FROM ALABI AISIEN TO THOMPSON USIYEN

  Dele Olowu writes with intimacy why Hussey College was such a huge sports power

In 1960 I sat the entrance examination to four famous schools. They were Government College Ughelli, Urhobo College Effurun, St Peter Claver’s College Aghalokpe and Hussey College Warri. I flunked all the examinations. Only Hussey College Warri gave me the nod. The failure did not hurt me personally. I was eleven and probably had no capacity to frame my grief. But it did hurt me in my neighborhood and home, where I was commonly regarded as the ‘bright one’. I however knew in my heart that my admission into Hussey College was an act of mercy!

The prevailing reports about my brightness were not entirely correct. I was a one trick pony, good only in English and not much else. In tests or examinations, I would ignore the mathematics side of things and deal with English and essay only. I was very verbal but words alone cannot rule the world! Hussey College, being a bigger school had greater absorptive capacity and therefore admitted pupils in larger numbers. In my year, those admitted numbered 120 pupils in four streams. But this mass intake, still, did not conceal my mediocrity. In my first term exam, I was ranked 89th out of 120. It was a dismal showing but my mother who ran my life, and who was a teacher in Warri Township school herself, surprisingly did not specially decry my unflattering output. Hussey College admission protocol was perhaps elastic and indulgent but Government College Ughelli which with some justification carried itself as the knowledge aristocracy of the time, became the subject of my undying envy and resentment. Wherever I saw their colors, their vehicle or students, I came close to being convulsed by memories of the rejection I had suffered.

 But gripes aside, it was an outstanding college and it was run competently by the long-serving ex-soldier Mr. C. C Carter, whom legend said, knew all his students by name. The school excelled in many ways and intrigued some of us with its participation in the abstruse game of cricket, in which incomprehensible shouts of owzat could be heard, when more clarity was required from the umpire. I remember once watching a cricket match, and reaching the bewildered conclusion that both players and umpires looked like noon time witches!

St Peter Claver’s College Aghalokpe, my other detractor was a well-known catholic college tucked in rural Aghalokpe near Sapele. It had a high success rate in the WAEC exams and its long serving Principal, Father Cardogan seemed to epitomize the College. It was a small school and ran two streams only. Founded in 1950, It was a popular school but I did not long dwell on my rejection by this respectable institution. I could live with the setback. But Urhobo College Effurun rankled. The school though located far from the city center, had a boisterous reputation and seemed to provide local counter poise to the rampart supremacy of Hussey College in athletics and football. Academics at Urhobo College was quite demanding and it granted admission in limited numbers only. My exclusion from the portals of Urhobo College Effurun completed the trinity of failures I endured in the entrance examinations. Considering all this, my admission into Hussey College was therefore a massive reprieve. Before going into the school I had encountered a bit of its history and fame. The school was founded in 1947 and named after Eric Robert James Hussey, an Olympic athlete who was also the first British Director of Education in Nigeria. Hints of ethnic nationalism may have featured in the visions of its promoters. The transfer of Warri College from Warri to Ughelli in 1946 and the founding of Urhobo College in 1947 created a lacuna in Warri. It was in order to address this deficit that Chief O.N. Rewane, lawyer and occasional politician, along with his colleague Chief E. N. A. Begho decided to establish Hussey College. It’s founding vision may have been somewhat limited, but the emergent educational entity was one so robust and cosmopolitan that Hussey College qualifies as a truly pan-Nigerian product.

