Some old newspaper clippings help tell the early story of The
University of Queensland Football Club
1953: The Chens, a Chinese diplomat’s family in Brisbane, has 5 sons and all love a bit of soccer. A newspaper clipping.
1955: UQ Soccer Club is founded! A club was founded at the St Lucia campus mainly to compete in the yearly competition between other Universities, the Intervarsity Games or IV. The side is captained by Sam Chen.
1956: UQ wins the Napier Cup, which is the IV competition name of that time.
1957: UQ retains the Napier Cup, joint winners with Melbourne University.
A summary here. Sam and Steve Chen were selected in a combined Universities side.
1960: UQ went to Armidale for the Australian Intervasity Carnival. They beat Sydney Uni in the first game 3-1 and Sel Chen scored a hatrick. Sydney had won the Cup the year before and were red hot to give UQ a hiding. Sel was subsequently fortunate to be selected in the Aus National Intervarsity side to play the Fiji National team. We had a terrific team that year and won the Premiership. The team comprised of Aussies, Indians, Ghanaians, Italian Chinese and Fijians.
1961: UQ travels to Adelaide for the IV games. One member of the party is D.Green (Doug), no relation to the Dion Green played (1995-2003) as far as we know. There are also a couple of newspaper typos. It should read Sam and Steve Chen (not Chew) and Alex Yakimoff.
1961: UQ’s soccer team is now playing in the Brisbane competition and is promoted to Division 2.
1962 (ish): A team of bachelors called the Untouchables is formed. Ironically in 2002 onwards UQSC again has a team called the Untouchables.
1989: UQ Soccer Club wins the Qantas Cup (now Metro Cup)
1991: UQ Soccer Club incorporated as the University of Queensland Soccer Club Incorporated (UQSC).
2005: UQSC is promoted to the Brisbane Premier League in the last year of the former Brisbane Soccer administration before its change to Football Brisbane in 2007. Unfortunately, Uni needed a win in their last game to avoid relegation but lost. They club started in Division 1 of the Brisbane Premier League in 2007.
2009: In an unprecedented move, UQSC’s Metro Division 1 and Metro Division 4 faced off against each other in the 2009 Football Brisbane Metro Cup Grand Final. Not only had a team below Division 2 never made the grand final, two teams from the same Club had never faced off against it other either. The Metro 1 side won 3-2 on the night, winning the Club’s first Cup silverware since 1989 (Qantas Cup). Some say this game was the cause of a change in the structure of the Cup formation…too much Uni for the establishment!
2010: Following a vote on a special resolution, on 8 June the Club officially changes its name from ‘University of Queensland Soccer Club Incorporated’ to ‘The University of Queensland Football Club Inc’.
2010: After four long seasons fighting it out in Division 1, UQFC’s Head Coach Glen Volker led the Club’s return to the top level in the Brisbane competition in 2011 – the Brisbane Premier League. For its stellar results across the board, the Club also received Football Brisbane’s Club of the Year award, Club Champions Trophy (Div 1) and Player of the Year (Div 1) to Club Captain, Dr Peter Moore.
2011: UQFC officially becomes the largest senior club in Queensland and the largest outdoor sporting club at the University, outright second only to the UQ Tennis Club.
2012: The University of Queensland Football Club Inc. merges with neighbouring Kenmore FC inc. to create ‘UQFC Inc.’. From 2013, the new club will compete in the newly restructured Brisbane Premier League, fielding ‘premier’ teams from U12, U13, U14, U15, U16, U18, Reserves and BPL grades.
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