Danie Craven

Danie Craven

Danie Craven in 1937
Full name	Daniël Hartman Craven
Nickname	Dok (Doc), Mr Rugby
Date of birth	(1910-10-11)11 October 1910
Place of birth	Lindley, Free State, South Africa
Date of death	4 January 1993(1993-01-04) (aged 82)
Place of death	Stellenbosch, South Africa
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	80 kg (180 lb)
School	Lindley High School
University	Stellenbosch University
Occupation(s)	President of South African Rugby ('56-'93) Director of Sport ('76-'84) Professor of Physical Education ('49-'75)
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position	Scrum-half ('31-38) Centre ('33) Fly-half ('37) No. 8 ('37)
Amateur clubs Years Club / team     1925 1929-1935 1936–1937 1938 Lindley RFC Stellenbosch University Albany (Grahamstown) Garrison RFC
Provincial/State sides Years Club / team Apps (points) 1931-1935 1936-1937? 1938 Western Province Eastern Province Northern Transvaal
National team(s) Years Club / team Apps (points) 1931–1938 South Africa 16 (6)
Coaching career Years Club / team     1949-1956 1949–1956 Stellenbosch University South Africa

Daniël Hartman Craven (11 October 1910 – 4 January 1993) was a Springbok rugby union player (1931–38), national coach, national and international rugby administrator, academic, and author. Popularly known as Danie, Doc, or Mr Rugby, Craven's appointment from 1949 to 1956 as coach of the Springboks signalled "one of the most successful spells in South African rugby history" during which the national team won 74% of their matches. While as a player Craven is mostly remembered as one of rugby's greatest dive-passing scrumhalves ever, he had also on occasion been selected to play for the Springboks as a centre, fly-half, No.8, and full-back. As the longest-serving President of the South African Rugby Board (1956–93) and chairman of the International Rugby Board (1962, 1973, 1979), Craven became one of the best-known and most controversial rugby administrators.

Craven earned doctorates in ethnology (1935), psychology (1973) and physical education (1978). He not only created the physical training division of the South African Defence Force (1941) but became the first professor of physical education at Stellenbosch University (1949).

Danie Craven was born on 11 October 1911 to James Roos Craven (b. 28 June 1882) and Maria Susanna Hartman (d. 1958) on Steeton Farm near Lindley, a small town on the Vals River in eastern Free State province of South Africa. Craven was the third of seven children. The family farm was named for Steeton in West Yorkshire, home to Craven's paternal grandfather, John Craven (1837–90), who came to South Africa as a diamond prospector. Craven later named his home in Stellenbosch "Steeton" also. His father, aged 18, fought against the British during the Anglo-Boer War and was interned in a British concentration camp, a fate that reportedly also befell his mother.