HOURS after the Knights beat Manly in the 1997 ARL grand final, the team bus stopped at what was then known as Marathon Stadium and picked up two passengers for the final leg of the journey into town for the victory party at Newcastle Workers Club.
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Graham Hardes, the Knights’ first chief executive, and one of the unsung heroes of the club’s formative years, was one of those men dragged on board.
Even as his health deteriorated in the past 15 years, Mr Hardes described that trip as the best bus ride he had ever taken, on one of the greatest nights of his life.
Aged 71, Mr Hardes died on Thursday night after a long, debilitating battle with dementia, Parkinson’s disease, an oesophageal tumour and related illnesses.
Leigh Maughan, his lifelong friend and Knights fellow founding father, was the other extra passenger on the Knights bus: ‘‘That was the greatest 20 minutes we ever spent in football, me and Hardesy on the bus with grown men, who’d just won a comp, with tears in their eyes thanking us for giving them an opportunity.’’
Mr Hardes lived most of his life in and around Lambton, and represented NSW Primary Schools as a hooker.
He was secretary of Western Suburbs schoolboys for three years, held the same position with the Newcastle junior league, then took the helm at the Newcastle Rugby League in 1981 and helped oversee the birth of the Knights.
He was replaced as Knights chief executive in 1991 but he remained in management positions, was appointed stadium operations manager in 1994 and retired in early 2000.
His funeral service will be at 1pm on Tuesday in Hamilton.
