The Department of Sport Science is celebrating its 80th birthday on 1 July 2016. Prof Floris van der Merwe, extraordinary professor in this department, explains how it all started.
After dominating SA university athletics (Dalrymple Cup) for five years, Maties had to stand back for Wits in 1935. The reason behind Wits' success that year was the athlete/coach Ernst Jokl.
Paul Roos and Prof Ebbie Stegmann immediately started with the process to convince Jokl to come to Stellenbosch and start the first department of physical education in South Africa.
Ernst Franz Jokl was born on 3 August 1907 in Breslau (Germany) and completed a qualification in physical education before he became a medical doctor. In May 1933, Jokl and his wife left Nazi Germany and immigrated to South Africa. He had to complete another three years of medical training before he could work as doctor in South Africa. It was at the end of this period that he was convinced to join Stellenbosch University.
At that point in time the rightful place of "physical culture" was at last acknowledged by the departments of education. By now the term "sport" also represented a wider meaning and a need was felt for a more scientific approach. Jokl's credentials fulfilled this need. At Stellenbosch, Prof Stegmann and the rector Prof RW Wilcocks managed to get the funds for Jokl's appointment from the Carnegie Corporation and he started in his new capacity on 1 July 1936.
Jokl started with a three-year diploma course in the second semester of 1936, but the course was found not feasible by the teaching and university authorities and was stopped. Jokl thus started in 1937 with 17 students following a one-year certificate course in physical education. A prerequisite was an acknowledged certificate in primary of secondary education. It was also possible for undergraduate students to follow the course part-time over two years whilst doing their degree.
Jokl wasn't just involved with the training of PE teachers – he also presented fitness classes for groups of between 200 and 300 students at Coetzenburg in the afternoons. Staff members and even the rector also participated in these activities that were referred to as "jokkel".
Although Jokl left the university at the end of April 1937, the name stuck until it was replaced by "mbk" (the abbreviation for the new name "Menslike Bewegingskunde") in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
- The Department of Sport Science currently has 338 undergraduate, 79 postgraduate and 11 PhD students.
