Sporting Competitions
Inter-Service Colleges Athletics Meeting
Portsea March 1980
Starting as a triangular meeting between the local service colleges, it became a regular all-college meet from the 1959 one at Duntroon. Athletics in all forms made up a substantial part of the sporting curriculum, from the formal intra-unit and inter-college meets, to its other faces of cross country and other numerous runs, and such adjuncts as physical training and orienteering.
Athletics competitions provided welcome breaks from the School routine, with additional away meets in Victorian Amateur Athletics Association competitions and other colleges and university associations. The underlying fitness of the cadets made them formidable performers, and it was a rare ISCAM where OCS was not in a top position.
RMC Archives
Inter-company tug-of-war
Portsea 1980
While many events in the athletics competition were for specialists with a particular talent, there were others where a minimum of training provided participation for the rest. This applied also to the team sports, where smallness of numbers, over-ambitious numbers of teams, injuries and the inter-unit competitions meant that most had to play most sports simply to make up the numbers.
The benefit of this went beyond simple fitness and teamwork, preparing future officers with a broad knowledge of sports to stand them in good stead in conducting sports in future units.
RMC Archives
Cross country finish
Portsea 1985
Chief Instructor Lt Col J. W. Langler watches R.E. Siebert and S.J. Kluver cross the finish line. One of the compulsory events for all cadets, it was another of the stamina and internal fortitude tests used to inculcate individual ability to go on in the face of strain and stress. Another facet was in battle efficiency tests: cadets were required to complete the long run in equipment two minutes faster than the standard army rate, on the rationale that they would have to be able to assist their soldiers and needed the extra reserves to provide that margin.
From the early 1970s cadets were at least permitted to run in reasonable joggers, rather than having to wear the old style issue sandshoe which had for so long masqueraded as gym and running shoe in the army.
OCS Journal June 1985