 It started by seeking to train the lads in the immediate Warri district, but it ended up giving intellectual, moral and social instruction to the entire Nigerian landscape. Hussey College flourished in many ways, but it was its unquestionable dominance in sports that placed it firmly on the national imagination. Just where did the enchantment come from? The influence of the name has been suggested. But what does a name have to do with character and performance? This is an unresolved conundrum. A rose by any name will still smell as sweet. But names sometimes have the force to push and inspire. And the instance of Hussey is sometimes cited as one in which a name has inspired outstanding success and performance. Hussey, the Olympic athlete after whom the College was named, has turned out to be a talisman that has inspired generations of athletes, of track and field event champions and of grand style footballers, who have won fame for themselves, earned victory for their school and nation and ultimately made Nigeria a force to be reckoned with in competitive sports. It begins with the first day at Hussey College. The air is dominated by the fragrance of sports. There is a prevailing sense of ongoing informal mock competitions as anyone goes through the gates. There are howls of foul or shrieks of goal as unavailing referees attempt to impose sporting order. This is a futile experience but it provides unknowable satisfaction for Hussey students for whom the sporting experience is an epic passion.

 Apart from this elemental passion, there is also the point that sports at Hussey is something of a tradition and is embedded into the folklore of the College. One of the surprising features of life at Hussey College was that all the narratives of the great sporting triumphs of the institution were at the fingertips of several students. An oral tradition which memorialized sports excellence had become part of the college experience. Many of us even in form one knew that the national record in javelin stood at 202 ft and that it was held by Nwakwo of Government College Ughelli. Even though it was 1961, students could tell the tales of great Hussey players from the 50s like Alabi Aisien, Ewerebor, Tom lawyer, Daniel Okwudili, Onokwuakpor, and Goalkeeper Nwuli alias Zanta Dudu. They were also other outstanding internationals like Morton Owolo, Jossy Donbraye and the baby face Thompson Usiyen. These were not just names; they brought honors to the school, to the region and ultimately to the country.

Ewerebor for example played in the same Hussey College champion team in the 50s with Alabi Aisien. And together they played for the Warri eleven, to which Hussey College alone contributed up to seven players. Warri’s triumph was in some sense a victory for Hussey College. Ewerebor and Alabi Aisien together with a few other Hussey College students also formed Amukpe Eleven which caused a football stir by winning the challenge cup in 1964. A small disagreement in the boardroom of the Sapele F. A led to the breakaway of a faction led by a popular football  enterpreneur, Mr. Khalil. Ewerebor, serially, captain of Hussey College, and Captain of Warri Eleven, became Captain of the Amukpe team. It produced seismic football turbulence, defeating most teams it encountered and winning the ultimate football prize in 1964. One of its astonishing players was goalkeeper Abu Malaya, an Onitsha lad, whose exotic sounding name gave an edge of mystery to his extraordinary saves.

The Triumph of the Amukpe Eleven was manufactured by the rampaging footballing genius of the Hussey boys. They were Ewerebor, Alabi Aisien, Daniel Okwudili, Tom Lawyer, and Abeke. Their coach was a local hand called Ogbokodo. An important convention established at this time, was the steady support student talents gave to city sports. There was a regular traffic which saw student footballers feeding club outfits and assisting the flourishing of sports in general. It was a trend that expressed itself all around the country. The reigning teams, for example the Nigerian Railways, or the Western Rivers of Ibadan and the Northern Lions, all featured student players. Over time, that tradition has however been mocked by the current corrupt practice by which club footballers and professionals contrive their ages in other to play for tertiary institutions or participate in age grade competitions.

The old healthy order has been maligned and abused. Hussey from early days, championed the use of youthful talents and encouraged their maturation into adult footballing responsibilities. Hussey College’s Ewerebor played for Nigeria when he was only 17. He played alongside the likes of Onyeawuna Onyeador and Onyeali. Daniel Okwudili, another Hussey College student, also played for Nigeria when he was 17. In terms of life skills at the time, he hardly could distinguish his right from his left. He personally told me that soon after he hit the limelight, a group of Yoruba football mongers swooped on his home in Warri and spirited him away to Ibadan. He was confused by the richness of the choices offered him. He was given a house bigger than he needed; in markets, he did not have to pay for most of the stuff he bought.

