Highlands Park FC
Encyclopedia
Highlands Park F.C. was an association football club in Johannesburg
(South Africa
), that existed from November 1959 to February 1983. In 1971, Highlands Park FC merged together with Powerlines FC from Nigel
-a city located 61 km southeast of Highlands North in Johannesburg, and also playing in the top flight NFL
.
But after playing only two seasons with the name Highlands Power FC in 1971-72, the club decided to change back its name to the more well-known Highlands Park FC in 1973.
Ahead of the 1979 season, the club signed a five year sponsor deal with Dion,
that soon introduced a lot of changes to the club. Beside of changing the players outfit to orange, the club also made an effort to maximize publicity of their new sponsor, by renaming the club to Dion Highlands FC in 1979. As the media however continued referring to the club simply as "Highlands", the club made the radical decision in February 1980, to skip the long lasting historical part of their name, with the official name being changed to Dion FC. Apparently this change however only lasted for a very short while in 1980, as the newspapers continued referring to the club as "Dion Highlands FC", in the subsequent years from 1981 to February 1983.
The club played its last official professional match at 12 February 1983, where the club lost the final of the special NPSL cup competition known as BP Top Eight Cup, with the score 0-2 to Orlando Pirates.
Ahead of the 1983-season, the club's league franchise for NPSL, was purchased by South African international football player Jomo Sono
. The professional remainder of the club was continued under the new club name Dion Cosmos, which ahead of the 1984-season was renamed to Jomo Cosmos
.
The amateur and youth department of the club, however continued to exist as an independent club, with the name "Balfour Park juniors" and the amateur seniors playing with the name "Highlands Park"; and they managed to re-establish the grand old amateur club as a new top-level professional phoenix club, when they got promoted to play in National Soccer League
for the 1991-season. After the 1991-season, the club had played well enough to avoid relegation, and was then bought by the relegated NSL club Port Elizabeth Blackpool
, as part of a merger deal, where the new team continued to play in Johannesburg and continued to compete with the name "Highlands Park FC".
When this merged club, once again had managed to avoid relegation after the 1992-season, this at the same time meant, that they ceased to exist. The professional side of the club and its NSL license, were bought by the new club Welkom Eagles, with a relocation of the team for the 1993-season, now to play 267 km away from Highlands North, in the city known as Welkom
.
A second phoenix club with the name "Highlands Park FC", was established with some more long lasting success in 2003. This club started out to play in the fourth tier of the South African Football league, known as SAFA Regional League
; and then got promoted in 2007 to compete at the third tier, known as Vodacom League
.
, Cricket
and Football. The club was located at Balfour Park in Highlands North, which is one of the northern suburbs of Johannesburg
. In 1935, Lucke Matus (also known as Louis Matus) became a Foundation Member of Balfour Park, and when he ended his playing career as a footballer, he became the chairman of "Balfour Park football section" from 1937 until 1951, and also worked as a member of the Southern Transvaal Football Association Executive Committee from 1947 until 1959. Despite only being involved with amateur football in his previous career, he had the vision to found Highlands Park FC, as a new professional football club in November 1959. The new professional club would coexist and share the same facilities, with the amateur side of the club, known as "Balfour Park Sports club".
In 1990 a newly formed professional team with the name Highlands Park FC, was created at the top of the amateur club. This new phoenix club, straight away managed to get promoted to play in the 1991 National Soccer League
, where the club finished at a respectable 9th place. Fellow National Soccer League team Port Elizabeth Blackpool
then opted to purchase the franchise and perform a merger with the club, after their own relegation in the same season. The name of the new merged club continued to be "Highlands Park FC", and the home matches of the club also continued to be played in Johannesburg.
After the club also in the next season, had managed to play well enough to avoid relegation, the team however ceased to exist, as the clubs sponsor Sharp Electronics did not want to prolong their sponsorship. Hence the club was forced to shut down, and sell their league license to new owners. The new owners created a new club Welkom Eagles, to play in Welkom
and replace "Highlands Park FC" in the National Soccer League 1993. As the city Welkom is located 267 kilometers southwest of Highlands North in Johannesburg, the new owners only had interest to buy the clubs league license and professional players, while the junior teams and senior amateur teams were not a part of the deal, and remained to exist as an independent amateur club for the following years, with matches still to be played at the Balfour Park Stadium.
