Sporting History

In 1945 Southolme at 173 Main Road Kalk Bay, was sold to John Winchester Anderson shown below at age 45 with his son John. John snr. was known by his family as Jack and I will use that name from now on.

Jack Anderson with son John 1926 (Roddy Sparks)

He was the son of Captain James Anderson, a Scot who had captained trading ships for years. His mother was Mary Murison – related to the well-known Murison shipping company owners. Captain Anderson was descended from a line of Scottish sea captains and had salt in his veins having been born near Cape Aghulas on his father’s ship The Olive Branch. The family settled at the Cape and there was a period when James Anderson went to the Johannesburg gold rush.

At some point he bought extensive land opposite Green Point lighthouse and the couple lived at their large home Alexander Place near the Moulle Point lighthouse.

Green Point Lighthouse (SJ de Klerk)

Their son, John (Jack) Winchester Anderson was born on the 31st December 1881 in Cape Town. He was a great athlete and...

Ian Hamilton Roberts Scott, a fearless figure in South African motor racing, was born on May 10, 1900, in Johannesburg, Transvaal. His passion for speed and machinery ignited at a young age, as he spent hours tinkering with his motorcycle, coaxing out every last bit of performance.

Ian's entry into competitive racing began in the 1920s, a decade that roared to life with the sound of revving engines and screeching tyres. With his trusty A.J.S. motorcycle, he quickly made a name for himself on the local racing circuit, earning accolades and recognition for his daring and skill. His early successes sparked a competitive spirit, driving him to push himself and his machine to the limit.

The passion for racing motivated Ian to continue, and in 1922, he tackled the challenging Durban-Johannesburg Race. This 370-mile event tested riders' endurance and skills, featuring a mix of tar and dirt roads, steep hills, and sharp bends. Ian's performance in this race showcased his talent and dedication to the sport. He crossed the line in second place, cementing his reputation as one of South Africa's top riders.

The DJ Run, a legendary South African motorcycle race, has a rich history dating back to 1913. The inaugural event took place on June 13, covering 370-miles from Durban to Johannesburg, and was designed to test riders' endurance and their machines' reliability. Gaining popularity in the 1920's and 1930's, the...

In the article below, author and history enthusiast Lennie Gouws looks at the story of one of South Africa's forgotten Olympians. The piece first appeared on Lennie Gouws's website where she writes about the rich history of Potchefstroom. Click here for more great stories.

Rudolph Ludewyk "Okey" Lewis (12 July 1887 – 29 October 1933) was a South African road racing cyclist who won the gold medal in the road race at the 1912 Summer Olympic Game in Stockholm in Sweden. This, in itself, is a huge achievement, but if you realise from where this man came to achieve this, it seems almost impossible.

Lewis was born on a farm near Pretoria in the Waterberg district and grew up in Germiston. Prior to the 1912 Olympics, he worked a full-time job for nine years underground in a gold mine and in his spare time trained in cycling, boxing and skating.

Okey Lewis in his Springbok colours at the Olympic Games, sporting his racing number “2” (Wikipedia)

Okey Lewis was South Africa’s only entrant in the cycling race at the Olympic Games. The South African trials for the Olympic Games were held in the Transvaal on 30 March 1912. Lewis was the only one of five...

When the marathon athlete, Kennedy Kane McArthur, won the Olympic marathon on 14 July 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden, he created a record that has never been broken. McArthur, a Potchefstroom policeman and his Springbok team mate, Christopher Gitsham, won the gold and silver medals in the marathon.

Since then, no country in the world could produce the first and second place winners in the Olympic marathon. McArthur ran the 40.2 km in a time of 2:36:54,8 sec. Although the route was two kilometres shorter than the one of 1908, his time was accepted as an Olympic record.

Another record that was never broken is that he is the only athlete in the world that won all the marathons he took part in.

This photo of Kennedy Kane McArthur appeared in the Potchefstroom Herald on 13 February 1910

KK McArthur was born on 10 February 1881 in Dervock, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. He is the second of five children of Robert Jamieson McArthur and Mary Ann McArthur. Before he came to Potchefstroom he was the local postman. He did not participate in athletics in his birth country, but was often observed running while doing his rounds as a postman.

He came to Potchefstroom in approximately 1901 when he was recruited as a member of the newly founded South African Constabulary.

McArthur in Potchefstroom 

The South African...

On the 13 December 1982, the first of a series of ceramic plaques was unveiled by the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth. The project leader, Hans Huisman, explained that although many old buildings qualified for the National Monuments Council bronze plaques in terms of age, alterations and additions had detracted from some of the recipients’ original status. It was agreed that they be recognised in a unique way. Initially, the ceramic blue tiles were individually produced for these historical sites by potters, but consistency in appearance detracted from their impact. The project was revived in 2016 using circular, blue, fibreglass plaques with laser cut inscriptions.

Below is Part 2 of a series highlighting the blue plaques of Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). In this installment we look at four plaques that celebrate historic sporting moments that occurred in the city. Click here to read Part 1 (plaques 1-5).

6) First Bowling Green in South Africa – Park Drive, Central

The inscription on the ceramic plaque reads: “Founders Green opened 6 January 1884 by the Resident Magistrate Mr A C Wylde. This, the first green in South Africa was laid by the Port Elizabeth Bowling Green Club founded in 1882.” The blue hand-fired tile laid by the Historical Society in 1984 is in poor condition.