Munificence threatened to bring down Okwudili’s budding career. He was certainly one of the more memorable exports of Hussey College to Nigerian football. But sports success at Hussey was not merely the product of random fervor. It was also the product of management, policy and leadership. This in the end was provided by a visionary, whose mammoth contribution to popular sports often inadequately acknowledged today. Chief O. N. Rewane founder of Hussey College day-dreamt the sporting glory in which Hussey College has been covered these many years. From its pioneering days, even when Hussey operated from hired lodgings, Mr Rewane animated the school with the challenge to flourish in sports and earn a name for itself. At great personal cost, Rewane attracted boys with talent from various parts of Nigeria to perform at the highest levels. Hussey College was truly Metropolitan featuring students and performers from various parts of the country. Hussey presence and participation enlivened sports competitions in the region. The rivalries were keen, the one in the hundred meters hurdle being amongst the most unforgettable. It was the Amateur Athletic Competition (AAA) held at the Warri stadium in 1962. The major rivals were Preston Omatsola of Government College Ughelli, who would later head the Nigerian navy and one Okorosobo alias Alamakruga from Urhobo College Effurun. It was a fierce contest, involving at least three false starts.

Preston prevailed in the end and left the spectators truly thrilled. Rewane trawled talents from such events and the late sixties were certainly amongst the golden years. He employed qualified coaches challenging the exclusivity of Government College Ughelli which for a long time was the only school which had a trained coach. Awala, a trained coach retained exclusively by Government College gave the institution an extra edge at sports meetings. In the course of one athletic meeting held on Hussey College grounds, the venerable Awala arrived at the triple jump stand and pronounced our structure substandard. He insisted that as things were, if his athlete took off from the board, he was likely to step on sand! Tapes flew out, as were the rule books. In the end Awala prevailed! It was shortly after this that O.N. Rewane employed George Dibia, an ABU-trained coach. He would serve as a worthy riposte to the technical arrogance of the Government College Ughelli cluster! Sports students were pampered, and placed on special diet. They were a small elite and the contest to get in was always extremely keen. The fight for a place in the school team for the triple jump event in 1965 was especially sharp. One contestant, a future monarch, tried to intimidate a friend of mine out of the race. Indeed, he asked him not to show up.

That way he might have elbowed him unjustly out of the fray. But the minion received furtive support from some of us. In the end merit prevailed over rank or class. That was the sporting spirit Rewane encouraged at Hussey. You dare; you win! Rewane’s search for diaspora talents gathered special momentum in the 60s when the college’s sport base took on stars from other parts of Nigeria. Occasionally the drive contained hints of hypocrisy for Hussey students. In 1965 a chap named Adedeji was the reigning prints champions at Hussey College. But when he got to Ibadan for the Grier Cup, he was unaccountably defeated by one Popoola from Awe High School in Oyo. He was up till then an unknown sports quantity. Popoola’s victory over Adedeji at the Grier Cup contest in Ibadan was iconoclastic. A big dominion had fallen and so many Hussey College students reacted in disbelief. They therefore lapsed into superstition and declared that Popoola was not a genuine athlete. He was assisted by a juju force which enabled him to conquer without effort. Those who watched him at Ibadan confirmed this narrative. But O.N. Rewane was a rationalist. He ignored all the superstitious noises and brought Popoola to Hussey College. And the narrative changed. Popoola dominated the sprints in Nigeria for the following two years. Other imports also followed and they included Fela Sobande, high jump and hundred meters hurdle; a chap nicknamed Stroker, whose real name was Obiora imported from DMGS Onitsha to man the central defence for Hussey. He was a rock in that position when the finals was played thrice between Hussey College and St. Patrick’s College Asaba in 1966. It was played in Warri, in Asaba and finally in Benin. It was a riveting contest, Hussey prevailing in the end.

