MOVIE buffs - more so than sporting fans - will know the name "Moonlight" Graham from the 1989 Hollywood classic, the baseball-themed Field of Dreams.
Spliced into fiction is the real-life Archibald Wright Graham. Played by Burt Lancaster in the film, "Moonlight" Graham did indeed roll through the baseball's minor leagues for seven seasons - and achieved one game in the majors, with the New York Giants in 1905.
Just one game and then "Moonlight" became "Doc" Graham as a doctor for 50 years in Chisholm, Minnesota.
In Port Adelaide's 1973 team photo at Alberton Oval, at the right end of the fourth row - and just behind coach Fos Williams - is Colin Black. He is Port Adelaide's "Moonlight" Graham - one SANFL senior match late in the 1973 season ... and then he disappeared from league ranks to make his life at Mount Gambier.
Black lived the dream once. Just once.
Prospect Oval. Round 19. August 18, 1973. He was among the royalty of the North Adelaide Football Club that included Barrie Robran while they ruled as SANFL premiers in 1971 and 1972 (having beaten Port Adelaide in both grand finals at Adelaide Oval) and as Australian champions with the triumph against Carlton at Adelaide Oval in the battle of the SANFL and VFL premiers at the end of 1972.
"It is all a bit of a blur," says (more so than recalls) Black.
"I went across to Port Adelaide; I played a game and that was it ..."
Black came to Alberton in 1973 - from the township of Kongorong, a 22-minute drive along Dixons Road travelling south-west from Mount Gambier - following the footsteps of his brother Daryl.
"At the Mount I hadn't followed any SANFL until Daryl went to Port Adelaide," said Black, who came from a football territory heavily influenced by the VFL in which he barracked for Collingwood (and he now cheers for Port Adelaide in the AFL).
In 1968, Daryl Black played five league games while Port Adelaide was approaching its seventh consecutive grand final during Williams' second stint as coach at Alberton. Unfortunately for Daryl Black his part in the campaign was cut short by injury.
"He had two or three years at Port Adelaide," said Colin Black. "Played on Anzac Day ... but he hurt his knee after a few league games."
That Anzac Day game on Thursday, April 25, 1968 - Port Adelaide against SANFL premier Sturt - is famous for Russell Ebert kicking six goals in the third of his club-record 392 matches in the black-and-white bars.
But back to the man with just one SANFL league game for Port Adelaide, Colin Black.
"Daryl said I should go across to Adelaide, have a go - so in 1973 I made the move," said Black.
Working as a driver for the now-lost traditional Adelaide department store, John Martin, Black was first assigned the No. 13 locker in the B-grade locker at the southern end of the old grandstand at Alberton Oval. Lloyd Zucker, one of the heroes from Port Adelaide's "Golden Era", was his coach.
A defender, Black was listed for his first Port Adelaide match - in the "seconds" - in the 1973 Anzac Day clash against North Adelaide at Adelaide Oval. By the records in the SA Football Budget, Black changed to the No. 9 jumper when he played "seconds" against Glenelg on June 2, 1973.
Black was not listed in the senior team - rather he was was named at centre half-back on the B-grade team sheet - submitted to the Football Budget for the round 19 clash against North Adelaide at Prospect Oval in mid-August.
Fos Williams and his match committee certainly had a long list of unresolved issues when they came to name the 20-man line-up to play North Adelaide. They played for time, declaring a provisional 22 at team selection on Thursday night.
Young ruckman Chris Natt already was lost to injury from the 20 who had beaten West Torrens by 45 points at Alberton Oval the previous Saturday. Future Magarey Medallist Trevor Grimwood was dropped.
Defender Peter Woite, another future Magarey Medallist, was recalled but needed to pass a fitness test. He had missed the clash with West Torrens with a calf muscle strain and will still sore at training on Thursday evening before selection.
Wingman Pat Taylor was carrying some doubt after bursting a blood vessel in an ankle during the first quarter of the solid win against West Torrens. But Taylor refused to concede to injury, just as he did not take to the bench after quarter-time the previous weekend.