PE Bowling Club (Jenny Bennie)
   

7) First Rugby Test match in...

Always in search of historical South African photographs, the author recently obtained a photograph album from an antique dealer in Johannesburg containing images of largely a singular theme, namely the world’s most popular sport - fishing (at least back then).

The album, which was not up for sale, surfaced from a back room with the dealer announcing: “I do not know what to do with these”.

Nor did the author know what to do with them, in that the underlying theme of the album content initially seemed dull and insignificant. The album was also not in a good condition. This is probably why the album was discarded in the first place in that family members, who probably ended up with the album, also could not relate to the narrative portrayed by the images.

On studying the content of the album, it soon became clear that there is some significance to the album in that:

• The original owner, KT Lilliecrona, authored the book Salt-water fish and fishing in Southern Africa (1966), which until today is being referenced by scientists and researchers;
• KT Lilliecrona’s father, who is also featured in the family photograph album, was the brainchild behind the garden design of the village settlement of Uvongo.

Book Cover

Konrad...

We South Africans are renowned for being sports fanatics and none more so than our rugby supporters, so we are looking ahead, with relish, to next year’s series between the Springboks and the Lions (2021 version). For those of you who are not Rugby Union aficionados, the Springboks are the national rugby team of South Africa and the Lions are a touring rugby team comprising players from the four home unions of the British Isles, namely England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Those players chosen for a Lions tour regularly play against each other in the annual Six Nations rugby championship and every fourth year they unite to play opponents in the Southern Hemisphere during their off season (their summer, our winter) and ever since 1989 the tours are spaced two years after the preceding Rugby World Cup on a quadrennial cycle (1989/1993/1997/....2021). In 1989 it would be Australia who hosted the Lions, then in 1993 it was New Zealand and in 1997 it was the turn of South Africa, thus we get the chance to play the best combined British and Irish side every twelve years (1997/2009/2021); it is a once in a lifetime chance for a South African to play against the Lions.

South Africa’s re-admission to international sporting competition was permitted after the release of Nelson Mandela (11-02-1990), with our subsequent participation in the 1992 Cricket World Cup and the Barcelona Olympics of the same year. Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as our President in the 1994 multi-racial elections paved the way...

In its heyday, black African competitive cycling on South Africa’s gold mines received little publicity either locally or internationally. Nevertheless, it flourished for nearly three decades, beginning in the late 1950s and extending into the mid-1980s. Today it has been almost totally forgotten. However, a recently published biography of a leading South African cycling personality of the period, entitled Basil Cohen: South Africa’s Mr. Cycling, vividly recalls this lost history of Black South African cycling.

Drawing extensively on this biography and supplemented by several other related sources, this article traces the rise and then the decline of black cycle sport on South Africa’s gold mines in the latter half of the 20th century. Basil Cohen’s central role in this development warrants an outline of his biography.

Basil Cohen (1939-2014): South African Cycling personality extraordinaire

The 2013 biography by Igor Broes is a tribute to Basil Cohen as an indefatigable cycling enthusiast, ambassador and entrepreneur. Nevertheless, Basil’s name remains largely unknown to all but the cognoscenti of South African competitive cycling. The book itself is a profusely illustrated, privately-produced limited edition volume distributed exclusively amongst Basil’s family and his close cycling friends of the time, making it a rare piece of Africana sporting history. 

Born in Johannesburg in 1939 into a middle class Jewish family, Basil Cohen did not excel at school either academically or in sport and, in his early teens, he found solace in riding his first racing bicycle. This was an imported blue Phillips ‘Phantom’ built from...

We are used, now, to the rugby players of Western Province and the Stormers visiting Hermanus for training at the start of the annual competitions. Like any other sporting codes coming to our town to exercise and train, they bring revenue into many businesses and boost the image of health, outdoors and ‘clean air’ that attracts many other tourists as well. 

But I suspect that not many readers know that the first training visit of a rugby team to Hermanus was 70 years ago this year, was unplanned and involved the mighty All Blacks at the start of their tour in 1949.

The 1949 tour was the first since the end of World War II and thus was keenly anticipated by rugby enthusiasts in South Africa. But, things went awry from the start. The SA Rugby Board asked the New Zealand administrators not to select Maori players, as this would conflict with South Africa’s very recently implemented policy of apartheid. Naturally, the request and response could not be kept a secret, and opposition to the tour grew in New Zealand.

The NZ rugby authorities responded by organising a simultaneous tour (previously unplanned) by a Maori team to Australia, and by stating publicly that the three Maoris who might have taken part in the South African tour, would be earning international caps as members of the Maori side.

Both tours took place at the same time, and (as if to punish the NZ administrators), separate test matches were organised against Australia and...

Always in search of original South African photographic images from before 1915, the author recently acquired several photo albums from this era at a Pretoria based antique fair.

One of these photo album stands out in that the theme is purely tennis-based, spanning over a 4-year period (between 1909 and 1913).

In putting this article together, much photographic cross-referencing had to be done in an attempt to identify and record as many players as possible in that only a few photographs in the album have the names of the players recorded.

Given some of the captions recorded in the album, it is assumed that the owner was female. To date, it could however not be determined beyond reasonable doubt who the album belonged to. The assumption is made that the album may have belonged to an unidentified female player that features most often in the album. The author cautiously suggests that she may have been Miss Raymond.

The “prominent female player” on the left with Charlie Winslow. The second female has not been identified to date

The “prominent...