This story is part of The Coffee Club Centenary Series, helping celebrate 100 years of netball in New Zealand.
Every Silver Fern player, team member, coach and support staff since 1938 will be given a unique gold pin in recognition of their contribution to the Silver Ferns legacy, as part of Netball New Zealand’s centenary celebrations.
For Dame Lois Muir, it was like “being a kid in a candy store”.
That’s how the formidable Silver Ferns defender and two-time world champion coach of the New Zealand side sums up her emotions on being presented with two special gold pins, ahead of the final Taini Jamison Trophy test between the Silver Ferns and England in Invercargill earlier this month.
Each of the 24-carat gold-plated pins, moulded in the distinctive curl of a fern frond, is engraved with two numbers unique to Dame Lois – as Silver Fern #27 and Silver Ferns coach #4.
“I was beside myself with excitement when I got them,” 89-year-old Dame Lois says. “It was like being selected for the Silver Ferns all over again.”
What made the honour even sweeter was receiving her pins from Deb Fuller, the current Silver Ferns assistant coach, who Dame Lois had coached at the Capital Shakers (in a team where Fuller played alongside Silver Ferns head coach, Dame Noeline Taurua).
“That was a lovely gesture,” Dame Lois says. “Opening those two lovely little boxes felt like six Christmases put together.”
After years in the making, Netball New Zealand has produced the Silver Ferns gold pins as part of its centenary celebrations, recognising the incredible legacy of those who’ve been instrumental in the Silver Ferns, both on and off the court.
Every capped and uncapped player – as well as every coach, manager and support staff member – will receive a pin for their contribution to the Silver Ferns legacy.
The design of the pin is based on the Silver Ferns logo, and includes each player’s Silver Ferns number, or the year they were first connected to the team.
Since 1938, there have been 189 capped players – including the latest Ferns, Claire O’Brien and Parris Mason, who joined the elite group during the Taini Jamison Trophy series against England.
The Silver Ferns number system was introduced in 2014, to honour players who’ve take the court in the black dress.
However, the 17 women who have sat on the bench during a Silver Ferns match, but never got to step on the court, will still receive a pin, marked with the first year they were named in the team.
The pin for Silver Fern #1, Margaret ‘Meg’ Matangi – captain of the very first Silver Ferns side in 1938 – was presented to her brother Tokotoko ‘Stokes’ Matangi back in March. Sadly, Stokes passed away last month.
In September, a cohort of World Cup-winning players and coaches were presented with pins when they spoke at a Silver Ferns training camp in Wellington.
For Dame Lois, an Icon in the Netball New Zealand Hall of Fame, the pins stirred up great memories of being just the 27th player to represent New Zealand (when the game was still known as basketball). She was first selected in the 1960 team for the historic three-Test tour to Australia.
She’s grateful to two women in New Zealand netball history – Eileen Lane and Ona Coatsworth – who made the “momentous decision” to change the New Zealand game from 9-a-side to the 7-a-side style the rest of the world were then playing.
“They made it possible for me to be Silver Fern number 27, and tour with the team for that first 7-a-side series against Australia,” Dame Lois says.
“There’s a great photo of me in our first test, on the Adelaide tennis courts, jumping in the air for the ball in my long black stockings. We won that test [49-40]. We were making a statement on the world netball scene.” Three years later, Dame Lois played in the first World Cup in England, where the Silver Ferns finished runners-up to Australia, and was regarded as the strongest defender at the tournament.
To also receive a pin as one of only 11 head coaches of the Silver Ferns was “thrilling”, she says. It was a job she loved over 14 years, four World Cups and 107 Tests (with an impressive record of 91 wins, 10 losses and six draws).
“But there are a lot of marvellous people out there who helped me to get that pin. You don’t do anything alone in sport,” she says. “They are the ones who make the pins shine.”
The pin was designed and made by Emblems NZ, a Hamilton-based company that creates custom trophies, medals and badges.
Emblems NZ director Penni Schaare says they’ve built a strong relationship with Netball NZ over two decades, producing custom-made awards for the sport.
“We’re very grateful to work with Netball New Zealand, making custom medals, service badges and doing framing work for them,” she says. “We’ve also created awards for the FAST5 World Series and World Netball.”
Netball NZ historian, Todd Miller, worked with Schaare to design how the pin might look, “running alongside the legacy project,” Schaare says.
“The brief was to manufacture a pin that carried each player’s individual number with the Silver Ferns logo. So when they wore the pin, it would quite clearly show they were a Silver Fern.”
Under its large corporate umbrella, Emblems NZ creates awards for Golf NZ and Harness Racing NZ, as well as large corporations, and works with many schools throughout the country.
- A number of the pins will be presented to Silver Ferns players and management at a function before the second Test of the Constellation Cup at Auckland’s Spark Arena on October 23.