As HP Silver Stars played their matches at the Peter Mokaba Stadium
in Polokwane
, 309 km northeast of Highlands North, it was however soon decided also to create a Silver Stars junior team in Polokwane. The collaboration between the two clubs now slowly ceased to exist, and after a few years "HP Silver Stars" decided to shorten their name to just "Silver Stars". Larry Brookstone however continued to work as the managing director of Silver Stars right until May 2007, where he sold his majority of shares to Royal Bafokeng Nation
, who moved the playing ground from Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane to Royal Bafokeng Stadium
in Phokeng
, and also renamed the club to Platinum Stars.
After the short term affiliation with Silver Stars, the Highlands Park amateur club had also continued to develop on its own. In 2003 the club had managed to create a second semi-professional Phoenix Club with the name Highlands Park FC. During the first four seasons, the reborn "Highlands Park FC" competed in the fourth tier of the South African football league, known as SAFA Regional League
. When the club had gained promotion in May 2007 to Vodacom League
, Larry Brookstone at the same time made the decision to dedicate all his energy and further investments to Highlands Park FC, where he today work as the CEO. The new long term official goal for the club was accordingly set, to become a re-established club in the top flight Premier Soccer League
.
In the next three seasons, at the Gauteng
division in Vodacom League, Highlands Park FC competed consistently at the top level, with a 3rd place, 8th place, and 6th place. At the subsequent 2010-11 season, the club even managed to win the Gauteng division. Thereby they qualified to the playoff stage, to be held by the end of May 2011, between the nine divisional winners -divided into two round rubin groups. The two group winners of the playoff stage, will both gain promotion for the National First Division
.
Head Coach: Zeca dos Santos
1st Assistant: Siza Maphala
2nd Assistant: Roger ‘Feutmba’ Tsola
Des Backos
(F) (1968–1973; 1978—1981) Mike Balson
(D) (1974—1978) George Blues (M) (1965) 8 apps, 1 goal Barry Bridges
(F) (1974–1975)
South Africa Mickey Brown
(D) (1974–1976; 1981—1982) Freddie Bunce
(F) (1964) 18 goals Chris Chilton
(F) (1974–1978) Martin Cohen (M) (1970–1976; 1978; 1980—1982) Mike Collins (F) (1980–1982) Walter Da Silva
(F) (1966—1967; 1971) 45 apps, 58 goals Trevor Dawkins
(D) (1977) South Africa Larry De Freitas (M) (1969–1979; 1980—1982) Ian Delacour (D) (1980–1982) Cliff Durandt
(D) (1967) 16 apps, 6 goals
Peter Firmani (D) (1960–1964) Les Fourie (M) (1968) 1 app. Gordon Frew (D) (1960–1962) Trevor Gething (GK) (1975—1977) Joe Gilroy
(F) (1971–1974) Alan Gilzean
(F) (1974–1975) Charlie Gough
(D) (1965–1973) Matt Gray
(F) (1968–1970) 16 apps, 5 goals
Peter Hauser
(M) (1969—1970) Danny Hegan
(M) (1974–1975) Tommy Henderson
(M) (1970–1971; 1976) Dave Hilley
(F) (1971–1973) Haydn Hough (GK) (1961—1962) Pip Hughes (F) (1960) 37 goals Bobby Hume (F) (1965–1970) 135 apps, 35 goals Gordon Igesund
(F) (1978—1979) Stan Jacobitz (D) (1961–1968) Hennie Joubert (D) (1972—1981) (Footballer of the Year 1972) Freddie Kalk (F/D) (1964–1973) (joint top scorer in the NFL 1965 with 33 goals; South African Player of the Year 1966) Julie Kaplan (M/D) (1966–1973; 1976–1982) Eugene Kleynhans (GK) (1971—1982) Mick Lambert
(M) (1979; 1980; 1982) Rafi Levi
(F) (1963–1968) 98 apps, 66 goals Stuart Lilley (D) (1971; 1974–1979; 1981–1982) George Luke Albert McCann (M) (1974–1975) Willie McIntosh (M) (1965–1967; 1969–1970) (Foreign Player of the Year 1966)
Tony Macedo
(GK) (1971–1973) Tommy Moffatt (GK) (1964–1965)
Ken Mokgojoa (M) (1979; 1981—1982) Bert Murray
(M) (1977–1978) Phil Ntsoseng (M) (1979)
Andy Parkinson
(F) (1976–1977; 1978) Vasco Pegado (F) (1961–1965; 1966—1967) South Africa Jingles Pereira (F) (1971) South Africa Manuel Pinheiro Dave Pygall (M) (1963–1964) Walter Rautmann (F) (1971) Malcolm Rufus (M) (1961–1968) (South African Player of the Year 1960 and 1965) George Ryder (GK) (1965–1968) 100 apps. Jorge Santoro (M) (1966–1967; 1971–1972) Gordon Sim (D) (1963—1964) Tony Smith (D) (1963—1965) Archie Soekoe (M) (1975) Alan Swan (D) (1979) Aubrey Tyrrell (GK) (1960–1964) Colin Viljoen
(M) (1975) Bobby Viljoen (F) (1967—1979) Craig Watson (M) (1973–1975) Geoff Wegerle
