Highlands Park F.C.

Highlands Park Football Club was a professional association football club in Johannesburg, South Africa, that existed from November 1959 to February 1983. History The Balfour Park Sports club was founded by the Jewish Norman Lourie. During the years, the club facilitated amateur teams within the sports disciplines lawn bowling, cricket, and football. The club was located at Balfour Park in Highlands North, which is one of the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. In 1935, Lucke Matus (also known as Louis Matus) became a Foundation Member of Balfour Park, and when he ended his playing career as a footballer, he became the chairman of "Balfour Park football section" from 1937 until 1951, and also worked as a member of the Southern Transvaal Football Association Executive Committee from 1947 until 1959. Despite only being involved with amateur football in his previous career, he had the vision to found Highlands Park FC, as a new professional football club in November 1959. The new professional club would coexist and share the same facilities, with the amateur side of the club, known as "Balfour Park Sports club". In 1971, Highlands Park F.C. merged with Powerlines F.C. from Nigel – a city located 61 km southeast of Highlands North in Johannesburg, and also playing in the top flight National Football League. But after playing only two seasons with the name Highlands Power F.C. in 1971–72, the club decided to change back its name to the more well-known Highlands Park F.C. in 1973. Ahead of the 1979 season, the club signed a five-year sponsor deal with Dion, which soon revamped the club. Beside of changing the players outfit to orange, the club also made an effort to maximise publicity of their new sponsor, by renaming the club to Dion Highlands F.C. in 1979. As the media however continued referring to the club simply as "Highlands", the club made the radical decision in February 1980, to skip the long lasting historical part of their name, with the official name being changed to Dion F.C..