“The Fighting Swan,” motto of Swan Districts Football Club, has been exemplified by the tenacity and toughness of many who have donned the black and white over the years, but none more so than Wally Brown.A dedicated, reliable player who was a tower of strength through many years of struggle for the club, he was also a key part of the rejuvenation of 1961.And his courageous performance in the grand final of that year was a factor in the inspirational win. As Bassendean and Midland erupted into a massive party, Wally Brown was in a hospital bed suffering from a broken cheekbone. It was an injury he received in the first quarter of the game, one that got steadily worse as the game went on, one that would eventually finish a fine league career, but one that wasn’t enough to drag the defender from Subiaco Oval until late in the game.That was the essence of Wally Brown.Son of an Everton soccer player who went to war at sixteen and a half and lived in the same house as world champion boxer Jack Dempsey, Brown was a boxer from an early age, belting his hands into verandah posts to toughen them up. His stepbrother, Jim, was a welterweight champion of the Army.When the Brown family moved from Kondinin to Bayswater, Wally quickly got into swimming, cricket, and athletics. He was a gifted sportsman, winning a junior State High  Jump Championship, finishing third in a junior State Swimming Championship as a fourteen year old in 1947, and captained the Bassendean third side in the WACA competition, with another future Swan Districts defender, Colin Maynard, his vice captain.Wally found time to play initially in the Cobbers Competition with Bayswater before playing in both the Temperance League and Metro Juniors. Brown senior was a huge Swan Districts supporter, and when he found the abode of the family happened to be on the wrong side of King William Street to tie the boy to Swan Districts the house was quickly on the market and a purchase made in Beechboro.   The young Wally Brown was making a name for himself as a forward, with regular bags of twelve and thirteen and one of twenty four, and it wasn’t long before he was invited to Bassendean. At sixteen and a half he lined up with Swans reserves, polling highly in the Prendergast Medal, and was an initial selection for a State Schoolboys side but was unable to take his place in the team. A phone call from junior coach Charlie Avery, advising him that a State junior side would be sent to play in Victoria that year, and that Wally would have an excellent opportunity of selection if he were to return to the junior competition, sent him to the Bassendean under age club.When eventually selected in the touring party, with many others who would go on to league ranks, including Ray Gabelich, Ray Marinko, Laurie Kettlewell, Bill Leuzzi, Roy Harper, Gus Glendinning, Des Foynes, and cricketer Ron Gaunt, he justified the faith shown by Avery by winning the fairest and best award in a WA contingent that performed extra well.  He also booted six goals in one of the interstate contests.Collingwood secretary Gordon Carlyne spotted Brown’s potential, and showed him the sights of Melbourne, with a visit to Victoria Park. Gabelich joined the pair, and while Brown wasn’t tempted by an offer to work in Bob Rose’s sportstore, Gabelich stayed. Ray Gabelich went on to play a hundred and sixty one games for the Pies, and won a fairest and best for the club..Returning to Swan Districts, Brown made his league debut late in the 1954 season, and booted one goal seven in his first game. Moved to the ruck the following week, he polled seven Sandover Medal votes in the remaining eight games. Brown’s athleticism and marking ability made up for a disadvantage in height against the bigger ruckmen of the day, including McIntosh, Farmer, and O’Connell, and his pace around the ground made the six footer a handy and versatile player in a battling side. The termination of Percy Johnson’s coaching position at Bassendean was a highly controversial move at the time, but Johnson’s legacy was to invigorate the careers of two of the club’s greatest players.  His reinvention of Fred Castledine is freely acknowledged by Castledine, and the move of Brown to defence was a masterstroke. Playing against South Fremantle, Wally was moved onto John Gerovich after full back Joe Lawson experienced early difficulties against the talented aerialist, and his display in the remainder of the game earned him three Sandover Medal votes. Brown went from strength to strength as a backman, and was runner up to West Perth’s Brian Foley at the end of season Medal count.  His efforts were also rewarded at State level with selection in Western Australia’s number two side’s two games against Hawthorn that year, where he lined up on a half back flank. Brown was one of Swan Districts stars in their premiership year of 1961, finishing third in the club’s fairest and best voting. His performance in playing out most of the grand final battling pain and double vision after breaking a cheekbone in the first quarter was inspirational for the side. It was only the rare sight of seeing Brown drop a mark at about the ten minute mark of the final term that convinced coach Bunton to take him from the ground.   The after effects of the grand final injury were to force Brown out of league football at the beginning of the 1963 season. After running into an elbow in 1962 aggravated the injury his football future was at stake. “I was doing the pre season in sixty three and felt I was going alright, but Bunton wasn’t so sure, he said he’d hate to see me running around in the seconds,” he said. Wally was quickly snapped up South West club Boyanup-Capel-Dardanup, and proved Bunton wrong by winning the Hayward Medal for fairest and best in the SWNFL despite playing just fifteen games. In 1964 Brown went to Ballidu, where he is now a life member, as captain coach, and the club went from last to first. Winning another Association fairest and best award, he coached the Goomalling Association side during his years there, and was later included in the Goomalling Association Team of the Century, along with former East Fremantle star, Jack Clarke. Then followed a stint at Toodyay, where another club fairest and best lobbed onto the mantelpiece at the age of thirty six. A rise from last to second was completed a year later when the side went premiers, albeit without Brown, who was back with Swan Districts coaching the club’s colts side. After a dispute with Billy Walker over the President’s plan to play two country players in the grand final, Wally quit Bassendean Oval. “I was told to play two blokes from the bush on grand final day and leave out two who’d trained all year,” Brown said. “I wouldn’t do it.”“As it turned out the pair never showed and the team lost the grand final.”Wally then coached the newly-created Cloverdale club, as well as mentoring Calingiri , before taking over the Swan Districts combined under eighteen side. A milk tanker driver for many years, Wally is living at Bullsbrook these days with wife Dawn, and until recently worked at Chequers Golf Club, where he tried unsuccessfully to lower his handicap. Son Wayne played sixteen games with Swan Districts before an injured back forced early retirement, but found a career in softball, where he won All Australian selection. Wally is especially proud of daughter Kaylene Gronow, who overcame health problems to become a successful horse trainer, with Ropak’s win in the1991 Hannans Handicap, ridden by Paul Harvey, among many racetrack wins. Brown found Subiaco’s Laurie Kettlewell more than a handful, and had a lot of time for team mates Billy Walker, Keith Slater, Brian Gray, and Ken Bagley. Wally Brown’s career at Swan Districts encompassed almost a decade, and he was among the stars of 1961. He developed into one of the club’s great defenders, playing a hundred and thirty six games and kicking fifty six goals.