Going 101 with Bidvest Wits

Iconic South African club BidVest Wits would have celebrated 101 years on Friday had the club’s status not been sold in an ill-fated move in 2020 that robbed the Premier Soccer League of one of its top brands.

Wits were DStv Premiership champions as recently as 2016-17, and a regular feature in the South African top flight for decades, producing some of the country’s greatest talents through their development system.

Formed in 1921 by students at Wits University in Johannesburg, it took the club 96 years to win their first national league title, but shortly after that were sent spiraling into extinction – for now – after owners Bidvest disposed of their asset to second-tier side Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM).

That status is now in the hands of the owners of Marumo Gallants, after TTM bosses found themselves woefully out of their depth in running a top-flight team. It was perhaps the final insult that Wits’ treasured status was sold on again after only six months.

Wits first played top-flight football in 1976 but even before that, they were making waves as, while still campaigning in the second-tier the previous year, they travelled to Botswana and beat Township Rollers 1-0 in Gaborone in a rare friendly match between a so-called ‘white club’ and opposition from a neighbouring country.

They had been coached to promotion by Eddie Lewis, who was also in charge of Kaizer Chiefs at the time but quit the AmaKhosi to continue the project with The Students.

Players who came through their ranks at the time included future Manchester United goalkeeper Gary Bailey and defender Richard Gough, who would go on to play with great success at Glasgow Rangers and Everton.

Their first major trophy came with the Mainstay Cup (ow the Nedbank Cup) as they beat Kaizer Chiefs 3-2 at the Rand Stadium, with Dave Jacobs grabbing a brace.

Players such as Rodney Bush and future South Africa test opening batsman Jimmy Cook also played in that game. But over that period they also had guest players such as Chiefs’ Ace Ntsoelengoe.

They were continually pushing the boundaries with the Apartheid government, and before their cup win had been barred from taking busses of white supporters to the Orlando Stadium in Soweto for their opening game of the season against Chiefs.

They continue to be a fixture in the top flight, with pockets of success, like winning the BP Top 8 (1984) and John Player Special Cup (1985), before they had double success in the 1995 season with the Top 8 and Coca-Cola Cup.

It would be 15 long years, and one relegation, before they tasted more silverware as they claimed the 2010 Nedbank Cup and then the MTN8 (2016) and the Telkom Knockout (2017) to go with their league victory.

That win in the final of the MTN8 was especially excellent as they ripped apart a Mamelodi Sundowns side that just a few months later would go on to be crowned African champions. The 3-0 win was inspired by two goals from Daine Klate.

Sadly, the squad that coach Gavin Hunt had built would be dismantled a few years later with the club sale.

Stalwart Peter Gordon holds the record for the most starts for the club with 442, while his longevity means he was also the record goal-scorer with 57.

The biggest win for The Students came in a 14-0 thrashing of Cardiff City in the Mainstay Cup in 1986, while their biggest defeat was a 6-1 loss to Chiefs in the league in 1990.

There has been talk of the old Wits University being resurrected, and while it could not be claimed as the original club, it would be a welcome return to the South African football scene.