By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
BLANKING on a date and can’t remember when something has taken place?
In all likelihood, Kurt Jackson can help you with that.
The 27-year-old is something of a walking calendar, and while his tall stature hides his modest personality, he is a person you wouldn’t soon forget from his impressive abilities and knowledge.
Kurt has cracked the code of the years and days, easily memorising when and what took place, especially when it comes to his love of football.
Pick a date, any date and Kurt can provide the day it fell on in an instant, and probably had it worked out before you even finished asking him, anticipating and ready to hand the information out.
While he doesn’t support a specific AFL team, Kurt has been watching and attending footy since he was 10 years-old, and can give you the teams and scores simply off the date provided.
Say, Sunday, April 22, 2012? Instantaneously, that was Round 4, Geelong beat Richmond by 10 points, Sydney defeated North Melbourne by 36 points and the Western Bulldogs won by 21 points over Melbourne.
He can even give you the details of a given day, like when mentioning the 2009 Grand Final when Geelong defeated St Kilda, Kurt noted it was cold.
Checking (for no apparent reason obviously), of course he was right! It was nine degrees and raining at the start of that two-goal thriller.
“I can just see it in my head. (The) first time I see it, I’ll remember it,” Kurt said.
“Because every 28 years, the calendar repeats itself… sometimes I have a look at it first to get an idea (of how it all plays out).
“If you go back to 1953, the ninth of June would be a Tuesday which is 71 years ago, that’s going back so long.”
Kurt has been lucky enough to watch a lot of football live, namely witnessing in person Sydney win the 2012 premiership over Hawthorn.
He’s impressed even those at the top level with his knowledge.
After taking part in the Yooralla Great Vic Trek, meeting AFL legends Danny Frawley and Doug Hawkins, they both got him in touch with Collingwood where he was able to meet the group.
Former Magpies coach Mick Malthouse was notably stunned by Kurt’s memory.
When speaking with Kurt, this writer let slip his unfortunate barracking of Essendon and his birthdate before Kurt swiftly reminded me that I haven’t seen my club win a final since I was a one-year-old.
Kurt also reminded me that the day I was born was on a Monday (correct).
Birthdays are another speciality of Kurt’s, who also loves cricket.
Usman Khawaja? December 18 (“he’s going to be 38 this year!”). Marcus Labuschagne? June 22, 1994. And his favourite, Steve Smith? June 2, 1989.
It can go beyond that – celebrity birthdays, movie releases, songs, other world events, the list goes on.
Kurt has a love for countries also, and looks forward to travelling overseas one day.
Kurt takes part in Your Own Way’s Return-It program, which has been running in the Latrobe Valley for a few months, helping deposit cans across the community – collecting more than 2000 a day.
Kurt recently moved to Morwell from Yarram, but was previously travelling down to take part in the initiative.
