Turvey Park is mourning a legend of the club after Mrs Irlene Nye passed away on Wednesday.
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The Nye family has been synonymous with the Bulldogs since she and late husband Bob were instrumental in setting up the club in the 1950s.
“They more or less started the ball rolling, so it’s a sad day for the Turvey Park faithful,” Turvey Park president Neale Francis said.
“She was a beautiful lady and everyone knows Mrs Nye. The club wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Mrs Nye and the ladies’ auxiliary.”
The club will form a guard of honour at Friday’s funeral, which is at 2pm at St John’s Anglican Church in Wagga.
Mrs Nye celebrated her 100th birthday in January with family and friends.
“She had a wonderful life and left a legacy with everyone she met,” niece Julie Moreels said. Her mother, Gloria, was virtually raised by Mrs Nye, her sister, after their mother died.
“She was the soul of the family, the maker of family celebrations and kept the family together as a unit.”
A mother of three, Mrs Nye was also a grandmother of nine, great-grandmother of 19 and great-great-grandmother of three.
Mrs Moreels said ‘Mum Nye’ was a “pillar of strength for us all” and recalled her generosity in the community.
“A mother of three but maybe a mother of 50 – they used to billet all these Turvey Park footballers,” she said.
“For years and years, living under their roof with their own kids. They never said no to anybody. She was the most loving, caring, sweet lady that I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.
“She had respect for everybody and would never put anybody down. Only the opposition of the football team – that was about it.”
Multiple premiership-winning coach, Wayne Carroll, said it is the end of an era.
“It really is – the Nyes were so much a part of how Turvey Park was orchestrated and how the club was run,” Carroll said.
“They made the club go forward with a lot of dedication and hard work, it made it really fulfilling for everyone to be around Turvey Park and the Nyes.
“Mrs Nye and the ladies’ auxiliary controlled the purse strings at Turvey Park for many, many years and always had Turvey Park wholely and solely at heart.
“She was just a lovely, lovely person.”
The Nyes were also influential in the formation and development of the Rules Club.
The influence at the Bulldogs remained strong for decades.
“I came to the club in 1998 and she was in her 80s then,” former player, now treasurer and Turvey Park life member, Blair Campbell, said.
“She still used to come to all the home games. She always remembered who was who. You mightn’t have seen her for 12 months and she knew who you were and asked about your kids.
“She and her husband were really up on a pedestal as the ones who set the club up. And she was there right through to the end.”