Go The Blacks

Fathers, sons and daughters of
current Adelaide Uni Football Club (AUFC)
players Sport has been an integral part of the University of Adelaide since the very early days. Our proud sporting tradition began in 1881 when the Adelaide University Boat Club was launched and was soon followed by tennis and lacrosse clubs. Then in 1896 the three clubs jointly established the Adelaide University Sports Association.

Today Adelaide University Sport – otherwise known as The Blacks – has nearly 40 sporting clubs involved in everything from fencing, gridiron and gliding to kendo, motorsport and scuba diving. Lumen caught up with three of our most active sports enthusiasts. www.adelaide.edu.au/sports 

Keeping it in the family

Playing sport for the Universityof Adelaide can become a real family affair. Intensive care specialist and Adelaide University Blue winner Dr Peter Sharley notched up 88 games with the University Football Club – the ‘Mighty Blacks’ – and has now been overtaken by his son Simon with 120 games.

Such father-son combinations are not unusual in the 110-year history of the club and now that two women’s football teams have joined the seven senior men’s teams, neither are father-daughter pairings.



Simon and Peter SharleyThe Blacks celebrated this unique connection in May with a photo shoot of 20 father-son and daughter duos currently active at the club. They included University graduates John Parker and his son Sam who have each played more than 200 games.

“It really is quite amazing and highlights the great and rich history of the club,” said Peter. “And it’s more than just family connections. The Blacks have an enormous past player network with membership emails going around the world which can be very useful for career contacts.”

Peter specialised in both anaesthesia and intensive care medicine after graduating in medicine at the University in 1985, and was Director of the Royal Adelaide Hospital critical care retrieval service and Deputy Director of intensive care for many years.

In 2003 he was awarded an OAM for his medical support to victims of the Bali bombings and has recently held the position of President of the Australian Medical Association in SA.

Peter played football at the open state amateur level and was awarded the University’s premier sport award, a Blue, in 1983. Today Peter is still involved as the football club’s Senior Vice President and club doctor. He’s been a member of the Blues and Sports Scholarships Committee for nearly 30 years.

Peter continues to be a big promoter of the importance of sport to balance study and also work.



Natalie Redmond Sport the perfect balance for study

Mad-keen cyclist Natalie Redmond recently travelled to Europe to cycle in mud and snow for six weeks. It’s all part of the fun of cyclo-cross and Natalie was there to compete in the World Cup and World Championships. The engineer and law graduate is passionate about her sport and when she found there was no cycling club at the University of Adelaide she linked with a couple of friends and started one.

That was in 2009 and after 18 months the club was officially affiliated with Adelaide University Sport where she was awarded a coveted Blue. Natalie was vice-president of the club during her time at the University and has seen its membership grow to between 30 and 40 members today.

“I really felt that I was contributing something through my involvement in the club as well as gaining all the benefits,” said Natalie.

“When you’re at university I think you’ve got to have something almost of equal importance to your study, whether it’s sport or some other interest, otherwise you can lose perspective. You get what you give.

“Of course there’s also the social benefit of being involved in a club.”

Natalie is now an acoustic and mechanical engineer at AECOM in Adelaide and still finds time to cycle about 10 hours a week on trails and roads. She competes nationally in Australia in road racing and also cross country cyclo-cross which is becoming more popular here. “We do it in Australia but it’s nowhere near as muddy as Europe,” said Natalie.

Choosing between golf and medicine

Pain management specialist David Cherry has the rare distinction of representing South Australia at golf, football and bridge. It’s an unusual, if not unique, combination that demonstrates his ability and determination to succeed at the highest level in all of his many interests. 

The Associate Professor was awarded an AM in this year’s Australia Day Honours for his service in two of these pursuits – as an academic and researcher in pain management and his executive roles in golf. As a young man David found himself having to choose between the two – professional golf or medicine.

“All the people I played against turned pro but I decided to finish medicine and that was the best decision I ever made,” he said. “I did think about becoming a professional golfer at one stage but never really seriously – medicine is a much more reliable source of income.”

David graduated with a medical degree from the University of Adelaide in 1971 and went on to specialise in anaesthesia. He was director of the pain management unit at the Flinders Medical Centre for 27 years and then convenor of Medical Panels SA until 2015.

His sporting prowess is just as impressive. He was competitive at a high level in both football and cricket but really shone at golf, a sport in which he is still very active as a player and an international administrator.

When Lumen spoke to David he had just returned from Augusta after refereeing at the US Masters, a role he’s held for the past five years. He is currently Chairman of the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation responsible for helping to organise major golf tournaments throughout the region.

Story by Ian Williams