(M) (1979; 1982) Eddie Wiggill (D) (1961–1963) Ivan Correia de Araujo (S) (1966–1967; 1971–1972)
The first home match for the team in 1960 was however played at the nearby Rand Stadium
, located 12 km south from Balfour Park Stadium, presumably because the construction work of the clubs new stadium had not finished yet. In subsequent years, the club normally played all their home matches at Balfour Park Stadium, except for some of the bigger international club matches, where they instead opted to play at the nearby Rand Stadium
, with a higher capacity. The record home-attendance at Balfour Park Stadium, was set for the match against Durban City in 1963, where 13,500 spectators watched a 3-0 victory for Highlands.
The new phoenix club, moved to play their matches at Gemmel Park, being located at Gemmelstreet in Linksfield, approximately 4 km south from the previous Balfour Park Stadium. With the reason behind the move, that the previous stadium suddenly was rebuild, to become today's Balfour Park Shopping Mall. Because of the rebuild, the memorial gates from Balfour Park was given away to the Jewish Guild
club in Rivonia, being located 12 km north from the previous Balfour Park Stadium. Even though the Balfour Park Stadium no longer exist, there are still a couple of training grounds left next to the mall, where the junior clubs "Maccabi Team" and "Balfour Alexandra F.C." -also known as "Balfour Park F.C.", now are located. These junior clubs are however, in no way associated with the Highlands Park F.C. phoenix club.
When Highlands Park FC won promotion for Vodacom League
in 2007, the professional side of the club moved their training and home venue, 10 km northeast of Gemmel Park, now to be located at the Modderfontein Sports Club
. This bigger facility was until 2009, also being used as the training ground of the football club Platinum Stars
, with whom the owner of Highlands Park, Larry Brookstone, continued to hold some personal shares until November 2008. But except from sharing the training facility for a couple of years, there was no revival of the former collaboaration between the two clubs, which took place in 2000-2003.
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
(South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
), that existed from November 1959 to February 1983. In 1971, Highlands Park FC merged together with Powerlines FC from Nigel
Nigel, Gauteng
Nigel is a small gold mining town in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The town is on the edge of the area known as the East Rand, the industrial engine room of Johannesburg....
-a city located 61 km southeast of Highlands North in Johannesburg, and also playing in the top flight NFL
National Football League (South Africa)
The National Football League was the first professional association football league in South Africa. It was established in 1959, and was accompanied by a NFL Division II and NFL Division III in 1961 . The league was competitive during the apartheid era, and only white players were allowed to...
.
But after playing only two seasons with the name Highlands Power FC in 1971-72, the club decided to change back its name to the more well-known Highlands Park FC in 1973.
Ahead of the 1979 season, the club signed a five year sponsor deal with Dion,
that soon introduced a lot of changes to the club. Beside of changing the players outfit to orange, the club also made an effort to maximize publicity of their new sponsor, by renaming the club to Dion Highlands FC in 1979. As the media however continued referring to the club simply as "Highlands", the club made the radical decision in February 1980, to skip the long lasting historical part of their name, with the official name being changed to Dion FC. Apparently this change however only lasted for a very short while in 1980, as the newspapers continued referring to the club as "Dion Highlands FC", in the subsequent years from 1981 to February 1983.
The club played its last official professional match at 12 February 1983, where the club lost the final of the special NPSL cup competition known as BP Top Eight Cup, with the score 0-2 to Orlando Pirates.
Ahead of the 1983-season, the club's league franchise for NPSL, was purchased by South African international football player Jomo Sono
Jomo Sono
Ephraim Matsilela Sono is a South African soccer club owner and coach and was also a star soccer player....
