Sport and Colonialism in 19th Century Australasia - LA84 Foundation

On his appointment to Wesley in 1887 as Senior Resident
Master, Adamson was welcomed as an "old Rugby boy" who had been
a member of "the football team of his time". The hope was expressed
that he would "feel at home in the colonies". 16
The
standard of games had been declining at Wesley for several
years and Dr. Way, as co-headmaster, persuaded Adamson to accept
the positions of sports master and chairman of the games committee
in an effort to revive the flagging interests of the
boys for sport. Unlike rival schools, Wesley boys had lost
their enthusiasm for competition and rarely stayed on at school
beyond their eighteenth birthdays to claim the distinction of
representing the school team. With an astute blend of improved
training methods and wider participation created through intraschool
competition, the new sports master gave games more popular
appeal. 17
This internal "strenuousness" gave Adamson the
basic platform to launch his drive for success in inter-school
competition, but he was equally quick to permeate his games
organisation with the trappings and rituals capable of producing
"sentiment". Reverting to the Rugby system, Adamson introduced
the award of colours, codes of privilege and sporting songs in
his efforts to foster tradition and honour the playing field
hero. The success experienced by the Wesley teams from the
Late 1880s was the positive catalyst in the growth of the games
cult at the school and it also contributed to the enormous
popularity of Adamson with the majority of the boys. When
Adamson took four months leave in England early in 1895, he was
greeted on his return at Port Melbourne by a group of boys and
then taken directly to the school buildings. A mass of boys
had congregated and he "received an ovation which shook the
very foundation of the building". 18
During his period as sports
master Adamson had demonstrated, and confirmed his own beliefs,
that well-conducted sport in an Australian public school was a
powerful means in the attainment of certain educational goals.
In addition, sporting success was a powerful and pragmatic instrument
for the purpose of transformation and the playing
fields could be trusted with his greater aspirations for the
school.
Adamson's fame as the headmaster of an Australian public
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