Clifford 'Gympie' Lew Fatt
Clifford Lew Fatt, or ‘Gympie’ as he was more affectionately known, first played for his beloved St Mary’s Football Club in 1960.
The only person to win Northern Territory Football League’s (NTFL) Best and Fairest medals in all the grades that existed during his playing career, Gympie won his first award, the Steve Abala Colts Medal, in 1960/61. In the 1962/63 Grand Final, Gympie kicked the winning goal for Saints Reserves to give his brother Terry the honour of being the only coach in NTFL history at the time to coach the Premier and Reserve teams to the flag in the same season.
Gympie won the Saints Best and Fairest award for the first time in 1963/64, winning again in 1964/65, as well as being the Club’s leading goal kicker with 29 goals and winning the NTFL’s highest accolade, the Nichols Medal.
Gympie was a member of Saints Premiership teams of 1965/66 and 1966/67 also winning the Club’s Best and Fairest both years.
In 1967/68, he won Saints leading goal kicker with 33 goals and in that same season was selected to play in the 1967 NTFL All Star Team against the Victorian Football League All Stars team.
Gympie was awarded the Mitch Lee Medal in the Reserves Grade in 1977/78, 1978/79 and 1983/84 and was Captain Coach of the 1978/79 Saints Reserves team that was part of the most memorable season in the Club’s history winning five premierships across different grades in one day.
A St Mary’s Football Club and NTFL Life Member, Gympie played for Saints until his mid-40’s, also coaching a number of Saints teams, eventually retiring from the game at age 55.
A Saints champion, Gympie Lew Fatt joins his father Walter and brother Bennie in the hallowed halls of the Territories most prestigious venue, the AFLNT Hall of Fame.