. The professional remainder of the club was continued under the new club name Dion Cosmos, which ahead of the 1984-season was renamed to Jomo Cosmos
Jomo Cosmos
Jomo Cosmos is a South African football club based in Johannesburg that plays in the Premier Soccer League. The club is owned and coached by South African soccer legend Jomo "Black Prince" Sono....
.
The amateur and youth department of the club, however continued to exist as an independent club, with the name "Balfour Park juniors" and the amateur seniors playing with the name "Highlands Park"; and they managed to re-establish the grand old amateur club as a new top-level professional phoenix club, when they got promoted to play in National Soccer League
National Soccer League (South Africa)
The National Soccer League was a South African association football league established in 1985, as a response to boardroom disagreements in the new topflight non-racial league NPSL...
for the 1991-season. After the 1991-season, the club had played well enough to avoid relegation, and was then bought by the relegated NSL club Port Elizabeth Blackpool
Port Elizabeth Blackpool
Port Elizabeth Blackpool were a South African football club from Port Elizabeth, who played their last season in 1991....
, as part of a merger deal, where the new team continued to play in Johannesburg and continued to compete with the name "Highlands Park FC".
When this merged club, once again had managed to avoid relegation after the 1992-season, this at the same time meant, that they ceased to exist. The professional side of the club and its NSL license, were bought by the new club Welkom Eagles, with a relocation of the team for the 1993-season, now to play 267 km away from Highlands North, in the city known as Welkom
Welkom
Welkom is a city in the Free State province of South Africa, located 160 kilometres northeast of Bloemfontein, the provincial capital. Welkom received municipal status in 1961 and was declared a city in 1968 on the 14th of February...
.
A second phoenix club with the name "Highlands Park FC", was established with some more long lasting success in 2003. This club started out to play in the fourth tier of the South African Football league, known as SAFA Regional League
SAFA Regional League
The South African Breweries Regional League is a the fourth tier of domestic football in the South African football pyramid. There are 832 clubs competing in the competition.-Eastern Cape Province:* Alfred Nzo* Amathole* Cacadu* Chris Hani...
; and then got promoted in 2007 to compete at the third tier, known as Vodacom League
Vodacom League
Vodacom League, sometimes also referred to as Vodacom Promotional League, was founded in 1998 as the current Second Division and the overall third tier of South African football . The competition is regulated by SAFA, and sponsored by mobile telecommunications company Vodacom...
.
History
The Balfour Park Sports club was founded by the Jewish Norman Lourie. During the years, the club facilitated amateur teams within the sports disciplines Lawn BowlingBowls
Bowls is a sport in which the objective is to roll slightly asymmetric balls so that they stop close to a smaller "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a pitch which may be flat or convex or uneven...
, Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
and Football. The club was located at Balfour Park in Highlands North, which is one of the northern suburbs of Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
. In 1935, Lucke Matus (also known as Louis Matus) became a Foundation Member of Balfour Park, and when he ended his playing career as a footballer, he became the chairman of "Balfour Park football section" from 1937 until 1951, and also worked as a member of the Southern Transvaal Football Association Executive Committee from 1947 until 1959. Despite only being involved with amateur football in his previous career, he had the vision to found Highlands Park FC, as a new professional football club in November 1959. The new professional club would coexist and share the same facilities, with the amateur side of the club, known as "Balfour Park Sports club".
Achievements
- NFLNational Football League (South Africa)The National Football League was the first professional association football league in South Africa. It was established in 1959, and was accompanied by a NFL Division II and NFL Division III in 1961 . The league was competitive during the apartheid era, and only white players were allowed to...
Winner: 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1975 and 1977 - NPSLNational Premier Soccer League (South Africa)The National Premier Soccer League was the title of a South African association football league, between 1971 and 1995. During those years, the league however had three completely different organisations. In 1971-77 it was only for Black South African teams...
Winner: 1980 - NFL CupNFL Cup (association football)The NFL Cup was the cup competition of the National Football League in South Africa under Apartheid . It was established in 1959 and disbanded in 1977. The competition and only eligible to teams made up of White South Africans. It was widely known as the Castle Cup due to its sponsorship from...
