04/08/2026
This year is the 60th Anniversary of Flinders University!! And itβs also the 60th birthday of our Judo Club!
Remarkably, the Flinders University Judo Club was one of the original 9 clubs that formed the Sports Association (now Flinders University Sport & Fitness) in 1966. The other clubs were athletics, baseball, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, soccer and tennis.
The club was started by Rod Boswell, a young PhD student who had been training at Adelaide University Judo Club - AUJC under the guidance of their founder, Jo Revalk. Rod boldly decided to start a club at Flinders, despite just 4 years Judo experience and only holding the rank of Green Belt.
Rod tells of the very early days of training at the main Gym with around a dozen members. Amazingly this was before the club even had mats! Apparently there were quite a few bruises and a consensus was quickly reached to obtain proper mats. Rod was assisted by Dick Morrow, another physics PhD student (who had reached Orange Belt at AUJC), in successfully applying for a grant.
Rod, who is clearly a lively and enterprising individual, also was co-founder of the Empire Times student magazine as well as the Horseless Carriage Society. He went on to become an eminent physicist specialising in plasma propulsion and a Professor at The Australian National University. Thanks for getting us off to a great start, Rod!