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Themes from the Dictionary of NZ Biography Volume 5, 1941–1960
Sport in New Zealand 1940–1960
The mid-century decades saw an increase in mass participation in sport, the consolidation of many national competitions, and greater achievement at international level.
During the Second World War there was a reduction in sporting activity. International competition virtually ceased—the Tokyo Olympics and the All Black rugby tour of South Africa scheduled for 1940 were among the first casualties—but services sport partly filled this void, with rugby matches being played against South African 'allies' during the North African desert campaign. Most interprovincial contests were suspended because so many competitors were overseas, and because petrol rationing made travel difficult. There were some sporting benefits from the war: American servicemen greatly boosted softball and indoor basketball.
Post-war celebrations included the triumphant tour of the New Zealand Army Kiwis, who delighted British crowds with their exhilarating rugby. This was a false dawn: rugby's new style was set by the unsuccessful 1949 tour of South Africa, which led to an emphasis on forward domination that was to blight the sport and have wider social consequences. As manliness was increasingly associated with physical toughness and aggression on the playing field, many baby-boom males became as emotionally hardened as their servicemen fathers had needed to be. Nevertheless, some notable players emerged in the 1950s, including Ron Jarden, one of the greatest All Black wing three-quarters.
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Most New Zealanders blinded themselves to the wider issues at stake in competing with a racially-segregated country which demanded that Maori be excluded from touring teams. Among those omitted from the 1949 team to tour South Africa were All Blacks Johnny Smith and Ben Couch (later a Minister of Maori Affairs).
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The cult of masculinity had one positive spin-off: Arthur Lydiard. A runner of iron will but limited natural ability, he discovered that as he ran further he got fitter. Lydiard found that 100-mile weeks could be tolerated by healthy athletes; indeed, they thrived, especially when plenty of hills were included in the training regime. Lydiard made himself fit enough to win two national marathon titles in his later thirties; he transformed those with greater innate talents into world-beaters. On 2 September 1960 two of his athletes, Peter Snell and Murray Halberg, won middle-distance events at the Rome Olympics, outlasting European athletes who had run fewer miles in training. Lydiard's approach was to help inspire the 'jogging' movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which preached that ordinary people could improve their health and be their own sporting heroes.
Women's sport matured in New Zealand after 1945. Mass participation in a period of prosperity and increased mobility (thanks to the now-ubiquitous motorcar) were crucial. Interprovincial competitions introduced between the wars peaked in popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. A disproportionate number were won by 'provinces' such as Eastern Southland and Maniototo–the strongest player base was the rural heartland.
Outdoor basketball and hockey teams first competed internationally in this period, with the support of administrators like Pearl Dawson, while 'marching girls' enjoyed their heyday. Bowls was also popular, producing champions such as Elsie Wilkie. Sports journalist Dot Simons helped to bring women's sport to wider public notice. The individual star in this period was Yvette Williams, who won four Commonwealth titles as well as the long jump at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, the event in which she set a world record in 1954.
Hear
radio files relating to Yvette Williams's gold medals at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics
and the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Canada (sound file and transcript )
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Another factor in the development of women's sport was the state's long-standing interest in fitter (in all senses) mothers. The Department of Internal Affairs employed physical welfare officers who trained recruits during the war and worked in local communities after it. Otago University staff including Philip Smithells, James (Jim) Bellwood and his wife Emilie, trained physical education teachers who challenged uncoordinated children in weekly gymnastic classes and coached school sports teams outside normal school hours.
Sports participation and spectatorship were the only daytime leisure activities to rival home-centred pursuits such as gardening in this period. New Zealand's hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 1950 encouraged participation in sport and confidence in our ability to compete at international level. So too did the successes of the large team sent to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics: one of the two gold medals went to Norman Read, who won the 50 kilometre walk and was voted New Zealand's Sportsman of the Year.
For men and unmarried women, virtually full employment made sports affordable. Ample time was available on Saturdays thanks to the recently-introduced 40-hour week. Radio commentators such as Winston McCarthy developed distinctive styles for describing events to those unwilling to brave the primitive 'amenities' provided at sports grounds. So did journalists like Terry McLean and Dick Brittenden, who enjoyed the now-inconceivable luxury of touring with a team for six months at a time. The major galloping and trotting meetings attracted huge crowds. Gambling on these sports went underground in public bars following the introduction of legal off-course betting on horse racing at TABs.
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Hear
Winston McCarthy's famous 'Listen...it's a goal' commentary (sound file
and transcript)
This period was the heyday of the local sports club, in which some men seemed to spend most of their non-working lives. Beginning in the lightest rugby or most junior cricket team, they rose as far as their playing abilities allowed before 'retiring' to prop up the bar (the conditions under which sports clubs were licensed to serve liquor was a vexed political issue), referee, or serve on the committee. Their long-suffering spouses added catering for after-match functions to other support services such as washing the team kit.
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Particularly in the South Island, annual community sports days adapted from British models involved an eclectic range of contests including professional athletics, woodchopping, and incomprehensible Scottish pursuits. In general, professional sport was marginalised, practised only by those with great talent in boxing, wrestling or billiards—or badly in need of extra income. Among the talented few were Patrick O'Connor, world champion heavyweight wrestler, and Clark McConachy, world billiards champion for 17 years. The fact that the great majority of rugby league players, many of whom were Maori, received no form of payment, did not prevent them being barred for life from amateur rugby.
As wartime bonds faded from immediate memory in the 1950s, leisure activities became a little more individualistic. Competitive sport was no exception to this trend; athletics has already been mentioned. Another example is yachting, in which New Zealanders first excelled internationally at Melbourne in 1956 with the gold medal-winning team of Jack Cropp and Peter Mander.
In the late 1950s huge crowds watched the world's best drivers compete on the New Zealand Grand Prix circuit. Bruce McLaren was runner-up in the world championship in 1960, and New Zealand motorcyclists and speedway riders also triumphed in Europe. Car clubs began to proliferate from the 1940s; Sybil Lupp, mechanic, motor-racing driver and Jaguar aficionado, became the first woman member on the executive of the Association of New Zealand Car Clubs in 1947–48.
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Aided by the surge in car ownership, golf was the fastest-growing sport in the 1950s, with the young Bob Charles leading the way. Charles foreshadowed a future in which, thanks to television, professional careers could be almost life-long—he is still prospering as a golfer in 2000.
David Green
These biographies can be found at the online DNZB site: www.dnzb.govt.nz
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