Winner: 1961, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1973, 1975
Highlands Park FC (1990)
After the professional club had been sold, and ceased to exist in February 1983, the amateur side of the team and the "Balfour Park Juniors" continued to exist as independent teams, still playing at the Balfour Park Stadium. Some years later, the junior team merged with North City F.C., and the base of the club moved 4 km south from the previous Balfour Park Stadium, now to be located at Gemmel Park in Linksfield. The name of the merged junior club, however continued to be "Balfour Park juniors".In 1990 a newly formed professional team with the name Highlands Park FC, was created at the top of the amateur club. This new phoenix club, straight away managed to get promoted to play in the 1991 National Soccer League
National Soccer League (South Africa)
The National Soccer League was a South African association football league established in 1985, as a response to boardroom disagreements in the new topflight non-racial league NPSL...
, where the club finished at a respectable 9th place. Fellow National Soccer League team Port Elizabeth Blackpool
Port Elizabeth Blackpool
Port Elizabeth Blackpool were a South African football club from Port Elizabeth, who played their last season in 1991....
then opted to purchase the franchise and perform a merger with the club, after their own relegation in the same season. The name of the new merged club continued to be "Highlands Park FC", and the home matches of the club also continued to be played in Johannesburg.
After the club also in the next season, had managed to play well enough to avoid relegation, the team however ceased to exist, as the clubs sponsor Sharp Electronics did not want to prolong their sponsorship. Hence the club was forced to shut down, and sell their league license to new owners. The new owners created a new club Welkom Eagles, to play in Welkom
Welkom
Welkom is a city in the Free State province of South Africa, located 160 kilometres northeast of Bloemfontein, the provincial capital. Welkom received municipal status in 1961 and was declared a city in 1968 on the 14th of February...
and replace "Highlands Park FC" in the National Soccer League 1993. As the city Welkom is located 267 kilometers southwest of Highlands North in Johannesburg, the new owners only had interest to buy the clubs league license and professional players, while the junior teams and senior amateur teams were not a part of the deal, and remained to exist as an independent amateur club for the following years, with matches still to be played at the Balfour Park Stadium.
Highlands Park FC (2003)
Larry Brookstone got involved as the new owner of the Highlands Park amateur and junior club, already in 1996. When he subsequently in 2000, also opted to purchase a 50% ownership of the football club Silver Stars, he decided together with the other owner of Silver Stars, to create a fruitful collaboration between the two clubs. This ment, that the professional Silver Stars top club, became renamed to "HP Silver Stars", while the Highlands Park junior team for a couple of years worked as the nursery team for the club.As HP Silver Stars played their matches at the Peter Mokaba Stadium
Peter Mokaba Stadium
The Peter Mokaba Stadium is a football stadium in Polokwane , South Africa, that was used for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It has a capacity of 41,733. and was named after Peter Mokaba, a former leader of the ANC Youth League...
in Polokwane
Polokwane
Polokwane, meaning "Place of Safety",is a city in the Polokwane Local Municipality and the capital of the Limpopo province, South Africa. It is also often referred to by its former name, Pietersburg. Polokwane is a major urban centre, the biggest and most important north of Gauteng. The population...
, 309 km northeast of Highlands North, it was however soon decided also to create a Silver Stars junior team in Polokwane. The collaboration between the two clubs now slowly ceased to exist, and after a few years "HP Silver Stars" decided to shorten their name to just "Silver Stars". Larry Brookstone however continued to work as the managing director of Silver Stars right until May 2007, where he sold his majority of shares to Royal Bafokeng Nation
Royal Bafokeng Nation
The Royal Bafokeng Nation is the ethnic homeland of the Bafokeng people, a Setswana-speaking traditional community. The monarchy covers in the North West Province of South Africa. The administrative capital is Phokeng, near Rustenburg. "Bafokeng" is used to refer to both the tribal grouping as...
, who moved the playing ground from Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane to Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Royal Bafokeng Stadium
The Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace is a football, rugby and athletics stadium in Phokeng near Rustenburg, South Africa It was built and is managed by the Royal Bafokeng Nation.. It is used as the home stadium for Premier Soccer League club Platinum Stars...
in Phokeng
Phokeng
Phokeng is a town in the North West province of South Africa. It is the capital of the Royal Bafokeng Nation and lies near Rustenburg.-Etymology:Phokeng gained its name from the Setswana word for dew, Phoka, hence Place of dew...
, and also renamed the club to Platinum Stars.
After the short term affiliation with Silver Stars, the Highlands Park amateur club had also continued to develop on its own. In 2003 the club had managed to create a second semi-professional Phoenix Club with the name Highlands Park FC. During the first four seasons, the reborn "Highlands Park FC" competed in the fourth tier of the South African football league, known as SAFA Regional League
SAFA Regional League
The South African Breweries Regional League is a the fourth tier of domestic football in the South African football pyramid. There are 832 clubs competing in the competition.-Eastern Cape Province:* Alfred Nzo* Amathole* Cacadu* Chris Hani...
