Australian Football

University

A University Football Club is recorded as having competed in the Denison Football Association in 1914, but today’s Old Scholars club was not established until the 1930s. Prior to world war two, and for a short while after it, the club did not participate in formal competition of any kind, but in 1948 it applied for, and was granted, admission to the southern division of the Tasmanian Amateur Football League (TAFL). 

After finishing fourth in its debut season it gave little indication that it was going to improve on that performance during the 1949 roster matches, which concluded with it once again occupying fourth spot on the ladder. Minor premier Hutchins had not lost a game all season, and was confidently regarded as having a mortgage on the flag, a status it only served to reinforce by cruising straight into the grand final. Rather surprisingly, the team it ended up facing was University, which having already considerably exceeded expectations by upsetting the odds in both the first semi final and preliminary final would, presumably, be content merely to make up the numbers on grand final day. Ah, if only football was that easy to predict! The University players proceeded to produce far and away the best collective performance of their lives, while their Hutchins counterparts were uncharacteristically slipshod and wayward, dominating possession, but repeatedly failing to capitalise on it. At the final bell the scoreboard showed University 7 points to the good, having scored 14.8 (92) to Hutchins’ 11.19 (85); the supposedly better team had lost, and the first significant foundation stone of an emerging club’s tradition had been laid.

As so often seems to be the case when a team achieves something truly memorable, the aftermath was anything but, and it would be more than two decades before University again tasted premiership success. The architect of the success was Brian Eade (father of Rodney), who was appointed to the club’s senior coaching position in 1967, and who steered the club to five of the six grand finals between 1968 and 1973, for wins in 1970 against Bridgewater, 1971 against Friends, and 1973 against Sorell. For good measure, the Rainbows also went on to add the state title on each occasion. In 1971, they did so by means of a record-breaking 26.12 (168) to 3.14 (32) defeat of Old Launcestonians. Coached by Ron Mawbey, University again claimed the ‘double’ in 1977, downing Sorell by 10 points in the Southern grand final, and Quandeine by 2 goals in the state match.

Between 1981 and 1986 the TAFL southern division split into Districts and Old Scholars sections, with the premiers of each section playing off to determine the overall premier. Competing in the Old Scholars section, the Rainbows scored a 9 point win over Friends to win the 1985 premiership, but lost the Divisional grand final to Mangalore. In 1987 the Old Scholars section became a standalone league. University has so far won three premierships in this competition, beating Hutchins in the 1992 grand final by 46 points, St. Virgil’s by 2 points the following year, and Richmond by a couple of points in 2016. The 2017 season saw them miss the finals entirely with their 6-12 record only good enough for fifth place on the six team ladder. There was a modicum of improvement a year later when they got as far as a preliminary final loss to Richmond.