We played football to a high standard for a School XI. One year we reached the final of the local cup. Our opponents were an old enemy. After an exciting see-saw game, we scored in the final minutes, and won. The 2000 spectators went wild. The next morning, however, I received a letter explaining, with a drawing to prove it, that, from where our center-forward had shot, it was impossible for the ball to have gone between the posts (there were no nets). Over 2000 witnesses disagreed and the results stood.
Our cricket was fun and our games against Budo, Buganda Kingdom's leading secondary school, greatly enjoyed. A highlight was when we beat a Boma XI captained by a District Commissioner who had played for Oxford! A hard cricket ball, however, took time to get used to. One of our boys, now (1991) a graduate of some eminence, was being given fielding practice. The ball hit him in the bread-basket and he collapsed, moaning, "No one told me it was made of iron!"
And we made our name in athletics too, as the exploits of Ernest Oluo were to demonstrate, for he did a gread teal to put Uganda in due course on the Olympic's map. I was grieved to learn of his death and the circumstances of it last year. Mention of Oluo, reminds me that he was one of the first Nyakasura Boys to com to the U.K. for higher education and training. Others followed. many of them came to see me at the School to whose Headmastership I had succeeded in England in 1954. My wife and I were delighted to see them again and to offer them hospitality.
As remembered and written by Mr. E.C. Cooper, M.A., Headmaster, Between 1948 - 1954. Stay tuned for more Anecdotes of Life at Nyakasura!!
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