Sport at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

is primarily organised by the Adelaide University Sports Association. Other bodies affiliated to the University of Adelaide providing sport include the various sports clubs forming part of the

residential colleges A residential college is a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence and with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a federated relationship wi ...

and the Roseworthy Agricultural Campus Student Union Council.

Adelaide University Sports Association

Adelaide_University_Lacrosse_Club_'A'_team

The Adelaide University Sports Association was founded in 1896 by the Adelaide University Boat, Tennis and Lacrosse Clubs.The Blacks
Adelaide University Sports Association. The Association was, until 1 January 2010, affiliated to the

Adelaide University Union YouX (Formerly AUU) is a student union at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. It provides academic advocacy, welfare, and counselling services to students free of charge, funds the student newspaper ''On Dit,'' and owns a number of com ...

. They are now affiliated directly to the

. In 2006 funding for the association was dramatically reduced by the implementation of the Australian Government's

Voluntary Student Unionism Voluntary student unionism (VSU), as it is known in Australia, or voluntary student membership (VSM), as it is known in New Zealand, is a policy under which membership of – and payment of membership fees to – university student organisations ...

legislation. 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 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 The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia and is legally defined as the capital city of South ...

to occupy sporting fields in the

Adelaide Parklands The Adelaide Park Lands are the figure-eight of land spanning both banks of the River Torrens between Hackney and Thebarton and separating the City of Adelaide area (which includes both Adelaide city centre and North Adelaide) from the surro ...

. The university has private buildings at many of these sites. The association is incorporated in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

as a not-for-profit society under the ''

Associations Incorporation Act 1985 Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

''. The association is administered by an

executive officer An executive officer is a person who is principally responsible for leading all or part of an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. In many militaries and police forces, an executive officer, o ...

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 A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

nominee. Constituent clubs elect 3 general board members at the annual general meeting. The executive members are elected by general student franchise.

Founding sporting clubs

Adelaide University Boat Club

The

Adelaide University Boat Club 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 Smit ...

was founded in 1881 and is one of South Australia's premier

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...

clubs. It is a member club of Rowing SA (South Australian Rowing Association) and operates from the

Torrens River The River Torrens , (Karrawirra Parri / Karrawirraparri) is the most significant river of the Adelaide Plains. It was one of the main reasons for the siting of the city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia. It flows from its source in the ...

in the

Adelaide city centre Adelaide city centre (Kaurna: Tarndanya) is the inner city locality of Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Ade ...

, and from

West Lakes West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

in the suburb of

. The city boathouse was donated by

Robert Barr Smith Robert Barr Smith (4 February 1824 – 20 November 1915) was an Australian businessman and philanthropist in Adelaide, South Australia. He was a partner in Elder Smith and Company from 1863 (now now Elders Limited). Early life and education Smit ...

in 1909. The West Lakes Boathouse is shared with the other South Australian rowing clubs and is administered by Rowing SA. 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 The Oxford and Cambridge Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the Australian University Championship Eight (rowing), Men's Eight (formerly the Australian Universities Boat Race), and is competed for annually at the Australian University Ga ...

(a silver cup similar in style to the

America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...

) for Men's Eights. The cup was donated by Old Blues of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Universities in the 1890s. Past members have included Olympians Kate Slatter (Women's Pair Gold and Silver medallist), Jaime Fernandez (Men's Eight Silver),

Tim Willoughby Timothy John Willoughby (24 June 1954 – 9 January 2008) was an Australian rower, yachtsman and stockbroker. He was a five-time Australian national champion rower, a dual Olympian and won a bronze medal in the Australian men's eight at the 1984 ...

(Men's Eight Bronze) and

Amber Halliday Amber Halliday (born 13 November 1979) is a former rower and cyclist from Adelaide, South Australia. She is an Australian national champion, a dual Olympian and a three-time world-champion in lightweight rowing. She rowed for South Australia on ...

(Lightweight).

Adelaide University Tennis Club

The Adelaide University Tennis Club was founded in 1885 and is a lawn tennis club. 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 The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

. He had won the 1896 Queensland Doubles Champion and the 1897 NSW Singles Championship. In 1905 he was runner-up in the singles final of the inaugural

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

and graduated in medicine.

Adelaide University Lacrosse Club

The

Adelaide University Lacrosse Club The Adelaide University Lacrosse Club (AULC) is an Australian-based lacrosse club founded in 1889 by Nobel Prize winning Professor William Henry Bragg.

was founded in 1889 by

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winning Professor

William Henry Bragg Sir William Henry Bragg (2 July 1862 – 12 March 1942) was an English physicist, chemist, mathematician, and active sportsman who uniquelyThis is still a unique accomplishment, because no other parent-child combination has yet shared a Nobel ...

.Adelaide University Lacrosse Club
theblacks.com.au It is one of the oldest lacrosse clubs in Australia and is a founding member of the AUSA. The AULC takes part in an annual competition against the Melbourne University Lacrosse Club that was first contested in 1905 and competes locally in the Lacrosse South Australia competition. Club membership is focused on

students and graduates. Other non students are also members. The club trains on the University of Adelaide's

Park 10 Park 10, also known as Bullrush Park and WarnpanggaBullrush ...

sports fields in the parklands between the University campus and

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. History Surveyor-General Colonel William Light of the colo ...

