Established in 1961, the team was first referred to as “University” or the “Students”. Over time this became the “Blues”, until in 1976, the Committee decided a membership badge should be struck for the ANUAFC. Eric Martin, an architect and regular ANUAFC first’s player, suggested a Griffin would be a suitable emblem for the Club given tradition considered the Griffin to be king of the beasts and the location of the ANU campus on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin. The Committee at the time was largely comprised of economics, law and political science students and graduates so they readily deferred to Eric’s superior knowledge of matters artistic, heraldic and mythical, and endorsed his proposal. Badges were struck and from that day the “Blues” became the “Griffins”.
