Munies Hockey Club celebrate 100 years
Durban: 13 – 15 June 2025
Making its way to a magical milestone, Municipal Hockey Club, fondly referred to as Munies, turns 100 on Saturday 5 July, making it the oldest hockey club in KZN and one of the oldest in South Africa.
In acknowledgement of their historic achievement, the Munies Alumni have organised a few events over the June long weekend to celebrate their centenary. There will be a public event on their grounds: a six-a-side fun grass hockey tournament followed by a potjie competition on Sunday 15 June.
Munies has had a variety of hockey successes over the decades, both in the leagues they were delegated to and players representing both province and country, most recently Grant James as a Springbok Indoor Technical Support Staff. Nowadays, the established club has a small membership who all participate for the love of the game. ‘We are a small club of about 75 or so active and seasoned players. Our oldest member has been a part of our family for 62 years and is still instrumental in the running of the club. We are lucky enough to have our second and third generations keeping the momentum going!’ said Chairman, James Thom.
Delving into the colourful archives of the club from a century ago, the documents reveal some wonderful mementos, including that the ladies team created in 1926 travelled in May to Harding for a fancy dress match. In the men’s league, ‘Umpires were also a problem and there was a lot of rough play. The reason given that most of the players were football players.’
In their first official game, Munies took on Nomads ‘A’ on 5 July 1925, also recording their first loss of 9-1. At the end of July, Munies had two registered teams with the revival of hockey in Durban well underway. Nomads Hockey had three teams and Durban AC another three teams.
In 1927, Munies had grown to two men’s teams and two women’s teams, another snippet from the archive’s shares regarding the women’s kit, ‘Ladies colours – All black, sand shoes, socks, bloomers, gym with square neck with yellow vertical stripes on bottom, white blouse.’
In the early 50s, Munies moved to their present grounds nestled in the greenbelt of the Botanical Gardens. All that they had was a piece of level ground maintained by the Corporation. The first sign of a permanent fixture, after years of pressure, the Municipality eventually built two large ‘long-drop’ buildings that served as toilets and change rooms. Five years later, in 1958, the clubhouse started taking shape with the kitchen being built, which was used for everything! Three expansions later, the Munies Clubhouse remains in pride and place on their home ground.
Anyone with any links, connections or history to Munies Hockey Club is invited to get in touch with the Centenary Committee, by contacting Ashleigh on 082 893 8262 via WhatsApp.
For more info visit www.munies.co.za or connect via Facebook.