. When the club had gained promotion in May 2007 to Vodacom League
Vodacom League
Vodacom League, sometimes also referred to as Vodacom Promotional League, was founded in 1998 as the current Second Division and the overall third tier of South African football . The competition is regulated by SAFA, and sponsored by mobile telecommunications company Vodacom...
, Larry Brookstone at the same time made the decision to dedicate all his energy and further investments to Highlands Park FC, where he today work as the CEO. The new long term official goal for the club was accordingly set, to become a re-established club in the top flight Premier Soccer League
Premier Soccer League
Premier Soccer League is the trading name of the National Soccer League of South Africa. The top league is the ABSA Premiership, sponsored by ABSA...
.
In the next three seasons, at the Gauteng
Gauteng
Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994...
division in Vodacom League, Highlands Park FC competed consistently at the top level, with a 3rd place, 8th place, and 6th place. At the subsequent 2010-11 season, the club even managed to win the Gauteng division. Thereby they qualified to the playoff stage, to be held by the end of May 2011, between the nine divisional winners -divided into two round rubin groups. The two group winners of the playoff stage, will both gain promotion for the National First Division
National First Division
The National First Division is the second-highest league of South African club football after the Premier Soccer League . Both the NFD and PSL are organised by the National Soccer League.-For seasons in 2007-11:...
.
Team squad in 2010-11
The list below highlight the teams most valuable players as of May 2011, according to the South African soccer site KickOff.Head Coach: Zeca dos Santos
1st Assistant: Siza Maphala
2nd Assistant: Roger ‘Feutmba’ Tsola
Notable former players
The players included have won international caps, league representative honours or other major honours, such as FA Cup final medals, league championships etc.Des Backos
Desmond Backos
Desmond Backos was a footballer who played in The Football League for Stoke City. He made two appearances for Stoke.-References:...
(F) (1968–1973; 1978—1981) Mike Balson
Mike Balson
Mike Balson is a retired English professional association football defender who played professionally in England, South Africa and the United States. He currently lives in the United States where he has served several decades as a referee as well as a team and league executive...
(D) (1974—1978) George Blues (M) (1965) 8 apps, 1 goal Barry Bridges
Barry Bridges
Barry John Bridges is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Chelsea, Birmingham City, Queens Park Rangers, Millwall and Brighton & Hove Albion and was capped four times for England....
(F) (1974–1975)
South Africa Mickey BrownMickey Brown
Mickey Brown is an English former professional football player.Born in Birmingham in 1968, Brown played for several clubs, including Shrewsbury Town, Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End.-Career :...
(D) (1974–1976; 1981—1982) Freddie Bunce
Freddie Bunce
Frederick Bunce, also known as Freddie or Frank Bunce was an English footballer. He played as a left winger in England and later South Africa...
(F) (1964) 18 goals Chris Chilton
Chris Chilton
Christopher Roy "Chris" Chilton is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Hull City and Coventry City. Chilton is Hull City's all-time top scorer, with 222 goals in all competitions...
(F) (1974–1978) Martin Cohen (M) (1970–1976; 1978; 1980—1982) Mike Collins (F) (1980–1982) Walter Da Silva
Walter da Silva
Walter Cesar Nogueira da Silva was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a striker. Active primarily in South Africa – scoring a total of 162 goals for Highlands Park, Powerlines, Hellenic and Berea Park – Da Silva was also a football manager, and had coached Orlando...
(F) (1966—1967; 1971) 45 apps, 58 goals Trevor Dawkins
Trevor Dawkins
Trevor Dawkins is a retired English professional football defender. He spent seven seasons in the Football League, five in South Africa, and seven in the United States, most in indoor leagues. Following his retirement in 1985, he coached for fourteen years in the U.S. indoor leagues...
(D) (1977)
South Africa Larry De Freitas (M) (1969–1979; 1980—1982) Ian Delacour (D) (1980–1982) Cliff DurandtCliff Durandt
Clifford Michael Durandt was a South African footballer who played as a winger.He played in the English First Division for Wolverhampton Wanderers, with whom he won the league title...
