Hewitt, who, as is his wont, entered the field shoeless and stockingless and arrayed in a gaudy guernsey - created the best part of the afternoon's amusement by his appearance and comical gait. He was wonderfully fast, seeming to be everywhere, and would have been a valuable man except for his infringements of the rules which the referee pulled him up with the utmost rigour.
HARRY Hewitt played one senior game for the Port Adelaide Football Club. It was against VFA giants Fitzroy at Adelaide Oval on August 1, 1891 - the start of a grand register of 62 indigenous men who have proudly represented Port Adelaide and their culture in the club's jumper in the SANFL and AFL.
Hewitt was named in the back pocket ....
A century later, Gavin Wanganeen emerged from that back pocket to become a Brownlow Medallist at AFL club Essendon; in 1997, he returned to lead the Port Adelaide Football Club to the national stage.
The spirit of the trailblazing Hewitt - a footballer of extraordinary talent and an advocate for indigenous rights - has lived on with Wanganeen: Hall of Fame footballer, first indigenous player to reach the 300-game milestone in the AFL and first indigenous director on an AFL club board.
This record also is a tribute to the Port Adelaide Football Club and its commitment to honouring indigenous people and their ancient culture.
"We are an inclusive club, so inclusive," says Wanganeen, "and I am proud of how we embrace cultures - and recognise and celebrate what indigenous players have given to our club and our game.
"(AFL Indigenous Round) is not just a symbolic moment. This is very important for our game so that we can nurture future generations of indigenous players. We too have had footy in our blood since day dot.
"It also is important to all of us because we get to educate everyone - and every step that bridges the gaps between all cultures makes for a better Australia."
In a year when Australian football has been tested to the limit, one long-standing tribute remains: Sir Doug Nicholls Round. It is the only theme round on the AFL calendar. Launched in 2005 with the Essendon-Richmond "Dreamtime" game at the MCG, the AFL extended the indigenous tribute to a full round for all league clubs in 2007 and later honoured former SA Govenor SIr Doug Nicholls with his name attached to the week-long celebrations from 2016.
This weekend, on Saturday against Hawthorn, Port Adelaide will honour its indigenous soul on Kaurna land at Adelaide Oval with a commemorative jumper. The latest version added to Port Adelaide's indigenous collection acknowledges the 62 indigenous men who have worn magenta and black and white in the SANFL and teal in the AFL.
The club will rekindle the memories of:
HEWITT being too quick for the eyes of umpire Schaeffer in releasing the ball before reclaiming possession - after falling to ground and instantly springing to his feet - that he was harshly hit with the first holding-the-ball penalty in the game against Fitzroy.
RICHARD BRAY testing defenders from a half-forward flank while celebrating three league premierships in the 1960s during his 77-game career. And earning his place in the SANFL Indigenous Team of the Century.
ROSS AGIUS scoring almost two goals a game while giving damaging pace to the record-breaking 1980 premiership team.
COREY AH CHEE reaching his 200-game milestone while serving as Port Adelaide SANFL captain in 2008 and 2009, after representing South Australia and winning the AR McLean best-and-fairest award in 2002. He commanded an "academy" of young indigenous talent that moved from Alberton to follow Wanganeen's path to the AFL - Aaron Davey (Melbourne), Alwyn Davey (Essendon), Donald Cockatoo-Collins (Melbourne), Harry Miller (Hawthorn) ...
ANDREW McLEOD, who from an SANFL premiership with Port Adelaide in 1994 proved himself on the biggest stage - twice, earning the Norm Smith Medal as the best-afield in the 1997 and 1998 AFL grand finals.
BYRON PICKETT, PETER and SHAUN BURGOYNE and WANGANEEN as pivotal players in Port Adelaide's breakthrough win in the 2004 AFL grand final at the MCG where Pickett also claimed the Norm Smith Medal.
DANYLE PEARCE as an AFL Rising Star winner as the rookie of the year in 2006.
And today the joy continues in watching Karl Amon, Sam Powell-Pepper, Steven Motlop, Joel Garner and Jarrod Lienert and anticipating the rise to AFL action of Tobin Cox and Trent Burgoyne.
"Port Adelaide has celebrated indigenous players long before there was a round dedicated to our culture by the AFL," Wanganeen. "And we can be proud as a football club that we have been leaders in advancing indigenous issues off the field for a long time too.
"Our club has for travelled thousands of kilometres, to remote parts of the nation to schools and indigenous communities to help advance education, health and the general wellbeing of indigenous people. The Port Adelaide Football Club always has been open to this progress. The programs run by Paul Vandenbergh have been commended for a long time."
Spectators time after time expressed their approval of the brilliancy of their work.
So they said of the strongly built Hewitt, when he played as a rover to fellow indigenous team-mate and ruckman J Wilson, in 1892 while representing "South" in a clash against "North" during a battle of the best 40 country footballers in the colony of South Australia.
