt the Melbourne Football Club rules rather than those of the Sydney Football Association, ensuring Port Adelaide continued in the new game of Australian football rather than considered adapting to a rugby game.
From that meeting only Port Adelaide and South Adelaide remain in today's SANFL.
And now the question of the moment is: Will there be a Port Adelaide Football Club in the State league when Australian football seeks to start a new era from 2021?
Critically, player list sizes in the AFL influence Port Adelaide's part in the SANFL. If the lists are cut from 44 to 35 - as is being predicted - there will be less talent to stock an SANFL side ... unless Port Adelaide is able to build a State league squad from outside the AFL recruiting system.
Also telling is the football-department spending ultimately approved by the AFL Commission as it contemplates a new economy for Australian football well beyond the AFL stage. The heavy consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic will include cuts to football-department budgets across the 18-team national competition. To spend more - to underwrite an SANFL team - would incur a "luxury tax" from AFL House, unless the AFL and SANFL reach a special agreement recognising the importance Port Adelaide plays in the State league.
While Port Adelaide's presence in the SANFL has long been built on a "us and them" divide, many of the "them" outside Alberton would prefer to have Port Adelaide in the State league. There are still many scores for the "thems" to settle.
This point is not lost with SANFL chief executive James Parkinson, who does not underestimate what the "Magpies" mean to the Port Adelaide faithful. He said on SEN1629 radio last week: "Port Adelaide has played in the SANFL competition since 1877, for 143 years - and (a presence in the SANFL) is an important part of the Port Adelaide Football Club. So I would think Port Adelaide would be keen for the 'Magpies' to continue to be part of their club."
This is not in doubt with Port Adelaide Football Club president David Koch who said on ABC radio at the weekend: "We are a foundation club of the SANFL; we are their most-decorated club in terms of success and we intend to continue that for another 150 years."
A university thesis worthy of a PhD degree could be written on Port Adelaide's merit and future to the SANFL. Most signficant are the lessons from the 1997-2010 era when dividing the Port Adelaide Football Club along AFL and SANFL lines proved damaging to a club, its people and Australian football in general.
Port Adelaide fans sing their "Never Tear Us Apart" anthem to ensure those lessons are not forgotten. Again, history continues to offer lessons for navigating to the future.
