MARITZBURG COLLEGE OLD BOYS ASSOCIATION
Associations in Pietermaritzburg

If you are an Old Collegian, please rest assured in the knowledge that your Association is today a flourishing organisation, which now operates from splendid new premises in the main administration block. There are many challenges facing Maritzburg College today, and as the state provides fewer and fewer resources to the school, so the burden of supplying them, or making provision for them, becomes greater on the Old Collegian community. It is imperative, therefore, that the MCOBA remains strong, both financially and in terms of membership and participation. Only by doing so is the Association able to render the type of assistance to the school that is required. This is only possible if we have many members who pay their subscriptions. Simply coming to the school now and again to support the occasional function or sports match is no longer good enough. The MCOBA needs you to join and to pay your subscription! Only then can we continue to be of service and value to our great school. In our 151st year, grey laurels and our year of establishement were added. A short while later, Mr RD Clark instituted the school motto (derived from the Latin inscription he composed for the Colonial War Memorial, now in the foyer of Clark House) and the badge of carbine-and-assegai, both of which were initially connected more with the school’s Old Boys' Association than the school. A popular belief is that they highlight the various skirmishes, battles and wars between the British and the Zulu that took place in the late 19th century, with the colours representing the warring parties (white and black) and the blood that was shed between them (red). One of the school's distinct features is its hierarchical system, which is underpinned by a long-established set of privileges and duties. The most well-known duties include 'team-testing' (the rote-learning of school teams etc. School traditions include the wearing by all boys of straw boaters (known as bashers), which are hurled into the air at First XV rugby matches, and the saying of the word 'please' when a junior is addressing a senior boy. Because of its possibly contentious nature, the hierarchical system of privileges that underpins the school's ethos is carefully monitored by the staff, hostel masters and senior prefects. College's rigorous structure of traditions and concepts date back to similar styles found in pre-1900 British boarding schools, and this is perhaps the only school in Pietermaritzburg where this structure is retained to something like its original extent. The cricket match was played in the morning on the Camp Grounds and the rugby match was played in the afternoon on the Pietermaritzburg market square. Maritzburg College now offers a wide variety of sports, including rugby, cricket, canoeing, hockey, athletics, swimming, water polo, tennis, shooting, soccer, basketball, cross-country, cycling, table tennis, squash and golf. The school has fixtures against its rival schools such as Durban High School, Glenwood High School and Westville Boys' High School in and around Durban, and the local private schools, Michaelhouse, Hilton College and Kearsney College. Records show College to be the strongest sporting school in the province in sports such as rugby, cricket, canoeing, polo, polocrosse and hockey.