How many fans have risen to their feet - time after time - to cheer the mesmerising plays of Malcolm Cooper, Patrick Ryder, Chad Wingard, Graham Johncock, Troy and Shane Bond, Nathan Krakouer, Michael O'Brien, Marlon Motlop, Lindsay Thomas ...
The 2004 AFL grand final - with the Burgoyne brothers, Pickett and Wanganeen playing significant roles in Port Adelaide's win - lifted the appreciation of the part indigenous footballers play on Australian football's biggest stages.
Pickett claimed the best-afield Norm Smith Medal with his 20 disposals and three goals while making long run along a wing at the MCG. The Burgoyne brothers combined for 36 disposals - 25 from Peter, 11 and a goal from Shaun. Four goals from Wanganeen as the four indigenous players collectively scored eight of Port Adelaide's 17 against Brisbane in the 40-point win during the first VFL-AFL grand final without a Victorian-based team.
"The photograph of all four of us together after that game is unreal, it is awesome," Wanganeen said. "It was a huge moment for us as indigenous players - and our football club. I'm looking forward to the next photograph from a Port Adelaide grand final win - and I am sure it will once again celebrate a new group of indigenous players making a great contribution on such an important day in our game.
"It would mean so much to every indigenous player who has represented Port Adelaide, all the way back to the 1890s."
Hewitt, born in south-east South Australia in the early 1860s, was taken to the Point McLeay mission station as a child. His football prowess became known in the mid-1880s as the captain of an All-Indigenous team that played an exhibition match on Adelaide Oval.
Hewitt's rise to SAFA senior ranks was with Medindie ("The Dingoes") mid-season in 1889 - against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.
... he played barefooted ... (he) was the best man amongst them, his alacrity all through the game eliciting the applause of the spectators. He, too, appeared to have a thorough knowledge of the rules of the game, as he never had a mark given against him the whole afternoon.
Hewitt played just five SAFA senior games with Medindie and the one senior match with Port Adelaide. Every game brought rave reviews ..
... he did enough work for half a dozen ...
The smart and clever work of Hewitt will be worth witnessing.
... he plays a gentlemanly game ... most unselfish ...
If (Medindie) could import a few more from Point Macleay they would have a most successful run (in reference to Hewitt's indigenous team-mates Wilson and the Rankine brothers).
Port Adelaide beat Fitzroy 4-2 (4.12 to 2.6) in Hewitt's solo game in magenta. From the back pocket, Hewitt was - a century before Wanganeen did the same - uncontrollable on his long runs, one leading to a goal assist for Port Adelaide's third goal kicked by Jack McKenzie.
A decade after Hewitt had left a glorious mark on the football and cricket fields of Adelaide, he was an advocate for indigenous rights - most notably questioning why indigenous people were being cut out of trading fish unless they paid L1 for a fishing licence.
Sir Doug Nicholls Round is a celebration of all that is admired by football fans in watching indigenous players enhance the richness of Australian football with their talent and culture. It also is a reminder of the challenges indigenous players - in particular Nicholls when he was at Carlton before transferring to Fitzroy - have faced to play the game they love.
"If is more than special one-off jumpers with indigenous art and symbols, traditional dancing and paint on our bodies .. it also is a time to recognise and educate what indigenous people to our game," Wanganeen said. "At Port Adelaide that has been the way well before there was an indigenous round in the AFL."
INDIGENOUS COLOURS
SINCE 2013 Port Adelaide has repeatedly handed one of its most powerful icons - the club jumper - to its indigenous players and their families and elders.
The roll call of indigenous jumpers carrying special messages and themes from the players is:
JAKE NEADE, 2013: Emus from the totem of the Jingili language group in the Northern Territory where Neade was raised 700 kilometres south of Darwin, at Elliott.
BRENDON AH CHEE, 2014: Designed with his mother Valeire, the jumper with the teal and black V-line at the top of the jumper becoming boomerang images put an emphasis on the bond between team-mates.
CHAD WINGARD, 2015: Aunty Barbara Wingard captured the "Tree of Life" so seven roots honouring Port Adelaide's seven indigenous players and their heritage.
KARL AMON, 2016: "Bambara" - or "journey" in Amon's language group, Jandia from the Noonuccal people of Queensland’s North Stradbroke Island.
NATHAN KRAKOUER, 2017: This black-based jumper reflected on the 1967 referendum that endorsed, with a 90 per cent yes vote, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people being counted in the Australian population.
PATRICK RYDER, 2018: With his uncle Kevin Bynder, Ryder designed the indigenous jumper with a water theme to recognise the Port River. The Port Adelaide Football Club is at the centrepiece as a "camping" spot where the club and its community have gathered to build a powerful symbol in Australian football since 1870.
SAM POWELL-PEPPER, 2019: From the Wadjuk and Ballardong language group in Western Australian with their goanna totem, the bullish midfielder also captured the waters of the Port River leading to Alberton Oval "our heartland, where all players and staff come together to support our dream of playing AFL."
Port Adelaide's indigenous soul - and commitment to indigenous issues - features in the Archives Collection. The special edition book commemorating the Port Adelaide Football Club's 150 years in Australian football is available for order online.
