It is with deep nostalgia that I recall the many sports activities of yesteryear which were organised by various amateur institutions that today have sadly faded into insignificance or have completely disappeared from the local sports scene.

One of the most prominent athletics clubs in the 1950s was within the folds of the Royal University Sports Club (RUSC), which, with fewer than 800 students under the direction of Prof. Fogarty, organised the prestigious Annual Athletic Meeting and had the finest athletes on the island.

I vividly recall my athletic tussles in the 440 yards with the gentleman sportsman Edward Turner of the Medical Faculty and the affable sprinter George Bonello du Puis of the Law Faculty. We were the trailblazers of the First Mediterranean Games at Alexandria in 1951.

The standard bearers of the amateur movement was carried by the Malta Sports Association comprising the Malta Union of Teachers, the Civil Service Sports Association, the Royal University of Malta, the Banks Association, The Dockyard Sport and Social Club and the Floriana school Old Boys Association.

We had keen competition in football, hockey, tennis, athletics, badminton and rowing with participation in the National Regatta on September 8.

The Maltese regiments had many fine athletes with whom I competed as a Territorial Army corporal under Commanding Officer Major Mompalao de Piro when the Combined Services Sports Rally at the Marsa drew large crowds as we tussled against the top international athletes transferred to Malta from Libya and Cyprus.

In the 1960s and 1970s, we had the Industries Sports Association, that was ably led by Catania and Casha, which used to offer the opportunity to top football players to join the lesser fry, all in the spirit of sportsmanship.

Where have all these institutions gone? Did they outlive their purpose?

Should they be reactivated?

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