A Life’s Work – The SSR Almanac Story
A large portion of my life’s work has been the development of all-encompassing history of the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the SSR Almanac. The story of the SSR Almanac is a story in itself and has been undergoing evolutions for almost 50 years.
Back in the summer of 1974-75 during Ashes series when Lillee and Thommo would dominate the Poms, the idea of doing an overall statistical history or rugby league was born. That season I, as a mere 11 years old developed my first edition. By 1977 this had evolved into a typewriter edition recording all of the game’s scorers.
The Computer
With high school over and studying computing, my vision upgraded into Commodore 64 format and developed one of the first ever computer-based Souths histories. This 300+ page version was reviewed at Souths Leagues by players and fans.
Originally known as the “Encyclopedia of South Sydney”, it covered many things like the full list of First Grade players, match results against all teams in all competitions, photos of players from every era.
With the arrival of the web in the early 90s the first ever South Sydney website was prepared and I dabbled with the IRLWWW the International Rugby League World Wide Web just as the Super League war broke out. At a time before online newspapers, it became the way of basically communicating the daily SL war events as they were unfolding.
Not suprisingly a lull came over things as the reality of Souths being kicked out took hold, while at work I focused on the dreaded Y2K bug.
A Web History
But with reinstatement the idea of a web history of the South Sydney subsequently took hold. I was deploying laptops and mobile phones at work and started using them to communicate match progress. It was now time for the online SSR Almanac.
The SSR Almanac by the end of 2022 had evolved into well over 6000 pages of match and every player information (senior and junior) covering all 115 seasons from First Grade, Reserve Grade, Third Grade down to Presidents Cup, Jersey Flegg, SG Ball and Harold Matthews, across all competitions and every first grade post-season tour match.
It is growing every day with gameday information, results, scorers, team lists etc. etc.
So, if anyone has any old standalone junior programs or old RLW’s from the 70s, medal photos etc etc contact me, Mark Sivis as every little of information adds to the clubs history via info@ssralmanac.com
Find more here – SSRAlmanac.com
The SSR Almanac Story
By Marco Sivis for Bunnies TV.
I tell you, I sit in awe of this bloke. What he does not know about the history of South Sydney is not worth knowing. I am just glad that we have the internet and his knowledge is available.