Rector’s eNews 08 : 5 March 2025

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With the advent of the winter sports season, I thought I might reflect on Michaelhouse rugby over the years in two instalments this week and next, with possibly a similar focus on hockey in time to come. In recording some thoughts on rugby, I have relied very heavily on the excellent research of Murray Witherspoon, our Director of Marketing and Admissions, who has documented material from the Chronicles over the years.

At the time of the founding of Michaelhouse in Pietermaritzburg in 1896, the Rector, James Cameron Todd, declared that rugby was to be the major sport at Michaelhouse. “Brain power has to be exercised and, that by setting the blood freely in motion, rugby, especially, is beneficial to the brain” said our Founder in the prosaic English of the day.  As Murray Witherspoon points out, this was the rationale over 125 years ago, and there may well have been some merit in the views of our Founder, as, in the matriculation results of last year, our boys averaged 2.6As per boy, with the First Rugby team averaging 3.34As per boy. Let nobody imagine that a Michaelhouse 1^st XV rugby player is all brawn and no brain!

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