Williams named Woite, rover Bob Boston and inexperienced ruckman Jaroslav Kurovec in the 22. Black was not on the league list.
By match time, Williams did not play Woite and lost former South Melbourne ruckman Bob Kingston and back pocket James Haines, who played all his nine league games for Port Adelaide in 1973.
Boston and Kurovec were the non-interchange reserves, the 19th and 20th men.
Black replaced Haines with Norwood premiership wingman Sam Gallagher writing in the Sunday Mail: "Colin Black came into the side in the back pocket." No more was said.
"I started the game," said Black, unable to recall which number he wore that day. "But I did not have much of a game. I wasn't very flash.
"It's 47 years ago ... and not much of that game remains with me. I remember it was near the end of the year, the team had a few injuries and I was given my chance against North Adelaide at Prospect Oval."
North Adelaide won by 55 points, 17.18 (120) to 9.11 (65), to continue its march to a third consecutive SANFL grand final.
Black was back in his No.9 jumper in the "seconds" the next weekend for the clash with Central District.
"I stayed for a few games in 1974," said Black. "But I was not up to it, I wasn't up to the standard of SANFL league football - not at Port Adelaide. So I came home."
Black finished the 1974 football season as a hero for the South Gambier Football Club - he was among the best players with his four-goal performance in the 44-point win against East Gambier in the Western Border Football League. The victory, shared with his brother Daryl, marked the club's breakthrough WBFL title, 10 years after becoming a foundation member of the border league.
"I went home to play seven or eight years with South Gambier, but with no big song and dance about that league game with Port Adelaide," said Black, who worked in the pine forests on his return to the South-East.
"There are a few more players who have come from Mount Gambier and done a lot more at Port Adelaide," added Black.
In the 1950s, from East Gambier came ruckman Peter Marrett - the hero of Fos Williams' first Port Adelaide premiership team with his three goals in the opening term of the 1951 SANFL grand final against North Adelaide being decisive. Brother Bob Marrett was a member of the 1958, 1959, 1962 and 1963 premiership teams.
In 1955, Port Adelaide's premiership defence was saved by Williams recalling from Peter Marrett and half-forward Ray Whitaker during the final series after both had spent the season playing and coaching in the country - Marrett at Mount Gambier and Whitaker at the nearby Kybybolite.
Mount Gambier also is the birthplace of inaugural Port Adelaide AFL captain, Brownlow Medallist Gavin Wanganeen.
"So one league game was nothing to get carried away with," Black said.
Some would argue just one league game for the Port Adelaide Football Club would be a dream. Like "Moonlight" Graham after his one major league baseball game, Colin Black found another fulfilling path in life.
Since the club's inception in 1870, there have been 45 players with just one SANFL league game attributed to them. Many others have sought this honour and been denied.
Season 1973 ended with Black in the team photo at Alberton for his one senior appearance - and, in another extreme, captain John Cahill closing his league career at a then club-record 264 SANFL matches when Port Adelaide was knocked out of the league's first top-five finals race with the elimination final loss to Norwood at The Parade.
At the same time, Fos Williams ended his phenomenal stint as Port Adelaide coach leaving the mission of guiding the club to new success with Cahill, who ultimately rewrote Williams' record of nine premierships with 10 SANFL flags.
"And I enjoyed watching it from Mount Gambier," said Black. "I did leave Port Adelaide as a real fan of John Cahill."
In the AFL chapter since 1997, there eight players who closed their Port Adelaide careers with one national league game in teal - Stephen Gilham, Cameron Cloke, Allan Murray, Paul Geister, Mark Conway, Steven Brosnan, Will Snelling and Tom Harley, who left Alberton to become a 197-game premiership captain at Geelong and now chief executive at Sydney.
Port Adelaide's roll call of players - from Colin Black with his one league game in 1973 to Russell Ebert with his club record 392 - is presented in the Archives Collection. The limited-edition tribute to the Port Adelaide Football Club's 150 years of unrivalled success can be ordered here.
