Danie Craven

Rugby playing career

100-year anniversary of Doc Danie Craven at Wilgenhof men's residence in Stellenbosch.

At university Craven found a mentor in Stellenbosch coach and national selector A.F. ("Oubaas Mark") Markötter, in charge of the university team from 1903 to 1957. Markötter noticed Craven from the time he starting playing as a 19-year-old in 1929, and promoted him to the first team the following year.

In his third test, against Scotland at Murrayfield on 16 January 1932, Craven scored the winning try. The opportunity came because Craven implemented advice that he had received at Stellenbosch from coach Markötter. Markötter had said that on a muddy field a scrumhalf should either play with his forwards or kick, Craven recalled later. His advice enabled Craven to choose between captain Osler, who wanted the ball to be passed to him, and leader of the forwards Boy Louw, who demanded that the ball stay with the forwards. During the match he was knocked unconscious, sustained damage to his vocal chords, and lost a tooth.

Craven managed to maintain links with other rugby playing nations during the years of South Africa's sporting isolation through his position with the IRB. He feared that isolation would negatively affect the standard of Springbok rugby. Consequently, he was not above "some murky business", such as the New Zealand Cavaliers tour in 1986, which Craven denied would happen. By the time South Africa returned to international competition in 1992, there had been no outgoing tours since 1981, and no incoming tours since 1984. An unprecedented deal emerged to form a single rugby association that would field integrated teams for participation in foreign tournaments. Many right-wing white South Africans attacked Craven as a traitor for meeting with the ANC, and the then State President of South Africa P.W. Botha denounced the move. ) on 2 July 1938. She was from the Eastern Cape, a teacher, and daughter of the member of parliament for Steytlerville, George Hayward. One of his grandsons is the professional Namibian road cyclist Dan Craven, winner of the 2008 African Road Race Championships in Casablanca, Morocco. Danie and Beyera divorced in 1972.

On 30 May 1975, Craven married Martha Jacoba (Merlė) Vermeulen, the widow of Cape Town detective Dirk Vermeulen. Merlė worked in the fashion industry as a buyer for a chain of stores, and so had to attend fashion parades. After one such a parade in Pretoria, she twisted her ankle badly at her hotel. A bystander introduced her to Craven as "a doctor" who "knew a lot about ankle injuries". After Craven treated her foot, he telephoned and arranged to meet her again, and their relationship developed.

Craven had a dog named Bliksem which accompanied him everywhere, even to rugby practices. A journalist recalled how "when Doc and Bliksem were on the touchline at training, no one within sight would dare shirk".

Legacy

There were "many contradictions and convolutions in Craven's life", wrote Paul Dobson, which made him both admired and despised:

Honours

Danie Craven was accepted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 1997, the first of 9 South Africans to date. In 2007 he became the third inductee into the IRB Hall of Fame, only preceded by Rugby School and William Webb Ellis, the alleged instigator of the game that would develop into rugby union.

In 1981, Craven received the State President's Award for Exceptional Service, as well as the honorary citizenship of the city of Stellenbosch. Craven denied that he had ever said that people of colour would be Springboks "over my dead body".