There are two flights of stairs leading to the first floor of the North-West University’s High Performance Institute. Traversing these stairs you will find, on the one side, the sport managers who have led the NWU to the top echelons of varsity glory.
Helené Botha guided the NWU netball squad to Varsity Cup glory, as did Conrad de Swardt with cricket, Mervyn Taylor and Ronel Emms with rugby, Terseus Liebenberg with athletics. On the same floor there are phenomenal coaches like Michael Seleka (football) and Hannes Esterhuizen (rugby). The latter two have more accolades than words on this page allows. To the other side there is the office of Sheldon Rostron, Manager: Sport, Corene Middleton and Lydia Stroebel, lieutenants bar none. But, there is also something else. Something forgotten.
A bit of history. Mounted at the back of this floor, behind forgotten chars and tables, are two wooden plagues mounted next to another. From bygone to 2007 they list all the ‘Springboks’ that the NWU has produced. This includes all sport codes, so-called minor and major.
What caught the eye was the last inscription for a Springbok rugby player. Now, the NWU has delivered many Springboks to the South African rugby fraternity, but the name of Schutte Bekker stood out.
Bekker was a hard-as-nails loose forward who gave little and took more than the tax collector. He was an uncompromising beat of a player. Born in Nelspruit, the 193cm dreadnought played 59 games for the old Western Transvaal and 60 games for Northern Transvaal. He never scored a try.
He also represented the Bulls in 27 Super Rugby matches, dotting down three times.
His only test appearance came in 1997 as a replacement in the last game of the much-maligned tenure of Carel du Plessis on August 23,1997 in Pretoria. Die Bok side boasted such luminaries as André Joubert, James Small, Percy Montgomery, Joost van der Westhuizen, Os du Randt, Gary Teichmann and one Johan Erasmus in its starting lineup. The latter is nowadays better known as World Cup winning coach Rassie.
Jannie de Beer was instrumental in the home side’s victory. He slotted six conversions, three penalties and scored a try. It must be said that it was a monster of an Aussie team. Burke, Tune, Little, Roff and Gregan all featured.
Incidentally, this was not the only time a NWU forward played only one test. Franco van der Merwe, the behemoth of Hartswater High School, was a NWU and Leopards stalwart. The blonde-haired brute made his test debut at the age of 30 against in All Blacks in 2013 under coach Heyneke Meyer. He took the field as a 61th minute substitute in Johannesburg in the last round of the Rugby Championship, but despite two tries by Bryan Habana, the home side lost 27-38.
However, a few decades before, another NWU lock, Johan Claassen, fared a bit better…
