Robert Loftus Owen Versfeld

Robert Loftus Owen Versfeld (7 December 1862 – 5 May 1932) was a South African rugby union player and administrator who was a founding member of the Eastern Province Rugby Union and of the Pretoria Rugby Subunion which in 1938 became Northern Transvaal. He founded Pretoria Rugby Club in 1888, and established Pretoria rugby headquarters at Eastern Sports Grounds. He introduced grass playing fields to the Transvaal.

Versfeld is the only South African player to have won a Grand Challenge Cup in three different provinces with three different teams: the inaugural Western Province Grand Challenge Cup with Hamilton Rugby Football Club in 1883; the Eastern Province Grand Challenge Cup with Union RFC in 1888; and the Transvaal Grand Challenge Cup with Pretoria RFC in 1889. He also played for a Transvaal Country XV against Bill MacLagan's touring British Isles side in 1891. He not only helped start the Union Club, but also the Eastern Province Rugby Union. He was on Union's 1888 team that won the inaugural Eastern Province Grand Challenge Cup. In 1888 Versfeld moved to Pretoria, and started the Good Hope Football Club, which later became Pretoria Rugby Football Club, "the oldest Rugby Football Club in the Transvaal". He was the captain of Pretoria's 1889 team which won the first Transvaal Grand Challenge Cup. Loftus was in the Transvaal Country Districts XV who on 15 August 1891 lost 0–22 to the British in Johannesburg. His teammates included the future Boer general Christiaan Beyers, "one of the leading players in Pretoria, a powerful forward, who led the van in rushes".

Versfeld retired from playing rugby in 1897, and became President of Pretoria RC. He started the Pretoria Rugby Subunion in 1908 of which he became the second President, following Fred Hopley. In recognition of his contributions to rugby Versfeld was named life-member of the subunion and eventually of the Transvaal Rugby Union. In 1919-20 he used imported kikuyu grass from Kenya to produce the first grass rugby field in the Transvaal.

Loftus Versfeld suffered a fatal heart attack while watching a Currie Cup fixture between Transvaal and the Free State at Ellis Park Stadium on 5 May 1932. His son, Wilfred, became President of the Northern Transvaal Rugby Union from its inception in 1938 until 1950. A year after Loftus' death the Eastern Sports Grounds – where Versfeld established rugby headquarters in Pretoria – were renamed Loftus Versfeld in his honour.