. Seven

Rhodes Scholars The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

have been members: *1909 Henry Fry, anthropologist and medical practitioner. *1917 Sir Hugh William Bell Cairns, neurosurgeon. *1925 Myles Landseer Formby, World War II surgeon. *1939 Duncan Campbell Menzies, army officer. Died after being tortured by the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

in Burma whilst on patrol with the

Chindits The Chindits, officially as Long Range Penetration Groups, were special operations units of the British and Indian armies which saw action in 1943–1944 during the Burma Campaign of World War II. The British Army Brigadier Orde Wingate form ...

during World War II.Rhodes Scholars
The Blacks – University of Adelaide Sports Association *1955 Ian Wilson, politician and lawyer. *1976 Mark Rogers Mussared, medical practitioner.List of South Australian Rhodes Scholars
www.adelaide.edu.au *1983 David Alexander C Robertson

University blues

University sporting blue 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 ...

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.

A Grade Premierships

The club has won 11 men's and 1 women's A grade premierships since 1893.

Other sporting clubs

Adelaide University Gliding Club

Adelaide University Gliding Club was formed in 1976, 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) competition. Several AUGC pilots have gone on to a career in aviation, as

RAAF "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

pilots, commercial helicopter pilots and flying for

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founded ...

. Three club members have received University Blues.

Adelaide University Football Club

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 Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 organize 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 David Fitzsimons (23 April 1950 – 7 September 2008) was a former Australian Olympic athlete who competed in middle distance events and civil engineer. A member of the Adelaide University Athletics Club, he represented Australia at two Oly ...

(Blue recipient 1970), as well as scientist

Henry Brose Henry Herman Leopold Adolph Brose (15 September 1890 – 24 February 1965) was an Australian physicist. Life Born in Adelaide, he attended Prince Alfred College and graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1910 with a B.Sc. in mathematic ...

(secretary 1910–11, Blue recipient 1910), former Attorney-General of South Australia

Trevor Griffin Kenneth Trevor Griffin (14 September 1940 – 7 March 2015) was an Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1978 to 2002, when he retired from politics. He led the Liberal Party in the Coun ...

(Half Blue recipient 1962, Club Letter recipient 1959), former Justice of the

Supreme Court of South Australia The Supreme Court of South Australia is the superior court of the Australian state of South Australia. The Supreme Court is the highest South Australian court in the Australian court hierarchy. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in ...

the Honourable Timothy Anderson (Blue recipient 1966), and current Judge of the

District Court of South Australia The District Court of South Australia is South Australia's principal trial court. It was established as a court of record by the ''District Court Act 1991''. Prior to that the Court had existed since 1969 under the ''Local and District Crimina ...

, 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 The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

champion, 1984

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

and medical student George A.C. Murrell as President and 1982 Australian Junior

Hammer Throw The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that name. It consis ...

Champion and State Junior Record Holder 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. Membership doubled from 27 registered athletes in 1982/83 to 53 in 1983/84, the Club hosted the National Intervarsity Championships in 1983, 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

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 at the Intervarsity Games of 1983, 1984 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 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 ...

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 Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

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 University sailing (sport), sailing in Australia has gone through a process of growth, decline and now regrowth. Since the first inter-varsity competition in the 1960s in Adelaide, university sailing has played an important role in the Australian ...

, it maintains a fleet of boats at the

Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a cit ...

for novices and has many state, national, and international representatives.

Adelaide University Rugby Union Football Club

The Adelaide University Rugby Union Football Club affectionately known as the ‘Uni Blacks’, is a rugby union club based in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. 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 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, P ...

competition. The club's home ground is located in the eastern suburbs of

at Waite Oval and is presently home to three senior men's teams and junior teams from under 7s to under 16s. It is one of many clubs that represent

The University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

and is open to public membership.

Roseworthy campus

Roseworthy Agricultural Campus Student Union Council is an affiliate of the Adelaide University Union. It represents the interests of students at Roseworthy Campus and runs activities including orientation, sports and other social events. Up until the 1980s, sport at Roseworthy was organised by the

Roseworthy Agricultural College Roseworthy Agricultural College was an agricultural college in Australia. It was north of Adelaide and west of Roseworthy town. It was the first agricultural college in Australia, established in 1883. It is now part of the University of Adela ...

Sports Union, founded in 1927. Sports included

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

rifle shooting Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such as ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

,Recent history of the Barossa Rams
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swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

, and

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

Intercollegiate Sport – High Table Cup

There have been two cups awarded for the Intercollegiate Sport championship between Adelaide University Colleges, both with the generic title of ''High Table Cup''. The ''College Cup'' was donated by the

High Table The high table is a table for the use of fellows (members of the Senior Common Room) and their guests in large university dining halls in anglo-saxon countries, where the students eat in the main space of the hall at the same time. They remain ...

of St. Mark's College in the 1950s, and remained in use until 1995 when the ''Douglas Irving Cup'' was donated. Current participants are the College Clubs of

Aquinas College :''See also List of institutions named after Thomas Aquinas'' Aquinas College may refer to any one of several educational institutions: In Australia *Aquinas College, Perth, Roman Catholic boys' R–12 school *Aquinas College, Adelaide, residenti ...

Flinders University Hall Flinders University is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across 11 locations in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of British navigator M ...

, Lincoln College,

St. Ann's College St Ann's College is a co-residential residential college, college in North Adelaide, South Australia. In its early decades, the college had only female boarders. Today it houses 197 Higher education, tertiary students, both sexes, in single roo ...

and St Mark's College. 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).

External links

Adelaide University Sport and Fitness AssociationAdelaide University Boat ClubAdelaide University Cricket ClubAdelaide University Gliding ClubAdelaide University Football ClubAdelaide University Touch ClubAdelaide University Lacrosse ClubAdelaide University Sailing ClubAdelaide University Soccer ClubAdelaide University Soccer Club - WhiteAdelaide University Hockey ClubAdelaide University Gym

Notes

{{Soccer in South Australia 1896 establishments in Australia Sport in Adelaide University of Adelaide

Adeladie