Concordia vs Immanuel

Students who attended Concordia or Immanuel in years between 1955 and 1971 will remember the annual athletics competition between the two colleges held in Term 1.
The battle for the Kumnick Shield was taken very seriously, and Concordia’s war cry in the 1971 Brown and Gold magazine is certainly an indication of this.

Rumba rumba small in number,

We are still the best around!

Tumba tumba never slumber,

We will drive them to the ground!

But that year, we are told, ‘Immanuel was again superior in athletics. This was not due to any lack of fitness in our team; on the contrary, they were fighting fit.’ The trouble was we were just too small.  Immanuel must breed giants down at their school – but with continuous effort David will defeat Goliath yet……Lunchtime was a splendid success. Here the real ‘warfare’ took place, as hoses were used to quell the enthusiasm of competing cheer squads.’
However, relations between the two colleges were not always marked by such friendly rivalry. The late 1950s gave rise to tension and unpleasantness in the sporting arena. This was seen as a spill-over from strong feelings in current theological discussions between the two Lutheran synods in preparation for their eventual merger in 1966.
Letters between the headmasters of Immanuel and Concordia in 1959 refer to incidents of booing and even more unacceptable behaviour at sporting events.
Immanuel staff could not agree with the Concordia stance ‘that the animosity results chiefly from football matches, and that tennis, cricket and athletics contests were free from such manifestations of feeling.’ They decided to suspend the intercollegiate athletics events for the time being, believing that ‘the two schools should not develop as institutions that hate and belittle one the other.’
After a cooling off period of two years, the event was restored to its place as an annual fixture in 1961.  It was also decided to allow girls to compete for the first time. No doubt this was seen as a possible civilising influence!

The photo shows a scene from the 1964 athletics.