How the Springboks got their name
The Green and Gold Springbok colours are some of the most identifiable in the rugby world and probably one of the most feared.
But how did the Springboks get their name and colours? We take a look back at history on where it all began.
For over a hundred years, players who represent South Africa have been called Springboks, and the jersey they so proudly wear is the Springbok jersey; a beautiful jersey to which is ascribed magical qualities.
South Africa’s national animal is the springbok, an antelope – and it is the name of the National Rugby team. Known for their green and gold uniforms which they have worn since 1906, with a leaping springbok emblazoned in gold on the rugby shirt, with their white shorts, the Springboks are one of the world’s top rugby teams and frequently bring joy to their followers and ardent rugby supporters. Local supporters call them “Bokke” and “Amabokoboko”.
The springbok antelope (Antidorcas marsupialis) is found in dry areas of South Africa from the karoo to the southwest into the Namib desert in Namibia. They get their name from the Afrikaans words “spring” which means jump and the word “bok” which means buck or antelope. This is because the springbok has a unique pronking or stotting jump where its legs are stiffened as the animal leaps into the air. Jumps can be as high as 2 meters (6 foot).
On 21 August 1862 the headmaster of Bishop’s College Canon George Ogilvie organized the first official rugby match in South Africa. The match took place at Green Point in Cape Town and was played between the Army and the Civil service.
During a test series in 1903 against the British, the South African team had either worn white jerseys or jerseys in the colours of the Union/club hosting the match and had no badge on their jerseys and.
In fact, white is even today South Africa’s alternative kit. However, before the third and final test at Newlands the then South African captain Barry H. Heatlie was asked by an unnamed official to consider changing the habit, with the view of giving South Africa a permanent jersey.
Heatley, one of the greats of South Africa’s pioneering period, recalled the moment green was adopted as the jersey colour: “At the time I had on hand a supply of dark green jerseys, the colours of the defunct Old Diocesan’s Club. It was decided to wear those jerseys at Newlands, and ever since South African fifteens have been clad in green.”
The First Tour
In 1905 the famous New Zealanders made their tour of the mother country with tremendous success and this spurred the South Africans to do the same so in 1906 the first International tour to the United Kingdom was organized with the team captained by Paul Roos and vice-captained by H. J. Carolin. Regarding the Springbok badge, the manager of the 1906 tour John Cecil “Daddy” Carden, observed that it existed when the team left South Africa.
Carden was quoted in an article published by the London Daily Mail on September 20, 1906, as follows: “The team’s colours will be myrtle green jerseys with gold collar. They would wear dark blue shorts and dark blue stockings and the jersey would have been embroidered in mouse-coloured silk on the left breast, a springbok, a small African antelope…”
The name Springboks, an anglicised version of the Afrikaans word Springbokken, was the brainchild of skipper Roos, vice-captain Carolin and manager Carden, as the latter recalled: “No uniforms or blazers had been provided and we were a motley turn-out at practice at Richmond. That evening, I spoke to Roos and Carolin and pointed out that the witty London Press would invent some funny name for us, if we did not invent one ourselves. We thereupon agreed to call ourselves ‘Springboks’, and to tell pressmen that we desired to be so named… I at once ordered the dark green, gold-edged blazers and still have the first Springbok pocket badge that was made”.
So, the Boks have clearly been a green-with-gold team for 110 years. South African rugby has definitely kept gold at bay. The gold collar and stylised remnants of the golf cuffs from a long-sleeved jersey live on in modern versions of the very green and not-so-gold. But changes have been slight. Look at any decade from 1910 and later and the elements are similar.
The only real changes came early, in the Bok socks: red stockings, then blue stockings with two white stripes, then dark blue socks with no stripes, and finally the green socks with two gold stripes took over and became the convention. Those stripes have grown smaller over time.
In 2009, the gold stripes on the socks even disappeared.
Through the years there have been clashes with other teams whose colours are also green, like Ireland. But the Springboks will always stay true to the Green and Gold.
