Adelaide University Sport is the sports association of the University of Adelaide. Established in 1896, it had 37 sports clubs, including some that predate its establishment. Other bodies affiliated to the University of Adelaide providing sport include the various sports clubs forming part of the residential colleges and the Roseworthy Agricultural Campus Student Union Council.
The Adelaide University Sports Association was founded in 1896 by the Adelaide University Boat, Tennis and Lacrosse Clubs.[5] Its historical motto in Latin is Mobilitate Vigemus translated "we thrive by mobility".[4][6] Its sporting colours black and white are likely from the white-backed magpie, an Australian bird found on its crest and the state badge.[4][7] Its mascot is Gus, a black lion, which replaced the piping shrike on its historical crest.[3][8][4] The sports association was administered by the Adelaide University Union for over 100 years before becoming directly affiliated with the university in 2010.[9][10] The sports association re-named to Adelaide University Sport that same year.[10]
In 2006 funding for the association was dramatically reduced by the implementation of the Australian Government's Voluntary Student Unionism legislation.[11] Until this point in time it had received an annual grant of approximately A$500,000 from the university. Since the beginning of 2007, the University has provided a membership-proportional level of financial support, with the association largely relying on fundraising events and fees, much like other University of Adelaide clubs.
It supports 37 sporting clubs, providing a diverse range of sporting opportunities to University's students. It is a major stakeholder in the Adelaide University's North Terrace Campus-based Sports Hub fitness centre[12] and the North Adelaide-based university playing fields. Although holding numerous independent sporting facilities, it is also permitted to use government owned and regulated sporting facilities, operated by the City of Adelaide to occupy sporting fields in the Adelaide Parklands. The university has private buildings at many of these sites.
The association is incorporated in South Australia as a not-for-profit society under the Associations Incorporation Act 1985. The association is administered by an executive officer and assisted by an administrative and projects officer. Governance is through an elected board of management including an annually elected executive committee comprising: President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer, 6 two-year-term general board members and a University nominee. Constituent clubs elect 3 general board members at the annual general meeting. The executive members are elected by general student franchise.
The main focus of the club is to provide rowing for the students of the University of Adelaide. Each year the club competes in the Rowing Intervarsity and local and national regattas. The premier event is the Oxford and Cambridge Cup (a silver cup similar in style to the America's Cup) for Men's Eights.[13][14] The cup was donated by Old Blues of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the 1890s.[13][14]
The Adelaide University Tennis Club was founded in 1885 and is a lawn tennis club.[15] It was instrumental in the founding of the Adelaide University Sports Association. Dr Albert Curtis came to Adelaide in 1903 having been at the University of Sydney. He had won the 1896 Queensland Doubles Champion[16] and the 1897 NSW Singles Championship.[17] In 1905 he was runner-up in the singles final of the inaugural Australian Open[18] and graduated in medicine.
1925 Myles Landseer Formby, World War II surgeon.[27][28]
1939 Duncan Campbell Menzies, army officer. Died after being tortured by the Japanese in Burma whilst on patrol with the Chindits during World War II.[29][30]
A University sporting blue is awarded for excellence in a particular sport. The awarding of a Blue is usually for competing in a state or national team. The AULC has 134 full Blues awarded to members since 1908. Many more half blues and club letters have also been awarded.[31]
Following the 1895 establishment of the Adelaide University Union, the student association, the three clubs co-founded the Adelaide University Sports Association in 1896. Additional sports clubs such as the Adelaide University Football Club were established throughout the 20th century[10][32]
Adelaide University Gliding Club
Adelaide University Gliding Club was formed in 1976,[33] and operates a fleet of gliders that includes a pair of two-seat training aircraft, a motor glider and several single-seat gliders. Launches are provided by a winch. The club shares an airfield at Stonefield in the Riverland with the Barossa Valley Gliding Club and Fly Down Under, a commercial gliding operation. It is heavily involved in flying training, which is carried out in the two-seat sailplanes under the guidance of club instructors and has trained many pilots from ab initio (complete novice) level through to cross-country, national and international (as members of the Australian Gliding Team[34]) competition. Several AUGC pilots have gone on to a career in aviation, as RAAF pilots, commercial helicopter pilots and flying for Qantas. Three club members have received University Blues.
The Adelaide University Football Club was officially formed on 26 March 1906 and became affiliated with the Sports Association two weeks later on 9 April 1906. Prior to this time, there was no University Football team competing in a regular competition; however games were arranged on an irregular basis.
The earliest reference to football at University was found in a PAC School Chronicle of 1885. The report stated that Adelaide University could not organise a full side for a Saturday game; however there were enough available for a mid-week game. This was arranged for Wednesday 19 June 1885 and several League players and old scholars from PAC comprised the side. University lost this encounter 4.11 to 1.1.