(D) (1967) 16 apps, 6 goals
Peter Firmani (D) (1960–1964) Les Fourie (M) (1968) 1 app. Gordon Frew (D) (1960–1962) Trevor Gething (GK) (1975—1977) Joe GilroyJoe Gilroy
Joe Gilroy , is a Scottish former football striker.Joe Gilroy began his career with Queens Park, where at 16 years old he made a handful of appearances alongside Sir Alex Ferguson. Studying at The Scottish School of Physical Education with Craig Brown and Andy Roxburgh, he played for The Scottish...
(F) (1971–1974) Alan Gilzean
Alan Gilzean
Alan John Gilzean is a former professional footballer from the 1960s and 1970s and played for Dundee in his native country and English club Tottenham Hotspur.-Dundee:...
(F) (1974–1975) Charlie Gough
Charlie Gough
Charlie Gough was a Scottish professional footballer who played four league games in England for Charlton Athletic in the 1964–65 season. Gough also played for Alton Town in England and Highlands Park in South Africa. His son is fellow player Richard Gough.-References:...
(D) (1965–1973) Matt Gray
Matt Gray
Matt Gray is a Scottish former footballer, who played for Third Lanark and Manchester City. After leaving City in 1967, Gray emigrated to South Africa, where he continued his football career.- References :...
(F) (1968–1970) 16 apps, 5 goals
Peter Hauser
Peter Hauser
Peter Benjamin Hauser played professional football for Blackpool before becoming player-manager of Chester in 1963...
(M) (1969—1970) Danny Hegan
Danny Hegan
Daniel "Danny" Hegan is a Scottish-born former professional footballer, who represented Northern Ireland at international level....
(M) (1974–1975) Tommy Henderson
Tommy Henderson (footballer)
Tommy Henderson is a former professional footballer who played as a right winger for Leeds United, Bury, Swindon Town, Stockport County in the 1960s.-Playing career:...
(M) (1970–1971; 1976) Dave Hilley
Dave Hilley
Dave Hilley is a Scottish former footballer, who played for Third Lanark, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest. After leaving Forest Hilley emigrated to South Africa, where he continued his football career....
(F) (1971–1973) Haydn Hough (GK) (1961—1962) Pip Hughes (F) (1960) 37 goals Bobby Hume (F) (1965–1970) 135 apps, 35 goals Gordon Igesund
Gordon Igesund
Gordon Igesund is a former South African football player and coach who became manager of Premier Soccer League club Moroka Swallows in 2010.-Playing career:...
(F) (1978—1979) Stan Jacobitz (D) (1961–1968) Hennie Joubert (D) (1972—1981) (Footballer of the Year 1972) Freddie Kalk (F/D) (1964–1973) (joint top scorer in the NFL 1965 with 33 goals; South African Player of the Year 1966) Julie Kaplan (M/D) (1966–1973; 1976–1982) Eugene Kleynhans (GK) (1971—1982) Mick Lambert
Mick Lambert
Michael Arnold Lambert started his career with Newmarket Town F.C...
(M) (1979; 1980; 1982) Rafi Levi
Rafi Levi
Rafi Levi is an Israeli footballer, who played most of his career in Maccabi Tel Aviv.Levi won twice the Season Top Scorer award. First time in the 1957–58 season with 19 goals and for the second time during the 1959–60 season with 15 goals...
(F) (1963–1968) 98 apps, 66 goals Stuart Lilley (D) (1971; 1974–1979; 1981–1982) George Luke Albert McCann (M) (1974–1975) Willie McIntosh (M) (1965–1967; 1969–1970) (Foreign Player of the Year 1966)
Tony MacedoTony Macedo
Tony Macedo is a Gibraltarian former professional association football goalkeeper who spent nearly his whole career at Fulham. He played 346 league games and a total of 391 matches in all competitions. He ended his career in 1968 after suffering a string of injuries.He was born in Gibraltar in 1938...
(GK) (1971–1973) Tommy Moffatt (GK) (1964–1965)
Ken Mokgojoa (M) (1979; 1981—1982) Bert Murray
Bert Murray
Albert George "Bert" Murray is an English former footballer who played as a winger. He played more than 100 games in the Football League for each of his four clubs, namely Chelsea, Birmingham City, Brighton & Hove Albion and Peterborough United...
(M) (1977–1978) Phil Ntsoseng (M) (1979)
Andy ParkinsonAndrew Parkinson (soccer)
Andrew Parkinson is a retired South African-American soccer forward who pent time playing in both South Africa and England before immigrating to the U.S. where he played five seasons in the North American Soccer League, two in Major Indoor Soccer League and one in the American Soccer League. ...
