Stan had a great love of football
THE Toowoomba football community is mourning the loss of one of it’s longest serving members in Stan Mills.
Mr Mills had a life-long love affair with the round ball game and his playing days dates back to when he was 14 years of age when he started playing with the men’s team from his village of Hurstbourne Tarrant in Hampshire, England.
He then played with his work team the Taskers of Andover where he completed his apprenticeship and from there he played with Andover Town in the Hampshire League.
Even during two years National Service with the RAF in England, Mr Mills played whenever he could on weekends or while on leave with village teams Abbotts Ann and Vernham Dean.
At the age of 27, Mr Mills and his wife Kath migrated to Australia and the couple settled in Toowoomba.
Thus started his long association with the Willowburn club and Toowoomba football.
“As well as playing I have coached junior and senior representative sides and I have also refereed,” he said in an article in The Chronicle some years ago.
“I was also president of Willowburn Sports Club as well as president of the Toowoomba Federation for a number of years.”
Mr Mills passed away last month aged 86.
A memorial will be held at the old Willowburn football oval in Bridge St (across from the new Bunnings) on Saturday from 11.30am.