THE Fulton family are among St Pat's hockey royalty, and on Friday night a new generation was inducted into the history books, when Brad Fulton was named as a life member of the club.
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Fulton received his award at the annual St Pat's hockey presentation evening at Panthers, with former club president and fellow life member, Dave Watson, making a special appearance on the evening to present the award.
Watson and Fulton worked closely for many years running St Pats.
As he presented the award Watson said he was very honoured to be invited to present the honour to Brad, an award he said "was well overdue."
"He is a man who deserved this a long time ago," he said.
Watson joked saying he calls him "Sir Brad Fulton" but was serious when he said the older generation were well aware that the Fulton family have been a massive part of the club since 1937.
"The Fulton family, the Howards, the Naylors. A lot of men made us juniors become very good hockey players ... and some went on to play for Australia," he said.
He said Fulton was smart, and offered great support during his tenure as club president.
"Sir Brad Fulton came on board with me and said 'I'll back you Dave you know what you're doing, you know what you want for the club'," Watson said.
"And from that day up until now he backed me, and in backing me, he also backed all of you. He's been a player and a coach and a lot of people know exactly what he has achieved.
"He helped me out during my presidency, running the club presentation nights, registration days and a lot more.
Accepting the award, Fulton said he was surprised and thanked everyone.
He spoke of his first memories with the club, a Pat's presentation night at the Majellan Bowling Club.
"Pats had a club there and we used to run around as kids," he said.
"I've got a few memories growing up that have really stuck with me major events like when I started playing when I was about seven, training down at Morse Park under a couple of very dim 60 watt light bulbs back in the day," he laughed.
He recalled moving into seniors with Darryl Flannagan, Denis Harvey, Ray Howard and that crew.
"Stepping into first grade and Tareena Avenue (in Kelso, where the team used to run up for training) it was friggin' hard," he said.
"Training was so hard, but we didn't really care because it was more of a case of hanging round with our mates and so I don't really remember anyone really complaining.
"It was more about being able to hang around each other and the fact you had to piggy band some guy who weighed 80kgs up Tarenna Avenue, which is 400m up hill.... that just pales into the bigger picture, that's the type of friends that we were."
He said he recalled Watson asking him to show up and help out in the club.
"I thought I may as well do something, either that or mow the lawn, so I decided to do that," he said.
"That was 16 years ago. And the thing is I'm still playing."
Fulton's parting message was about the friendships he has made through his time at St Pat's.
"All my friend been hockey players, I don't think I have any friends that don't play for Pat's," he said.
"I don't think I really know other people."
Fulton said he loves the club so much he plans to remain involved for many years to come.
"I don't really think I'm going anywhere, I've got visions of me at 85 and up here doing presentation night," he laughed.
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