ONCE A TEAM, ALWAYS A TEAM

ONCE A TEAM, ALWAYS A TEAM Former UWC rugby players reminisce about the impact the University’s rugby club had made on their lives

By Lyndon Julius

Rugby at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) has a rich and enticing history. Apart from the many great and legendary players it has produced, there are individuals that have left an indelible mark on this proud Cape Town-based university’s sporting annals. The institution is known for the robust yet constructive manner in which it has tackled inequality since its inception; in 2020, it celebrates 60 years of this history with the memories made by and within the rugby club remembered fondly by every player that has passed through its programme.

Offering a beacon of hope, many great leaders, activists, politicians and sports stars found their niche at UWC. Great stalwarts of our society that amassed legendary status, such as UWC co-founding fathers Prof Adam Small, Dr Jakes Gerwel, Dr Allan Boesak, Prof Julian Smith, Tobias Titus and Dr Danny Jordaan. Many of these men and so many others played an active part in not only shaping UWC but also giving the institution a reputation that generations to follow can be proud of.

Under the guidance of the late Springbok World Cup winner, Chester Williams, the University recently gained promotion to South Africa’s premier intervarsity rugby competition, the FNB Varsity Cup. In doing so, it became the first historically disadvantaged tertiary institution

to enter the competition.

Sports has been integral in shaping many great men and women, specifically the formation of the rugby club, which had to fight not only the already stringent apartheid system in everyday life but for its rightful place as a rugby club in a predominantly non-white university setting. Not only did great players don the UWC jersey but the rugby club birthed a crop of great leaders, sports administrators and entrepreneurs that helped shape South Africa’s sporting landscape as it is known today.

While UWC did not start out as a powerhouse of consciousness, Prof Smith – who is highly regarded by some of his peers as one of the most talented scrum-halves of his time – describes it as a “site of struggle and contestation where students started to challenge the ‘system’ and the ‘establishment’.

“It would be historically inaccurate to typify UWC as a beacon of hope when I enrolledin 1972,” he adds. “While the contestation of the apartheid system gained momentum, the rugby club started to reconsider its affiliation to the (coloured) Rugby Federation, whom we regarded as having been coopted by white (Springbok) rugby to legitimise white rugby exclusivity.”

It was, therefore, a no-brainer for UWC Rugby to join the newly established Tygerberg Rugby Union in 1974 as this union broke away from the Federation to join the non-racial South African Rugby Union, which was a SACOS (South African Council on Sport) affiliate. In this way, the University club deliberately joined the nonracial fold, intending to use sport and rugby as part of the struggle for liberation and social justice.

“I became captain of the first team in 1974 and enthusiastically encouraged and supported this move, which contributed a lot to the UWC reputation as a vanguard of the struggle and eventually a beacon of hope.”

The “brotherhood” that has existed within the rugby club throughout the years all have their own stories of the struggle

to tell, albeit from different eras and viewpoints.

Advocate Philip October, who joined the rugby club much later than Prof Smith during a different era which came with its own set of challenges and victories, played an integral part in the formation of the plans to get UWC into the Varsity Cup competition, a feat he attributes to the likes of Ilhaam Groenewald and her successor, Mandla Gagayi.

“I played for the club from 1985 until 1989 and filled the roles of team manager, treasurer and chairperson during that time,” says Adv October. “I came back to the club in 2010 and was part of the group, ably led by current Chief Director of Sport at Maties Ilhaam Groenewald, that helped facilitat the move of UWC Rugby Club into Varsity Shield.

“I was chairman of the club and Varsity Cup Director from 2014 until 2016. It was here that we became brothers. We played together, ate together, fellowshipped together, went to disco clubs together. There was a saying – ‘You hit one rugby player, you’ve assaulted the whole club’ – and it was during the Eighties where the motto of ‘never quit’ started.”

This brotherhood is nothing new to the UWC rugby fraternity, adds Prof Smith. “Strong bonds of friendship and camaraderie were

SPORTS HAS BEEN INTEGRAL IN SHAPING MANY GREAT MEN AND WOMEN

formed, some of which exist to this day. Our friendship with the late Fred Botha and his wife Isabel is a case in point. Several of the players and administrators of my era have kept contact since the early Seventies.

“Being inexperienced, young and often smaller players than our opponents, we had to feel and play for one another. We also tended to socialise, relax, worship and protest together, and many future marriages emerged from the friendships galvanised in this era – a unique era, which we had the privilege to share.”

The impact the rugby club’s structure and order has had on so many can still be seen today with many former UWC players regarding their time as part of it as their incubation years that allowed their personalities, leadership and entrepreneurial skills to flourish for decades to come.

“My involvement in rugby was characterised by abundant enthusiasm, super fitness, meticulous preparation, the honing of skills, an intelligent and creative approach, leading by example, promoting teamwork and camaraderie, and accepting good advice,” says Prof Smith. “My active rugby involvement dovetailed only with a few years of being a teacher and preceded my role as lecturer, departmental head, registrar and vice-rector. Predictably my experience as a player and more so as captain stood me in very good stead, especially as a member of the university executive at both UWC and Stellenbosch University. Drawing on my rugby experience, I could mould managers that reported to me into formidable and excellent performers.

“It would be fair to say that my rugby-related experience lay a good foundation for what I needed in my professional career. And, in the end, my management philosophy may be summed up in two phrases: ‘Common sense (the result of qualifications and experience) goes a long way’ and ‘benevolent bureaucracy’.”