It started with a moment he will never forget.
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John Forbes was just a young boy when his father suffered a stroke in his mid-40s and was bed ridden for two years.
He recalls watching through a child's eyes many people come and go from the family home.
It had a powerful and lasting impression that the community was right there by his family's side.
"All of the people from the football club came to look after us," John said.
"I thought to myself, if that's what sporting people are like, then I want to be one of them."
From that day on his love for all things sport was born.
A casual meeting between John and Olympic gold medallist Herb Elliott in the 1980s was the start of his career at sports company Puma.
Herb told John that if he were to ever move to Melbourne, he would employ him at Puma.
The rest has become sporting history.
During John's 22 years as a sponsorship manager he mixed with some of the world's greatest athletes from an array of sporting codes, amassing a collection of memorabilia along the way.
The once private collection has now come to life as the centerpiece of the new Rochester Sports Museum.
"I never really set out to collect it all, but over the years I was given plenty of memorabilia from all of the athletes I looked after," John said.
John retired from Puma after he was diagnosed with both Parkinson's disease and cancer in the same month.
"I was very sad when I became too ill to carry on. But I am so grateful to have worked there, it was the most wonderful company to be a part of," he said.
"I want to be able to share and hand all the memorabilia down for the generations to follow.
"A lot of Australian children have no real idea what's gone on within the sporting world over the years and all of the memorabilia is a snapshot of what's happened during my time."
John believes in the importance of history, especially when it come to sports.
When he was a young boy he would cut clippings out of newspapers and stick them in scrap books.
"I found some of the books the other day and my god they made for some interesting reading," he laughed.
"I want the museum's visitors to have this same feeling of pride for this country.
"Sport is an absolute must in Australia, everyone has a team which they barrack for.
"In the 50s and 60s there wasn't a trophy Australia didn't win, we dominated the world in sport."
I thought to myself, if that's what sporting people are like, then I want to be one of them.
- John Forbes
The walls of the museum, which is housed in the Rochester Railway Station building, are lined with decades of national and international sports history.
One of the most prominent sports featured at the museum is cricket, with Forbes rubbing shoulders with some true greats over the years.
Among the collection is a signed photograph of Mark Taylor from when he scored a world record 334 not out in Pakistan, as well as the autograph of Sir Donald Bradman.
The test match wicket-keeping gloves of Adam Gilchrist also take pride of place.
"He was the greatest bloke that Puma ever sponsored," John said of Gilchrist.
"He had everything, he was a gentleman who thought of others first and was a great role model."
When the World Series Cricket tour of Australia was held in 1977, John was given autographs of the Clive Lloyd-captained West Indian team, the Australian team led by Ian Chappell and the world team under Tony Greig.
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One of John's most memorable items of the collection is a stump from the 2011 John Forbes 20/20 tribute match held at Dower Park in Kangaroo Flat.
The match featured several Australian players such as Shane Warne and Gilchrist, but was washed out after only a few overs.
Growing up in Victoria, it was inevitable that Australian Rules football would play an integral part in John's life.
On display is a picture of all the Brownlow medallists which he signed to Puma, including John Platten, Michael Voss, Robert DiPierdomenico, Robert Harvey, Tony Lockett, Shane Crawford, Chris Judd, Adam Goodes, Paul Kelly, Ben Cousins, Shane Woewodin and Simon Black.
There are also several AFL jumpers worn by many of the sport's greatest players and rugby and soccer kits from across the globe.
Memorabilia of several country Victorian sporting identities are also on show.
John Williams is known as one of the most talented Australian rules players to hail from Rochester.
Williams played 161 games with Essendon and 35 with Collingwood.
On display are Williams' team blazers from both clubs as well as the Victorian and All-Australian teams he represented.
Items of Rochester Football Club's Anthony McPhee, the only Goulburn Valley Football League player to reach 400 games, are on show.
Bamawm-born Australian netball captain Sharelle McMahon's tunic and a blazer from the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games, where the team won gold, are exhibited.
The collection extends to national and international memorabilia, with a hat worn and signed by British Open Championship winner Greg 'The Shark' Norman in addition to Soviet Olympian Sergey Bubka's tracksuit.
Official photos of one of the country's most notable race horses - Sailor's Guide - are among the collection. The thoroughbred won several big races in the United States, Canada and Australia.
However, there is one piece of memorabilia which has a special place in John's heart.
"There's lots of great stuff here, but one that stands out to me is a poster signed by Alan Joyce," he said.
Joyce coached Hawthorn Football Club to the 1988 VFL premiership.
"Alan had the job before me at Puma, and when I first started he asked me to come meet him," John said.
"I had never met him before and it was five o'clock in Melbourne and I couldn't find my way around anywhere because I was a country boy from Mitiamo," he laughed.
"But he sat me down and told me how it was, all the good guys, the bad guys and the people that would help me.
"I asked him why he did it for me and he said because no-one did it for him when he started.
"I thought it was just a fantastic thing to do for me."
This is the sentiment which John continues to share and why he is opening his collection to the world.
One of John's friends, Bob Knight, is a member of the Lions Club of Rochester
To celebrate the Lions 100th anniversary in 2017 the world president asked each club across the globe to take on a community project to mark the occasion.
"I knew John's collection was available and that he wanted to share it," Bob said.
"So I asked him and he was very happy for it all to come to Rochester as part of our project."
Initially, Bob thought it would be just a small pop-up project, but it quickly grew into something much bigger.
"We decided we would go to the full hog," he laughed.
The Lions secured financial support through community fundraisers, also bolstered by a $100,000 state government grant.
"That set us on our way. We were just going to put all of the stuff on the wall, but a curator from Melbourne turned it into a museum."
Laura Stedman of Levoi Consulting came on board as the curator, bringing years of experience working with sporting collections at the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham Stadium.
"John is a great story teller," Laura said.
"It became very apparent quite quickly that the real power and value in the collection was not just in the object's value, but John's stories that would go with them.
"So the way I approached his collection was to listen to his stories and just respond to each of the little yarns he would give on each object."
Individually they might be little yarns, but will now come together to tell a story that is hoped will benefit Rochester and surrounding community.
The club's district governor Omeni Ndlovu believes it will do just that.
"I was thrilled to see the museum come alive," he said.
"The museum is something new and different for people to see in Rochester and is a testament to how hard all the volunteers have worked to get it up and running.
"When I first saw it I was blown away, who would have thought something like this would be in a small railway station."
The Rochester Sports Museum will be officially opened by Herb Elliott this Sunday at 1pm, with several of the other athletes featured in the collection to be present at the ceremony.
The museum, located at the Rochester Railway Station will then be open each week from Thursday to Sunday from 10am-4pm.
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