Football in Port Melbourne has a long tradition of raising money for charitable causes, including for local people in need as well as for the war effort. While sometimes this involved fundraising at standard games, special one-off events often took a more festive slant, including fancy dress and “muff football”, named for the fashionable item of clothing worn by women to keep their hands warm at the turn of the twentieth century. One charity event, held in August 1903 to raise money for local unemployed people, started with a procession from the Port Melbourne Dispensary building to the cricket ground which was a “quarter of a mile in length” and led to a fete featuring bands, bicycle races, acrobatics, and a “muff football” match in front of over 2000 Port Melbourne residents. In 1905, an even more elaborate fundraising football game was played as part of Port’s “Bizarre Carnival”, where Port’s best eighteen players wore bell-topper hats, against a side of “Theatricals”, or local performers, who dressed as clowns. This was followed by a mixed cricket match between Port Melbourne Cricket Club’s best 11, and a team of “10 ladies and one gentleman (“lucky Jim”). This event was very popular locally, however its "bizarre" fancy dress was controversial, and Port Melbourne Council was keen to emphasise that Councillors did not participate in an official capacity.
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