BOB McLean never planned to challenge Hunter S. Thompson, Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward and Alex Haley (with Roots) on the best-seller list in the 1970s.
Half a century later, McLean's "100 Years of the Magpies" - written by the club's long-time powerhouse in football administration for the Port Adelaide Football Club's centenary season in 1970 - has a sequel doing just that.
The Port Adelaide Football Club Archives Collection is a record-breaker even before it comes off the presses - and the pre-sales underline the eagerness of the Port Adelaide fans to absorb their club's history, regardless of the 150th anniversary season being put on delay (on the field) by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pre-sales of the limited-edition Archives Collection have passed the 1000 mark to surpass the orders taken for similar commemorative books produced by English Premier League giants Liverpool and Arsenal and AFL counterparts Collingwood, Essendon, Carlton, Melbourne and Richmond.
Pre-sales - with fans pre-ordering the Archives Collection able to personalise their copy of the book with personal photographs - close this weekend.
Click here to secure your piece of Port Adelaide history.
The Archives project will join a grand collection of written words at a football club renowned for having actions on the football field stand as Port Adelaide's message board.
This theme did change in 1962 when Fos Williams returned to Alberton as a non-playing coach with The Creed.
By 1970, the club's centenary season, McLean put "100 Years of the Magpies" on the agenda to add to the power of The Creed.
McLean's son Ian recalls: "At that stage, he would have anticipated that The Creed was embedded in the Port Adelaide Football Club ethos - and that (a book on the club's history) would underpin the future."
Hence the club's slogan, "Proud of the past, confident of the future".
Ian McLean, who today lives in Umbria in Italy, added: "I've just grabbed the book off my shelf and glanced again at it after many years ... and too many thoughts comes to mind.
"I remember him writing the book when we were the best, expected to win and everyone at the club believed this. If you didn't, you simply did not make it at Port Adelaide.
"I recall the theme, 'Get up, you're not hurt' if there was the slightest hint a player was feigning injury because it was getting too hard. I remember those fellows around the club who kept things on track, from the doorkeeper, the boot sprigger, head trainer Ted McMahon, the recruiting scouts, the silent backers ... Bob never forgot them and never took them for granted. He respected what they did."
