Mission Whitten Oval welcomed a special visitor recently, when former coach Terry Wallace paid a visit to his old stomping ground.

Wallace would no doubt have observed the surroundings at Bulldogs HQ as being far more salubrious than in his coaching days, but he also recognised the Club has lost none of the ‘community club’ feel he had absorbed when he first arrived at Footscray as a player in 1988.

While Wallace always enjoys returning to the Club that meant so much to him, his visit in May was a particularly poignant one.

He was at Mission Whitten Oval to meet long-time Bulldogs’ fan and member Ian Douglas.

For Douglas it was a special moment, but for Wallace probably even more so.

Douglas had come bearing a gift for the coach who had helped lead the Club’s resurgence in 1997, when it became officially known as the Western Bulldogs.

Ian’s gift to Terry was Western Bulldogs jacket had worn in those early days under the new name.

The jacket may not look like the height of fashion more than a quarter of a century later, but at the time it represented a whole new attitude at Mission Whitten Oval.

“The Club at the time were trying to do everything as professionally as they could,” said Wallace,

“So they went out and bought these jackets. We wanted to try and look professional and act professional, and this was part of the look, I suppose.”

Given its age, Wallace was impressed with how well the jacket had been looked after.

“The condition it’s been kept in is magnificent.”

Sometime before he parted ways with the Western Bulldogs in 2002, Wallace had given the jacket to the Club’s beloved property steward Jack McGovern, with whom he had become very close in his time as player and coach at Whitten Oval.

“Once I wasn’t wearing it anymore I gave it to a man who was such an integral part of the footy club, in Jack McGovern.

"Jack was there my first day that I walked into the football club, going way, way back to 1988. He was the first one to meet and greet me and take me around [the Club] and he was there all through the coaching days.

“He was involved in the Club for decades, with his wife Joan. I loved the guy; he was fantastic to me so when I finished with the Club I decided it was better use for him.”

Later, when Wallace’s time came at the Western Bulldogs came to an end, it was not on the best of terms, so before leaving he discarded almost everything in his possession that was related to the Club.

“I actually gave away every piece of Bulldogs gear I had. I took it back to the club and got it donated to the cheer squad.

"I thought it would be in better hands with them than with me.”

It was a magnanimous gesture, but one that would perhaps have left Wallace feeling slightly empty in later years.

“In fact, from my time at the Doggies I don’t have anything from my time playing and coaching. I’ve got my playing jumper but that’s about it.”

Thanks to Ian Douglas, though, Wallace now has another precious item from his Bulldogs days.

Jack McGovern passed away not long before Wallace’s coaching tenure ended, making the gift all the more poignant.

After McGovern’s passing the jacket eventually made its way to Douglas - his then neighbour, who felt that it rightly belonged to the man who originally worn it.

Douglas himself is a life-long Bulldogs member and fanatic took to Facebook to try and get in touch with Wallace to organise the exchange.

A few messages later, Douglas was only too happy to see the jacket returned to its rightful owner.

“It’s a fantastic gesture by Ian,” said Wallace after the handover, which took place at Mission Whitten Oval, where had passed it on to McGovern decades before.

“That’s where I gave it away so many years ago and to get it back at the same place is brilliant. It’s a full circle moment.”

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