Len Gregory

Len Gregory was a prominent figure in Queensland football through the 1930’s and ‘40’s and left a lasting impression on the game as the founder of the Wilston-Grange Football Club.

Originally from Victoria, he headed north to play with the old Valley club in 1933 before switching to Yeronga and later Ascot and Mayne, where he was club captain and one of the most dynamic centremen in the competition during World War 2.

In 1945 he served as a field umpire in the senior competition and founded the Wilston Football Club, based primarily on students he had fostered from Wilston State School.

The club began with just one team, playing in the Under15s, but it grew quickly and adopted the name Wilston-Grange from 1947 after League officials suggested they needed to be more representative of the district rather than just one suburb.

Founding president and first senior coach, and a committeeman right through until 1960, he is fondly known at Hickey Park as the “father” of the Wilston-Grange Gorillas, who produced Queensland’s second VFL player when future Hall of Famer and Grogan Medallist Ken Grimley debuted for Fitzroy in 1957.

Also among the many greats to wear the red, blue and white of the Gorillas were fellow AFL stars and Queensland Hall of Famers Scott McIvor and Clint Bizzell.

Len Gregory … a member of the Queensland Football Hall of Fame.