UQ’s oldest living blue to attend dinner

Views: 18,433 views. Comments: No Comment.
Tags: centenary-edition, sport, UQ Sport

In 1836, students from Cambridge and Oxford universities competed in a boat race that inspired the varsity tradition and the awarding of exceptional athletes with a “Blue”.

Blues medal

It is these grand achievements that UQ celebrates every year at the UQ Annual Blues and Sports Awards Dinner, with the 2010 event also recognising the achievements of Graeme Wilson, the University’s oldest living Blue.

An outstanding hurdler and all-round sportsman, Mr Wilson entered University in 1936, a time where sandstone walls were a thing of the future and no sporting facilities existed.

Despite having no formal athletics training, he was awarded a Blue in 1936 and captained an elite Australian universities team to New Zealand in 1939.

Seventy years on, UQ is still producing athletes of the highest calibre. Chosen to carry the Australian flag at the 2009 World University Games in Serbia, water polo player Robert Maitland proudly led the 184 Australians who competed at the international sporting meet, as Mr Wilson did in 1939.

On March 19, UQ will celebrate past and present sporting talent at the Blues awards dinner at Hillstone, St Lucia. The University extends an invitation to all who have played a part in UQ’s sporting history to be part of the occasion.

Keeping the tradition alive, UQ Sport is committed to maintaining contact with past and present athletes. Those wishing to attend the dinner or simply update their sporting records
can contact Danielle Stein on (07) 3365 8205 or email blues@uqs.com.au

• Home
• Graduate Contact
• Alumni Profiles
• Global Education: Divining world trends