(F) (1976–1977; 1978) Vasco Pegado (F) (1961–1965; 1966—1967)
South Africa Jingles Pereira (F) (1971) South Africa Manuel Pinheiro Dave Pygall (M) (1963–1964) Walter Rautmann (F) (1971) Malcolm Rufus (M) (1961–1968) (South African Player of the Year 1960 and 1965) George Ryder (GK) (1965–1968) 100 apps. Jorge Santoro (M) (1966–1967; 1971–1972) Gordon Sim (D) (1963—1964) Tony Smith (D) (1963—1965) Archie Soekoe (M) (1975) Alan Swan (D) (1979) Aubrey Tyrrell (GK) (1960–1964) Colin ViljoenColin Viljoen
Colin Viljoen is a South Africa-born former footballer who played in midfield for English teams Ipswich Town, Manchester City and Chelsea. He also won two caps for England.-Biography:...
(M) (1975) Bobby Viljoen (F) (1967—1979) Craig Watson (M) (1973–1975) Geoff Wegerle
Geoff Wegerle
Geoff Wegerle is a retired South African soccer forward who played professionally in Europe, South Africa and the North American Soccer League....
(M) (1979; 1982) Eddie Wiggill (D) (1961–1963) Ivan Correia de Araujo (S) (1966–1967; 1971–1972)
Stadium
In November 1959, at the same time when the Balfour Park amateur club decided to create the professional club Highlands Park FC, the club also started to construct Balfour Park Stadium.The first home match for the team in 1960 was however played at the nearby Rand Stadium
Rand Stadium
Rand Stadium is a stadium in Rosettenville, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is set to be utilized as a training field for teams participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup after being completely rebuilt and reopened in August 2008....
, located 12 km south from Balfour Park Stadium, presumably because the construction work of the clubs new stadium had not finished yet. In subsequent years, the club normally played all their home matches at Balfour Park Stadium, except for some of the bigger international club matches, where they instead opted to play at the nearby Rand Stadium
Rand Stadium
Rand Stadium is a stadium in Rosettenville, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is set to be utilized as a training field for teams participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup after being completely rebuilt and reopened in August 2008....
, with a higher capacity. The record home-attendance at Balfour Park Stadium, was set for the match against Durban City in 1963, where 13,500 spectators watched a 3-0 victory for Highlands.
The new phoenix club, moved to play their matches at Gemmel Park, being located at Gemmelstreet in Linksfield, approximately 4 km south from the previous Balfour Park Stadium. With the reason behind the move, that the previous stadium suddenly was rebuild, to become today's Balfour Park Shopping Mall. Because of the rebuild, the memorial gates from Balfour Park was given away to the Jewish Guild
Jewish Guild
The Jewish Guild is a social club in South Africa that was founded in the late 19th century. In its heyday, they fielded a football side that came runners up in the South African cup competition and even fielded George Best.-History:...
club in Rivonia, being located 12 km north from the previous Balfour Park Stadium. Even though the Balfour Park Stadium no longer exist, there are still a couple of training grounds left next to the mall, where the junior clubs "Maccabi Team" and "Balfour Alexandra F.C." -also known as "Balfour Park F.C.", now are located. These junior clubs are however, in no way associated with the Highlands Park F.C. phoenix club.
When Highlands Park FC won promotion for Vodacom League
Vodacom League
Vodacom League, sometimes also referred to as Vodacom Promotional League, was founded in 1998 as the current Second Division and the overall third tier of South African football . The competition is regulated by SAFA, and sponsored by mobile telecommunications company Vodacom...
in 2007, the professional side of the club moved their training and home venue, 10 km northeast of Gemmel Park, now to be located at the Modderfontein Sports Club
Modderfontein Stadium
Modderfontein Stadium is a multi-use stadium situated in the Modderfontein area of the district Lethabong, which is a part of the Johannesburg municipality, at the Gauteng province in South Africa. Currently it is mostly used to host football matches....
. This bigger facility was until 2009, also being used as the training ground of the football club Platinum Stars
Platinum Stars
Platinum Stars are a South African association football club based in Phokeng near Rustenburg, North West Province that plays in the Premier Soccer League...
, with whom the owner of Highlands Park, Larry Brookstone, continued to hold some personal shares until November 2008. But except from sharing the training facility for a couple of years, there was no revival of the former collaboaration between the two clubs, which took place in 2000-2003.