Remembering Doc Cecil Moss: Memorial Day Photos

UCT Rugby Club celebrated the life of South African rugby legend and former University of Cape Town (UCT) Rugby Football Club president and coach, Doc Cecil Moss, at the Doc Moss Memorial Day on the Green Mile on Saturday, 19 January 2019.

Springbok and UCT rugby icon, alumnus Dr Cecil ‘Doc’ Moss, died on 27 October 2017. An anaesthetist by profession, the former winger was coach and president of UCT Rugby Club.

Everyone whose life Moss touched, whether as a doctor or a sportsman, was invited to the memorial day, with a special lunch held in the Smuts Hall Upper Common Room from midday. The rugby action kicked off with UCTʼs Young Guns and Eagles squads playing the curtain raiser at 14.30. The main event, between UCT’s 1st XV and a Doc Moss Invitational side, drawn from local rugby clubs, followed at 16:00.

Moss, a Springbok, Western Province and UCT rugby icon, died at the age of 92 on 27 October, 2017. He began his academic career at UCT aged just 16. He joined UCT Rugby Club in 1943 and was selected for the UCT 1st XV. He was at the helm of Club as coach from 1966 to 1974, and again in 1976, and was Club President from 1989 to 2003.

Former Springbok and UCTRFC alumnus Derek van den Berg said the coaching under Moss at UCT was the best he encountered at any level of the game he played. “Doc Moss was more than a coach. He was a confidant, a mentor and a friend to all his players,” he said.

Off the field, Moss was a dedicated and respected anaesthetist who was part of Professor Chris Barnard’s pioneering team that performed the first heart transplant in 1967. Twelve years later he was the anaesthetist on the team that performed a minor procedure on former President Nelson Mandela when he was still imprisoned on Robben Island.

Below, enjoy some of our favourite photos from the day: