Ingrid Harvey remembered: Ord River Magpies icon leaves lasting legacy in local football

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Ingrid Harvey remembered: Ord River Magpies icon leaves lasting legacy in local football

There is a gaping ***** at Ord River Magpies Football Club where a little lady with a big heart and a voice to match used to stand.

Ingrid Harvey, lifetime club member, secretary for 25 years and vice-president for the past five, was the backbone of the Magpies who cheered on, nurtured and, when needed, “gave a tune-up”, to generations of local footy talent.

The sudden ****** of the 73-year-old grandmother of four from a heart ******* at the weekend has been greeted with shock, sadness and an outpouring of tributes for a woman who devoted so much of her life to the Kununurra and Wyndham community.

Magpies president Neil Vanderplank said Ms Harvey was a “driving force” not only for the Magpies but East Kimberley football in general and would be “sorely missed”.

“She sat on the East Kimberley Football League board for a number of years. She’s a life member for our footy club and also the EKFL. So it is a huge loss for the East Kimberley community, as well as our footy club.

Camera IconVale Ingrid Harvey Ord River Magpies Football Club vice-president. Credit: Supplied

“She’s just one of those people that always had a smile on her face.

“She was not afraid to give blokes a bit of a tune up if they needed it, but also looked after people as she could. She was an absolute *****-set legend.”

The Aboriginal woman and single mother to two sons, Ms Harvey has been remembered as a passionate sportswoman who was perpetually busy volunteering at the many sports clubs she helped establish.

As a young woman was a talented all-rounder playing tennis, basketball, netball and softball.

Among the sporting clubs she helped establish were the Magpies and the Kununurra Softball Association.

Her hard work was recognised with the citizen of the year award for the Shire of Wyndham and the East Kimberley on a couple of occasions, and, she was the 2017 finalist for the WA Football Volunteer of the Year award.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Camera IconIngrid Harvey cutting the cake with fellow life member Mark Davey at the Magpies 50th anniversary celebration. Credit: Supplied

However the most fitting tribute to the devoted sportswoman was this season when the Magpies named the award for the best female finals player after her — the Ingrid Harvey Award.

But Ms Harvey is best known for her long association with the Magpies, which, it is fair to say would not have existed without her.

Lifelong friend and former Magpies president Peter Stubbs said Ms Harvey was not just a founding member of the club in 1972 — she helped build the Kununurra Agricultural Society Oval where the team train and has its club facility.

“It used to be just a paddock with livestock in it. Ingrid Harvey and others at the time picked the rocks, picked the sticks, mowed the grass down, and helped build the oval physically,” he said.

“She is very much the mother of the Magpies football club. She helped create it, and she guided it across its entire life, in terms of shaping the culture, the standards, the expectations, and has mentored many, many people on that journey.”

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Camera IconIngrid Harvey with son, Jeromy aged 2 at the time. Credit: Supplied

Mr Stubbs and his wife Sue were among the family and friends with Ms Harvey in her final hours in hospital.

He said he was not surprised by the outpouring of grief on social media at her passing.

“I guess it’s her consistency and longevity and how genuine she was, that she wasn’t a person who highly valued material things in life, but she valued friends and family.”

She lived those values right to the end calling her many life-long friends from her hospital bed.

“She rang people from her bed and said, ‘I’m not gonna make it. Thank you for being a friend’,” Mr Stubbs said.

“Everyone else was crying, except for Ingrid who was remarkably calm.”

Mr Stubbs said he believed Ingrid would be remembered for her loyalty, infectious community spirit, her leadership and the value she placed in friends.

“Ingrid lead from behind. She didn’t need to be out front, she could be in the background and still be a highly influential leader.

“I think people really respected that. She was a civic leader but never sought it out, it just came to her naturally.”

Ms Harvey leaves behind her son Jeromy and Myles and her four grandchildren.

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