When the Knox Little Athletics Centre first started in the 1968/69 season, each team was associated with a Primary School. Fairpark Little Athletics Club was formed by the families of the students at Fairhills Primary School. Kent Park Primary did not exist back then and the Ferntree Gully Primary School was associated with the Dorset Little Athletics Club. The Fairhills school served the children of the new housing estates of Fairhills and Johnson Park. The area was bounded by Scoresby Road, Burwood Hwy, McMahons Road and Blind Creek and the land was formerly apple orchards owned by Jim & Alice Johnson. The team name was the combination of these two housing estate names. Other junior sporting teams from the school were the Fairpark Netball Club and Fairpark (now Eastern Lions) Junior Football Club. The housing estate of Kent Park bounded between Burwood Hwy, Ferntree Gully and Scoresby Roads came under the Fairpark club when the estate was developed in the early 1970’s.
Fairhills school served the housing estates Fairhills and Johnson Park, explaining the name:
Fairpark = Fairhills + Johnson Park
This first season was held on a grass track on the oval at the Boronia High School, which today is a housing estate. This was opposite the Knox Leisure Centre on Tormore road. Fairpark is one of the foundation clubs of the Knox Centre and the age groups then were only from U/8 to U/12’s. The uniform chosen was a green T-shirt with white shorts and socks. An “age group” number around 40mm square in size was sewn on the upper front left side and a vinyl number patch sewn on the back. Coloured T-Shirts in quantity were hard to come by in the late 1960’s so a batch of white T-Shirts were ordered and these were dyed green which came out as very light green colour. The first Knox Championships were held in 1969 at the Boronia High School oval.
The Fairpark Best Overall Athlete Shield used today for the Junior athletes was donated by Club Patron Ed Theakston at the end of the 1968/69 season. As no club points were being tallied throughout this first season, all athlete result ticket books were obtained upon the season end and were tallied to determine the winner, which was audited by Knox Centre Exec member Brian Maguire from the St John’s Club. The Shield was presented to the winner U/10 Stephen Egan at the Fairhills Primary School assembly.
The first Cross Country season in 1969 was on cow paddocks in Knoxfield in Ferntree Gully Road, which today is the Gilbert Park Softball grounds. Cross Country was only conducted fortnightly. In the first Knox Centre Cross Country Championships, our best result was by U/10 Terry Gardiner who won a Gold Medal in the 1600m in a Knox Centre record time of 7min 44 sec which still stands today as the following season, the distance became 1500m. The other winners were a Silver Medal by Terry’s Fairpark team-mate U/10 Stephen Egan and U/9 Bruce Webb won a Bronze Medal in the 1600m for Fairpark.
In the 1969/70 season, the Track & Field competition had moved to a grass track at Chandler Park in Boronia. New club T-Shirts were ordered which was much darker emerald green shade. Athlete results were recorded weekly and Age Group Trophies were presented at the end of the season for the first time. The “Ed Theakston” Shield for Fairpark Best Overall athlete was won by the Knox Centre Discus specialist U/10 Roger Williams.
The second Knox Centre Cross Country season in 1970 was hosted at Fairpark Reserve around the two ovals and along Blind Creek.