WILF ROSENBERG

By Teddy Kaplan

  “Shalom Wilf,” I greeted Wilf Rosenberg who is a resident of Beth Protea in Herzylia, “I unfortunately I did not see you once play rugby for South Africa.  During the years when you were at your peak as a rugby Springbok 1955-1958 and playing as a professional for Leeds rugby League in 1960-1961, I was a volunteer in the Israel Defense Force as a paratrooper and then employed by Marks and Spencer, London.”  It was in this manner that I saluted Wilf Rosenberg, one of South Africa’s best rugby players playing at centre position, and one of the celebrated ten Jewish rugby players who made up “the minyan” (a quorum of ten Jews needed to pray together). They were:  1) Morris Zimmerman, 2) Fred Smollan, 3) Louis Babrow, 4) Okey Geffin, 5) Cecil Moss (one of my late brothers best friends), 6) Wilf Rosenberg, 7) Joe Kaminer 8) Syd Nomis, 9) Alan Menter and 10) Joel Stransky (played by Scott Eastwood in the movie Invictus).  These ten men of the minyan were Springboks.  A Springbok is one who played for South Africa in international sporting competitions.  They wear the honoured Springbok blazer, one of the highest  distinctions that can be bestowed upon a sportsman, for outstanding achievement in sport.

(picture below - Wilf and family)

  It has long been a legend that all successful rugby Springbok teams need a Jewish player in their midst.  Dr. Danie Craven, South Africa’s most famous and revered rugby Afrikaner coach, was once quoted as saying , “Having a Jewish player (Jood) on the team is the good luck I dream of!”  

 Wilf Rosenberg was born in Cape Town, South Africa on 18 June, 1934.  His father, an Orthodox Rabbi, was born in Poland and his mother in Lithuania.  When Wilf was three years old, Wilf’s father was given the post of Chief Rabbi in Sydney, Australia.  And the Rosenberg family lived there for twelve years.  Wilf started playing rugby at the age of six years, and at the age of fourteen it was predicted that he would be playing rugby for Australia. (One can detect the Australian accent in Wilf’s South African/Afrikaans speech.)

 And then the era of Wilf Rosenberg’s rugby records began, at the age of eighteen, he was selected to represent Transvaal in Currie Cup matches, an achievement no one has beaten.  At age 21, he was a full Springbok and then later the only Jew to play professional rugby league for Leeds.  In 1960/1961, he scored 48 tries, the equivalent of a touchdown, which till today has not been equaled.

.  Another distinction that Wilf Rosenberg achieved was being inducted in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame at the Wingate Institute in1994. I went looking for Wilf in the Hall of Fame. There he was!!  In all his glory!!!  On the border of his photograph was a small placard which read, dedicated by Dr. Ian and Ruth Froman 1997.  (Ian Froman, another South Africa sportsmen, one of the six founders of the Israel Tennis Centres and he himself the holder of the coveted Israel Prize, 1989.

  You know, my visiting Wilf Rosenberg was for several reasons.  I wanted to see a great rugby Springbok in the flesh.  I wanted to discover through him what makes a champion.  Was it nature or nurture?  We are both over 75 years old.  Wilf is seven months and one day older than me.  I wanted to see how our bodies were functioning.  I am fascinated by the aging process and longevity.  “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by means of strength, fourscore years.” (Psalm 90:10)  I wanted to shake a rubgy great’s hand.

 What can I tell you.  I was confronted by a physical wreck of a man.  Wilf was wearing short pants.  Both his knees were badly swollen and criss-crossed by numerous scars due to operations performed upon them. His left leg? All the cartilage was gone. The fibula had been snapped broken . . . twice.  His ankle had been completely dislocated (Pott’s fracture). His back?  Vertebra L4 and L5 had been severely damaged and battered causing him to walk stooped forward.  He had to walk with the assistance of a walking stick.  His jaw was broken in three places. This man confronting me was broken down, beat-up.  I could not believe my eyes.  Is this what playing rugby at the highest level does to a man?  Maybe Wilf noticed or not, but I shed a few tears. 

  In 1971, whilst attending to a client in his dental clinic, Wilf tells me, he heard “angels singing”.  He had suffered a stroke on the right hand side of his body and was paralyzed for eighteen months. A clot had formed in his carotid artery.  Since then he stopped practicing dentistry and forever has a weakness on the right side of his body.  He cannot stand for a long period of time unaided

 I could not believe my eyes.  This man confronting me was broken down, beat up, a physical wreck!! I quote Wilf, “I know I am not a good advert to any Jewish mother who wants her son to play rugby.” As a matter of fact, Wilf allowed me to use another one of his quotes. “There is a price to pay for International rugby glory?”  How right you are Wilf.

 I would like to point out however, that all of Wilf’s debilitating injuries were not due only to playing rugby.  He was also an excellent cricket player and played squash for the exclusive T.A.C. (Transvaal Automobile Club).  And in addition to all this, Wilf has run the Comrades Marathon six times.

The Comrades Marathon is an ultramarathon of 90 kilometer (55.9 miles).  It is the world’s largest and oldest ultramarathon race.  The direction of the race alternates each year between the “up” starting from Durban and the “down” starting from Pietermaritzburg.

The Comrades was run for the first time on 24th of May 1921, and with an exception of a break during World War II, has been run for every year since.  The 2010 event was the 85th race.  To date, over 300,000 runners have completed the race.

