Ikeys mourn ‘Doc’ Dallas

UCT RFC mourns the loss of a man who has spanned 60 years of UCT rugby  both as a player and an administrator  in John Dallas. John passed away on Thursday 6 May after a  brief illness in cape town.

He played for UCT in the 1950’s and was selected for Western Province as a 19 year old and was a Springbok trialist. But after spending a lot of time in Natal it was in the 2000’s that Mr D was to make his name felt at UCT RFC. He served both as a team manager across various sides and as an administrative assistant in the Rugby Office. He also organised several tours and it was on these that he won the boundless admiration of the players with his enthusiasm for life and laughter. In fact, it was on a  tour to SWD in 2000 that Mr. Dallas was awarded an honorary “doctorate’ by First XV captain Nick Maurer as just reward for some of the manager’s antics. Management of those three or four tours, alarmingly, consisted of Gus Enderstein (coach), the late and legendary Ish Dramat and John Dallas (managers). Ish and Mr Dallas’s approach to post match hydration differed.

Mr D remained a loyal and faithful Ikey always frequenting the Green Mile and was oft happily ensconced with a bitterly cold Castle in the pub or with a  crispy white in the UCT Club on the first floor. As he was a prodigiously talented rugby player he was one of life’s true gentlemen and marvellous company. Those blue eyes always had a naughty twinkle and many conversation was started by him addressing somebody “and what school did you go to?” and then declaring whether that was acceptable or not. After the intervarsity win of 2004 he reported back to work in the club office on the Tuesday. Once an Ikey…..