One thing which made the football era of the Empire Stadium such a nostalgic period was the number of characters who etched their names in the history of the ground.

Their ghosts seem to cry out to me every time I pass by the relics of the old venue.

I will never forget, Meme Scicluna, Ġianni Bencini and scores and scores of other players and characters like Anthony Zarb ‘Il-Walker’.

This week I want to write about another of those colourful characters – Joe Galea, or Anna Marie, as he was affectionately known. He is best remembered as the Hibs first-aid man.

Taking over from another well-known stadium character, Salvu Cassar, he served Hibernians in this capacity for a number of seasons.

Galea is one of those gifted people who, with just their presence, make people happy.

Everywhere he goes in Paola he is always surrounded by people who, like it or not, have to listen to his stories.

Galea played some football in his youth mostly for Hibs’ reserves and in the lower divisions for Vittoriosa Stars and Luqa St Andrew’s. His popularity in town was such that when he played he would always draw an enthusiastic crowd to the stadium or the Schreiber Sports Ground.

I remember one afternoon when he played for Hibs’ reserves against Sliema reserves. In those days, reserve league matches were played before the major First Division game thus ensuring a good attendance.

Sliema needed a victory to win the championship while Hibs had no interest at all in the proceedings.

Therefore, when Hibs took an unexpected lead, tempers became frayed and the players started pushing and jostling each other.

Unfair dismissal

Galea vows to this day that he did not join the fray but the referee picked him out as the ring-leader and sent him off.

He left the field grumbling but one of the Hibs’ officials jokingly suggested that if he was not to blame then he should go back in.

He did, and played on for another few minutes before the referee realised what had happened!

Galea was escorted off the pitch by the police and confined to the dressing room.

He begged the officers to let him watch the rest of the game but they refused and for the next hour all he could see was the rear-ends of the calvary horses that were stabled just outside the doors of the dressing room.

During the years he served as Hibs’ first-aid man, Galea was a fixture at the stadium with his pail of water and sponge.

One day, the Hibs’ players decided to play a prang on him by feigning injury.

Out went Galea with his pail flapping around his ankles only for the ‘injured’ player to jump up fit as he reached his side.

When this farce had repeated itself a few times, Galea realised that he was the victim of a joke. Losing his temper he threw his pail away and angrily told referee Tonio Briguglio to take care of the player himself. Naturally, that was the end of Galea’s career as first-aid man.

However, his association with Hibernians did not end there. In fact, after this incident he became a sort of mascot to the team.

Everywhere Hibs went Galea followed and one needs a whole volume to record all the hilarious incidents he was involved in on his travels with the club.

Like the time, he got lost in the metro in Romania only to realise after spending a couple of hours running around on the trains that originally he was only a few metres away from his hotel.

There was also the time when the Hibs squad was invited by their former coach Fr Hilary Tagliaferro on his popular TV sports programme.

Naturally, Galea went along andFr Hilary did not lose the occasion to pull his leg. He asked Galea what Luqa had paid for his services when he was transferred from Vittoriosa.

Without batting an eyelid Galea replied that no cash was involved because he was exchanged for a brand new football!