Wilf was a member of the Rocky Road Runners Club in Johannsburg where about twenty men gathered each morning at 6 o’clock to run between 15 to 30 kilometers. On Sunday mornings, they would, as a warm-up for the Comrades, run a marathon (42 kilometers).  Wilf would leave a message for his wife saying he would be home in the afternoon. 

 On the other hand, Wilf’s mind and memory was as clear as a bell.  Whilst playing for Leeds Rugby League in 1960/1961, he attended dental school specializing in periodontics (the branch of dentistry concerned with the structure surrounding and supporting the teeth).  Life was not easy for him.  Playing rugby, studying dentistry, and raising three children at the same time.  

    We then started discussing the names of the 1955-1958 rugby Springboks who were still alive today.  1955 was 55 years ago.  Assuming that the average age of the thirty men in the side was 25 years old, then today they would all be 80 years of age.  Wilf stated, “Stephen Fry, our captain, dead” and he remembered almost every player, from backs to forwards.  Conclusion?  About six men, including himself, living today.  That’s twenty percent!!! “Teddy,” Wilf says to me, “with all my injuries, eighty percent of all those friends of mine are dead.  I’m alive.” “How right you are Wilf.” 

 Up to now, I have spoken to Wilf Rosenberg on two occasions.  The second time round, I mentioned to him what I wrote in my first paragraph, that I never saw him play rugby for South Africa due to being a volunteer in the Israeli Defense Forces.  He replied, “You know what, when I was studying medicine in Wits University, I shared a dormitory with three other guys.  One of them Ernie Finberg, also volunteered.  If I wasn’t playing rugby for South Africa I too would have volunteered.”  I shouted back at Wilf, “Hey, Ernie and I were in S.A.C.S. (South Africa College Schools) and the paratroopers together.  His nickname was “Doc,” and Ernie Finberg did eventually become a doctor.

 A few days ago, at the story-telling class that I conduct at the A.A.C.I. (Association of American and Canadians in Israel), in Netanya, I mentioned to my good and old friend from our army days, Roy Chweidan, that I was seeing Wilf Rosenberg.  Wow, you should have seen Roy’s reaction!!!

 Filled with enthusiasm, Roy exclaimed, “Teddy, I saw Wilf play in Johannesburg when he scored those two tries against the British Lions (a team made up from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales). I can see him now, with head held high and slightly back, going hell for leather to the Lions try-line.  No one could stop him he was so fast off the mark.  And his tackling?  He must have weighed about 75 kilograms.  But the way he hit Butterfield, Cameron and Davies (his opposite centres), who weighed over 90 kilograms was extraordinary. 

 Wilf confided in me when he said, “Teddy, I only knew two things when I was on the rugby field.  One, run hard and look for the gap.  Two, crash tackle my opponent so that he cannot stand up.

 I asked Wilf, “Tell me please, what was the greatest moment in your life?”  Wilf paused for several moments and then replied.  He said “Teddy, I have had and experienced such wonderful events in my life that it is difficult to pinpoint any particular one”  I pressed him for an answer – your marriage, becoming a rubgy Springbok, the birth of your first child?

Wilf “My friends and I had gone to the Doll’s House in Johannesburg after seeing a Saturday night movie.  The place was packed and it was close to midnight.  Then the news came over the radio.  “After five hours of deliberation, Danie Cravan and his selectors are proud to announce the team to play the British Lions in Newlands for the second test. (Having lost the first.) Full-back –Roy Dryburg; Wings Tom von Vollenhoven! Here Wilf looked at me and said, Teddy, when I heard Tom was on the wing, I knew something was up.  Tom played centre in the first test and made a bad mistake but he was so good, they wanted him kept on the team, so they put him on the wing.  Who could the centres be? Centres – Des Sinclair and Wilfred Rosenberg.”  Teddy, the Doll’s House exploded with joy.  And you know what.  The announcement didn’t hit me like BAM (and he crashed his left fist  into his right palm). It took a while to sink in.

Returning to South Africa, Wilf was the rugby columnist for the South African Sunday Times for 18 years, as well as a TV rugby commentator for the S.A.B.C. (South Africa Broadcasting Corporation).  During the rugby session, he hosted his own program, Wilf’s Whistle, where he discussed rugby and other sporting events controversies.

   My conclusion? Was it nature or nurture that made Wilt Rosenberg a rugby Springbok giant?  You and I could take piano lessons every day for the rest of our lives and still never attain the level of success that is realized by the “naturally gifted” artist.  The same applies to athletes.  Wilf was born with natural inherited gifs or abilities that were transformed into expert performances via learning and practicing throughout his development. 

  I mentioned earlier that Wilf’s father was an Orthodox Rabbi.  I asked him, “How could your father allow you to play rugby on Shabbat?”  His father’s reply was, “My son was born with a G-d given talent.  Who am I to argue with G-d?” How right you were, Rabbi Rosenberg.

WHO IS TEDDY KAPLAN? 

  In his youth Teddy was a double International in weight-lifting, representing two countries.  In 1966,, South Africa at the World Weightlifting Championships in East Berlin, East Germany (Springbok). In 1974, Israel at the Asian Games in Tehran, Iran.  Since 1957, he has competed in no less than eleven Maccabiah Games (three representing South Africa).

 Today, Teddy competes in master sport (for men/women over 35 years of age), in three completely dissimilar sports, track and field, bodybuilding and weightlifting.  In weightlifting he is World and European champion and record holder in his age group and bodyweight.  He is a personal fitness trainer working with school children up to senior citizens.

    Anyone interested in participating in master sport, can contact Teddy at teddykaplan2@gmail.com or 0522-560048.

Question:  How many Springboks are living in Israel today?