The Box Hill Hawks Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the Victorian Football League (VFL). It has a reserves affiliation with the Hawthorn Football Club, which plays in the Australian Football League (AFL).
History
Early Australian rules football in Box Hill (1903–1935) Organised Australian rules football within the municipality of Box Hill can be traced back to the year 1903. In that year Mr EFG Hodges, the proprietor of the "Reporter" newspaper, founded the "Reporter District Football Association". The six foundation teams were Bayswater, Box Hill, Canterbury, Ferntree Gully, Mitcham and Ringwood. This Box Hill team played on a ground approximately 400 metres south of where Box Hill City Oval is located today, the site is now partly occupied by the Box Hill High School and the Box Hill Cemetery. This team is wholly unrelated to the Box Hill Hawks Football Club of today but was the first team to be known as Box Hill and was the first Australian rules football team in the municipality.
In 1921 a team known as the Box Hill Junior Football Club participated in local competition and in 1923 the Eastern Suburban Protestant Churches Football Association was formed with two teams representing Box Hill; Box Hill United and Box Hill City. The Box Hill City Football Club was the fore-runner of the present day club and was the first to wear the brown and gold uniform associated with later Box Hill teams. In 1932 the Eastern Suburban Football League formed with Box Hill City as a foundation member. In 1935 Box Hill City merged with Box Hill East. Prior to the 1936 season Box Hill East, Box Hill District and Box Hill Methodists all merged to become the Box Hill Football Club and this event is now generally regarded as the formation of the present day Club.
ESFL (1936–1950)
The newly formed Box Hill Football Club played at Surrey Park in 1936 and competed in the Eastern Suburbs Football League (ESFL) "B" Grade; qualifying for the Grand Final but being defeated by Hartwell. Both Grand Finalists were promoted to "A" Grade for season 1937 and in its first season in the higher grade Box Hill again reached the Grand Final, this time being defeated by Auburn.
In 1938 the team moved to the newly constructed Box Hill City Oval after the land south of Whitehorse Road was acquired by the Box Hill Cemetery Trust. The new oval was designed and constructed by the City Engineer, Mr FW Kerr, and provided first class facilities including grand stand with changing rooms and covered races, recorder board, conveniences, committee rooms, timekeeper's box and a kiosk. Chain mesh partitions were provided for the "inner" and "outer" spectator viewing areas. At the time the ground was regarded as the equal of any in Victoria.
In 1939 the "A" Grade premiership was won but the team withdrew from the ESFL after 11 rounds of the 1940 season as the logistics of fielding a team became impossible due to players enlisting for the War effort. The ESFL itself went into recess from 1942 to 1944 before resuming in 1945. Box Hill won the 1945 and 1946 "East Section" premierships (with fuel restrictions in force in the years immediately after World War II, the ESFL divided into "East" and "West" sections to minimise travel). A third consecutive premiership was narrowly missed with the 1947 grand final being lost by 1 point to Mitcham. Box Hill was again defeated in the 1948 and 1949 grand finals, on each occasion by Ringwood. In 1950, in what was to prove Box Hill's final season in the ESFL, it lost the first semi-final to Tooronga by 1 point. During its 11 seasons in the ESFL, Box Hill only failed to qualify for the grand final on 3 occasions – 1938, 1940 (when the club withdrew mid-season) and 1950.
Towards the end of the 1940s the Victorian Football Association adopted an expansionist policy aimed at bringing senior football to the newer and younger suburbs of Melbourne, a policy that would see the VFA increase in numbers from twelve to twenty Clubs by the mid-1960s. The first two Clubs admitted under this new strategy were Box Hill and Moorabbin who, at the end of the 1950 season, were invited to field teams in the VFA for the 1951 season.
VFA (1951–1995)
The Box Hill Football Club made its debut in the VFA on Saturday 21 April 1951, at Preston. The team lost to Preston 7.9(51) to 16.14(110). Success did not come readily at first as the team largely based on its ESFL players and local juniors struggled to make the transition to senior football. The only premiership points gained during this first season were recorded in a drawn match against Williamstown at home in Round 13.