The Blacks were successful in winning the A Grade Premiership in the years 1911–12, 1920–22, 1926, 1929, 1932, 1951–52, 1954–55, 1960–62, 1965, 1968–69, 1974–75, 1986, 1996, and 1999. In 2006 the Blacks were runners-up to Goodwood Saints 10.12 72 – 18.11 119.
Adelaide University Touch Club
Touch Football is a game derived from rugby league, where tackling and kicking are outlawed. The Adelaide University Touch Club was formed in 1983 and joined the Sports Association in 1985. It is the largest touch football club in South Australia. The club has players ranging from complete beginners to players who have represented Australia and England at international tournaments. The club enters teams in the local park touch competition in both single sex grades and mixed grades in both summer and winter competitions. During summer the club runs a mixed competition at the Waite Campus of the University.
Adelaide University Athletics Club
Established in 1906, the Athletics Club has a participatory focus and competes in events such as the City-Bay Fun Run. Notable past members include Olympian and eight-time Australian champion David Fitzsimons (Blue recipient 1970), as well as scientist Henry Brose (secretary 1910–11, Blue recipient 1910), former Attorney-General of South Australia Trevor Griffin (Half Blue recipient 1962, Club Letter recipient 1959), former Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia the Honourable Timothy Anderson (Blue recipient 1966), and current Judge of the District Court of South Australia, Peter Brebner (treasurer 1977–80). Since the Club's establishment, forty-seven club members have been awarded a University Blue.
In the early 1980s, the Murrell brothers, State triple jump champion, 1984 Rhodes Scholar and medical student George A.C. Murrell as President and 1982 Australian Junior Hammer Throw Champion[35] and State Junior Record Holder[36] and agricultural science student, Thomas A.C. Murrell, as Honorary Secretary switched from the highly successful St Peters College Athletics Club to rebuild the Club.[37]
Membership doubled from 27 registered athletes in 1982/83 to 53 in 1983/84, the Club hosted the National Intervarsity Championships in 1983,[38] made the finals in both Men's A and D grades and won the D grade Interclub premiership, the club's first in six years.
Three-time Intervarsity Hammer Throw Champion and University Blue Thomas Murrell of Adelaide University Athletics Club
Thomas Murrell was National Men's Hammer Throw Champion and Club Captain[39] at the Intervarsity Games of 1983,[40] 1984[41] and 1985 (representing the University of New England), was President of the Club in 1984/85 and in 1984 was awarded the Patron's Trophy for outstanding services to the Club. In 1984 he was awarded a Full Blue in Athletics and at the time had the longest hammer throw by an athlete ever to attend Adelaide University, was ranked fifth in the South Australian all-time senior listings and represented South Australia in the national competition for senior men's hammer throw.
Adelaide University Sailing Club
The oldest university sailing club in Australia, it was established in 1959 and hosted the first intervarsity competitions in 1960 and onward. Always a power of Australian university sailing, it maintains a fleet of boats at the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron for novices and has many state, national, and international representatives.
The Adelaide University Rugby Union Football Club affectionately known as the ‘Uni Blacks’, is a rugby union club based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established on 14 July 1932, the AURUFC is the oldest rugby union club in South Australia and the only surviving foundation club in the South Australia Rugby Union competition.[45][46]
The club's home ground is located in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide at Waite Oval and is presently home to three senior men's teams and junior teams from under 7s to under 16s.[42][47][48] It is one of many clubs that represent The University of Adelaide and is open to public membership.
While the majority of participants are from the University of Adelaide, most residential colleges also accept students from other South Australian Universities and technical colleges, who are also able to participate in the competition. There are 11 sports in the championship. They are (in chronological order) tennis, swimming (mixed), basketball, debating (mixed), Australian Rules Football, netball, soccer, table tennis, field hockey, volleyball and athletics (mixed).
The University of Adelaide is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many sandstone buildings of historical and architectural significance, such as Bonython Hall. Its royal charter awarded by Queen Victoria in 1881 allowed it to become the second university in the English-speaking world to confer degrees to women. It plans to merge with the neighbouring University of South Australia, is adjacent to the Australian Space Agency headquarters on Lot Fourteen and is part of the Adelaide BioMed City research precinct.
Sport in Ireland plays an important role in Irish society. The many sports played and followed in Ireland include Gaelic games, association football, horse racing, show jumping, greyhound racing, basketball, fishing, motorsport, boxing, tennis, hockey, golf, rowing, cricket, and rugby union.
Brisbane State High School is a partially selective, co-educational, state secondary school, located in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a member of the Great Public Schools Association of Queensland, and the Queensland Girls' Secondary Schools Sports Association. It was the first state secondary school established in Brisbane, as well as the first academic state high school to be founded in Queensland. The school employs a variety of selection criteria for prospective students, maintaining a quota for local area enrolments, however also using academic, sporting, cultural and artistic talents as means of determining the annual intake.
