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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2023
By 1939 Wits University was firmly established as one of the leading sporting nurseries in the country. Its athletes, rowers and swimmers reigned supreme at intervarsity level, the rugby club was in the process of recovering from a period in the doldrums, and the cricketers were ready for promotion to the First League. Hockey, tennis, boxing, fencing and golf were flourishing, whilst soccer, squash, ice hockey, shooting, cycling and baseball attracted interest.
With the University’s sports clubs rapidly increasing in strength and number, fragmentation of the student body was inevitable. The All Sports Committee became a distinct division, having outgrown its original role of being a mere sub-committee of the Students’ Representative Council. Concern about the anomalous position of the All Sports Committee resulted in six students, Brian Bunting, George Warren, T.R. Trevor-Jones, Neville Rankin, L. Abrahams and A.L. Kowarsky, being appointed to draw up a new constitution for the administration of sport at the University. Their efforts culminated in the establishment of the All Sports Council (ASC) on 1 September 1939.
Early meetings of the ASC were formal, well-run affairs and would involve the executive committee and approximately twelve delegates from the clubs. Initially, the election of officers would take place at the first meeting of the year, but the election date was later changed to August and finally, September. At this meeting, the SRC treasurer would deliver the budget and as there was never enough money to go round, its reading was eagerly anticipated by the awaiting members.
It was to be many years before Wits appointed full-time staff to assist in administering student sport. However, it would be somewhat amiss not to mention Tom ‘Fergy’ Ferguson, who served as superintendent and coach at the swimming pool for 23 years until his death in December 1952, and his successor, Victor Macfarlane. The former confined himself to the various aquatic activities, whilst the latter, who served the University for 32 years, found himself drawn by circumstances into a number of other sports. Both were unquestionably accomplished coaches, but it is equally important to point out that for swimming they provided the necessary continuity that was lacking in so many of the other sports clubs.
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