As we recently enjoyed our college Athletics Day, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to delve into the history of athletics at St Bede’s.

Athletics Day has always been a hugely anticipated event in the school calendar. Originally called Sports Day and held in October, it was a huge annual event that brought together the whole St Bede’s community. Large numbers of parents and old boys would make their way to St Bede’s to spectate and support the boys. Fostering inter-house competition, many generations of Bedeans will have memories of competing for their house in an attempt to earn much-needed house points. While those who take Athletics more seriously compete for the chance to represent St Bede’s at inter-school competitions or even the chance to set a new college record.

The first Athletics Day was held in 1920, the same year St Bede’s moved to its new site at Papanui. Interestingly there is no mention of Athletics Day (or Sports Day as it was known) in the first Bedean published in 1923. It was not until the following year that we see the first written record of Athletics Day which reads...

“The fifth annual athletic sports meeting of our College was held at the College grounds, Papanui, on Thursday, October 23rd, 1924. The day, although not all that could be desired, was sufficiently fine to enable the meeting to be a success. A light easterly was blowing, but by mid-day it had changed into a blustering nor' wester. On account of previous rain, the track was somewhat heavy and this helped to counterbalance the assistance which the sprinters obtained from the following wind. Father Buckley, with the assistance of the sports committee, was responsible for the excellent manner in which everything was arranged and carried out. Praise is also due to the Matron for the way in which she catered for the large attendance, who were the guests of the College at afternoon tea.”

Athletics Day wasn’t just for the students as in the early days an Old Boys’ Race was also held as part of the festivities although the 1933 Bedean commented that for the Old Boys competing in the race “100 yards seemed a very long way.” In 1938 two new events were added to the agenda for the day the Medley Race and the Sack Race. These events proved to be popular among the boys with the Medley drawing over 80 entries and nearly seventy entries for the sack race. The new events were a big success drawing nearly ninety entries each the following year.

St Bede’s quickly proved to be strong in athletics no doubt due at least in part to the dedicated staff and coaches who championed the sport. St Bede’s regularly placed in the top three at the Secondary Schools Athletics competition between 1948-1960 (See table included below from the Golden Jubilee Book).

In 1942 a records board was erected in a corridor giving the full history of the best times for each event. While the board itself has been taken down due to on going building work (it is currently safely tucked away in archives), the school still publishes the current school records on the Athletics Day programme every year.

St Bede’s has produced many successful athletes over the years, too many to name in this article. The current standing school records are included in an attachments below. This gives a fantastic snapshot of our successful athletes and demonstrate just how high the caliber of athletics sports is at St Bede’s. Who knows, in 2024 might see some new records set!

We would love to hear from old boys who have a memorable experience to share about athletics at St Bede's. Your firsthand accounts would be a valuable addition to our archives and we would like to feature them in an upcoming newsletter. Feel free to send your stories through to Emily at oldboys@stbedes.school.nz.