Adelaide High School, originally named the Continuation School, is a state high school situated on the corner of West Terrace and Glover Avenue in the Adelaide Park Lands. Following the Advanced School for Girls, it was the second government high school in South Australia and the first coeducational public high school in that state. It was in 1951 split into Adelaide Boys' High School and Adelaide Girls' High School.
A blue is an award of sporting colours earned by athletes at some universities and schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of blues began at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. They are now awarded at a number of other British universities and at some universities in Australia and New Zealand.
Lacrosse in Australia is a minor sport, with a long and proud history dating back to 1876, with a small but dedicated community of participants and volunteers. The established centres for lacrosse are in the greater metropolitan areas of Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. In these cities there are organised weekend field lacrosse competitions for men and women at senior and junior levels, played over the winter months. In the off-season, there are informal box lacrosse and sofcrosse competitions, though the majority of players in Australia are mostly of the field lacrosse type. Some lacrosse is also played in Sydney, South East Queensland, Canberra, Ballarat and Bendigo, it is very much at the developmental level.
A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports.
Team Durham is a student-run organisation responsible for sport at Durham University. Durham University's sports programme, run by Team Durham, has produced more professional sports people than any other UK university and has twice seen Durham named Times and Sunday Times Sports University of the Year. It has ranked in the top three institutions in British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) every season since 2011–12. Eight Team Durham alumni or current athletes have won nine Olympic and Paralympic medals since 1996.
The Adelaide University Boat Club is a rowing club affiliated with the University of Adelaide. The club was founded in 1881, and in 1896 helped to form the Adelaide University Sports Association. The main clubrooms, donated by Robert Barr Smith in 1909, are located on the north bank of the River Torrens on War Memorial Drive, adjacent to the Adelaide University Sports Grounds. The shed has two boat bays, a gym and weights room and a small bar. The club also leases a secondary boatshed at the South Australian Rowing Association complex on Military Road at West Lakes, and also trains regularly at Port Adelaide's North Arm Creek and Murray Bridge. Members have included rowers of all levels, from total beginners to Olympic Gold Medallists. The club shares the nickname "The Blacks" with the Adelaide University Football Club.
Sport plays an important role in the business, community, social and cultural life in the state of South Australia.
University Oval, referred to by the University of Adelaide, Adelaide University Sports Association and various other groups, is a part of Park 12 in the Adelaide Parklands located across the River Torrens opposite the University of Adelaide. Park 12 is bounded by North Terrace, Frome Road, Sir Edwin Smith Avenue and King William Road.
Park 10, also known as Bullrush Park and Warnpangga is one of the Adelaide Park Lands in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. It is one of the few parks to still be known most commonly by its assigned number, and is enclosed by McKinnon Parade, Bundey's Road, War Memorial Drive and Frome Road. The park is used extensively by University of Adelaide sporting clubs.
Sydney Uni Sport & Fitness (SUSF) is the University of Sydney's sporting body. SUSF currently manages and administers more than 40 sport and recreation clubs, also organising sporting and recreation events, and offering student and non-student members a comprehensive range of sporting facilities. SUSF also provides sport scholarships and other support to student-athletes.
Rugby Union South Australia (RUSA) is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in the state of South Australia. It is a member of Rugby Australia and runs an amateur club competition in Adelaide consisting of men's teams in Premier grade, Premier reserves, Division 2 and Division 2 reserves; and junior teams grouped by age from under 7 to under 18. As of 2013, a women's competition has been included. The RUSA also selects representative teams each year to compete against other Australian states and territories.
The RMIT Redbacks are the sport collective of the Australian research University the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), based at all campuses in Victoria and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The program is managed by the RMIT Sport team, part of RMIT Student Life.
InterVarsity Hockey refers to field hockey competitions in Australia between rival universities, dating back to 1908. The Men's and Women's competitions were organised and run separately until 1978, when they became a 'combined InterVarsity', before becoming part of the Australian University Games in 1993.
The Associated Southern Colleges (ASC) is an association of independent schools in the Australian Capital Territory and southern New South Wales, Australia that share common interests, ethics, and educational philosophy, and contest sporting events among themselves.
College sports or college athletics encompasses non-professional, collegiate and university-level competitive sports and games.
Sydney University Boat Club is the rowing club in Sydney, Australia with the oldest charter having been formed in 1860 by the founders of the University of Sydney. It has had a boatshed presence in various locations on Sydney Harbour since 1886, excepting between 1941 and 1966. A varsity and recreational club during most of its history, the Boat Club has since the 1990s had a focus on its high performance and elite rowing programs. Supported by the University's Sports Union the Club has developed an increasing number of Olympic representative oarsmen and women in the new millennium with club members rowing in twenty-two seats in those Australian Olympic crews who represented between Athens 2004 and Tokyo 2021.
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