Marconi, whose wireless company sent the first direct radio message from Great Britain to Australia. It was inaugural president Oscar Michelini who first suggested the name Marconi at the second meeting of the club's provisional committee. A statue of Guglielmo Marconi was donated by the Italian government in 1959 and it remains inside the main foyer of the club, inscribed with the message “Guglielmo Marconi, 1874 – 1937, immortal genius of the Italian nation who first with science’s wonders and spiritual wings linked Australia with the world.” Italo-Australian artist Guido Zuliani, born in 1927, designed Club Marconi's emblem, which remains in use by the social club today. It incorporates a globe, a boomerang to symbolise Indigenous Australian culture, with the colours of green, white and red to represent the Italian heritage. The emblem is encased by Marconi’s invention of wireless communication, further portrayed as a radio tower. The club's home base in Bossley Park, next to where Marconi Stadium now stands, was offered for $6900 by the brothers Ruben and Provino Sartor, two inaugural members who had visited the Yoogali Club in the rural town of Griffith, New South Wales to learn how the Italian community there had founded their own social organisation. The soccer club first appeared in 1958 as a youth team, and the first senior side competed in the 1961 NSW amateur championship that it won by 8 points. The club gradually moved up the ranks in the NSW soccer system, eventually gaining promotion to the NSW 1st Division in 1970. By this point the club had come of age. Marconi became back-to-back champions of the NSW 1st Division in 1972 and 1973, and continued to challenge for honours up until 1976. The next year, 1977, Marconi and 13 other clubs formed the first ever truly national sports competition in Australia, the National Soccer League. National Soccer League (1977–2004) In its first season in the NSL in 1977, Marconi finished second on goal difference to Eastern Suburbs (Sydney City). In 1979, Marconi was Australian champions. The club won the NSL Cup in 1980. Ahead of the 1981 National Soccer League season, Marconi signed a sponsorship deal with car manufacturer Datsun under which the club were known as Marconi-Datsun Leopards. What is generally described as the club's "golden era" started in the late 1980s, when some of the finest players in Australia made their way to what was