The first Australian football team. Gibb is back row, far left.

While Sydney player Allen Fisher captained the Socceroos in their first four tour games in New Zealand, these were not classified as A internationals.

As statistician Andrew Howe writes in his book Encyclopaedia of the Socceroos, Fisher "resigned the captaincy four games into the tour, declaring Alec Gibb would the better skipper for the rest of the series".

Gibb, who was 34 at the time, went on to play 14 times for Australia in both A and B internationals, and had a wonderful impact on football in his adopted country.

Football historian Roy Hay says Gibb was an interesting and impressive figure "both on and off the field".

"He played all across the half-back line in an era when positions were quite specialised and fixed and he was quite mature by the time he got his first cap in 1922," Hay says.

"So he was Mr Reliable and it seems popular. 1922 was a stellar year for him as he captained Bundamba Rangers to the Queensland premiership that year beating Thistle twice, including in the final match of the season."

Gibb was born in County Kildare but grew up near Edinburgh. In Scotland his junior days were spent with Musselburgh Union, Newton Grange and Musselburgh Athletic, before landing in Queensland.

According to Howe's book, Gibb's club career in Australia took him from Bundamba Athletic to Bundamba Rangers, where he won an Ipswich and West Moreton premiership in 1922, before ending his club playing days at South British Scottish.

Once he hung up his boots, Gibb stayed in football and became an administrator. He served as chairman of his local association, manager of the representative team and as a selector for state and national teams.

Gibb's son Lex, then went on to represent Australia in 1938. They were the first father and son to ever both play for the Socceroos.

A junior at Ipswich team Alphas, Lex played with senior Ipswich sides Bundamba Rangers and St Helens, and Brisbane teams Latrobe and Corinthians. His 11-year Socceroo career included matches against the touring English Amateurs, India, Palestine and South Africa, and a tour of New Zealand in 1948. Ipswich-born Lex also represented Queensland on several occasions.

In 2000 Alec Gibb was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Twelves year later both Alec and Lex were honoured at a special ceremony at half-time at a World Cup Asian qualifier between the Socceroos and Japan at Suncorp Stadium, where their respective cap numbers of one and 77 were presented to relatives.