North Shore farewells legend Hildebrand
NORTH Shore stalwart Stuart Hildebrand has been remembered by friends as a loyal and dedicated clubman who would do anything for his beloved Seagulls.
Hildebrand, who was the author of North Shore’s club history, The Seagull Soars, passed away last week but leaves a lasting legacy at Windsor Park.
Having grown up in Rose Avenue in Norlane, he was drawn to the North Shore Sports Club as a youngster immediately and was a fine junior cricketer. But it was in junior football coaching and administration that he would have his greatest impact through the 1960s and 1970s.
Hildebrand ran the Seagulls’ supporters’ club, was an inaugural member of their board of management and gave many kids in the northern suburbs their first job as a scoreboard attendant at senior games.
He was often seen driving in his beloved black Pontiac Parisienne around the streets of Norlane. Those closest to him spoke this week of a man with a sharp wit in spoken and written word.
Hildebrand was the original scribe for North Shore in its weekly contribution to the local football record, writing under the pseudonym of Syd C Gull, and was a proofreader at the Geelong Advertiser for more than 30 years.
But it was his detailed retelling of the club’s history in The Seagull Soars that was one of his finest pieces of work, with some describing it as one of the greatest accounts of a local football club they had ever read.
A passionate follower of horse racing, Hildebrand watched on with pride in 2003 as his bay gelding, Bold Bard, ran 16th in the Melbourne Cup — the first of Makybe Diva’s three-peat. He had shares in several others, including well-known local stayer Crafty Cruiser.
North Shore has previously honoured Hildebrand by nam- ing its reserves best-and-fairest award after him.
The club has asked those attending today’s service at Tuckers Highton Funeral Chapel to pay tribute by wearing blue and gold.