Others who were also attracted to Hussey at this time were Temisan Ejoor later Military Administrator of Enugu and later of Abia State and under whom I served, Enaowho , Jero a triple jumper and footballer and Victoria Emenalor. These inclusions added a new edge to the athletic and football sharpness of Hussey College. But perhaps the most influential inclusion was that of David Urhobo. David was the quintessential renaissance artist and would excel in any event of his choice. He came to Hussey from Government College Ughelli with excellent sporting credentials. He played football; he was good in high jump, in long jump and if it was required, he would make a mark in the sprints. David Urhobo and Temisan Ejoor were friends from heaven it seems. They both joined Hussey from Ughelli and played with distinction for Hussey. David was Captain but it was in the pole vault event that David Urhobo left an indelible mark. He set a national pole vault record of 12 feet six inches in 1966 and followed up winning the bronze medal in the African games held in Lagos in 1973. David Urhobo may be the final apotheosis of what a combination between Hussey College Warri and Government College Ughelli can incarnate. But the Hussey talents who have served this country through the agency of sports are many. Many are aging and some of them remain on the fringe of our national life. Hussey College, itself founded in thrall to an Olympic athlete, has disappointed neither its vendors nor surrounding jurisdiction. Some of these extraordinary maestros are now in recess.

David Urhobo the hero of 1966 and 1973; an athlete amongst the first to use the fiber glass pacer pole and holder of Nigeria’s pole vault record, now lives a completely earth-bound life, and walks with a limp, the result of a stroke he suffered several years ago. He runs a keep fit outfit on the outskirts of Lagos, the last thing to come to your mind, considering his current chock of white hair and his evident Old Testament looks. He was 78 in October. As for O. N. Rewane, the chief priest of this whole sports revolution, eminent as his life has been, he is now unremembered and his online presence is surprisingly thin. Yet only few have labored more assiduously to promote and support sports in Nigeria. Since O. N. Rewane’s death some 37 years ago there has been little or no talk about the huge contributions he made to support our sports. No one remembers the armada of fresh talents he either induced or developed; nor has his personal sacrifices been acknowledged in any way.

No citation; no orders; no honors. Just plain simple horror of social neglect and disrespect. Joseph Ekpo Ewerebor, the wonder boy who played in and captained Hussey in the 50s, and also captained Warri in the50s before playing for Nigeria at 17, is now 85 and though reasonably well kept, appears to suffer from a failing memory. Alabi Aisien has been as famous as a footballer as he has been as a manager. At both levels he has been prodigiously successful. He was 89 years old on October 24th but his analytical powers remain unimpeded. Alabi has correctly been described as one of Nigeria’s most erudite and knowledgeable coaches of all. Perhaps only Monday Sinclair commands a rival intellectual grasp of the game. Aisien stands in excellent company amongst Nigeria’s great coaches and his fairly rapid spin through Nigeria’s football universe has not reduced the power of his impact. His journey, beginning from Hussey College Warri right up to club and national football have invested Alabi with an uncommon understanding of Nigerian football. He earned his reputation on coals of fire. His handling of Bendel Insurance, adopting what he himself has called a kinetic approach disrupted footballing conventions. Bendel Insurance comprised of untested youths, under Alabi smashed an Enugu Rangers team which had nine of its members in the Green Eagles line up. Enugu Rangers had a fearsome reputation as it had just been crowned as the African Winners’ Cup Champion.

But by 1978, Alabi Aisien had turned Bendel Insurance into a dreaded team made up of lads who were Bini either by ancestry or habitation. They unfurled a new brand of kinetic football whose exemplars were Henry Ogboe, Chris Ogu, Orhiaki, Sylvanus Etoroma, Anthony Oviawe, Monidafe, Khadiri Ikhana, Rufus Ejele, Leotus Boateng, George Omokaro, Agel Nnaji and Prince Afejuku. Alabi built a fearsome football machine that remained undefeated for a whole football season. There is little doubt where Alabi drew his inspiration. He has publicly acknowledged that he imported his football from Warri. Complicit in Alabi’s success therefore is the underlying influence of Hussey College Warri. Chief O. N. Rewane, Alabi Aisien, Joseph Ewerebor, and Thompson Usiyen the eagle star who died on the 21st August 2021, have all been unusual people. They have been people of extraordinary skill and vision, and have in different ways labored to transform Nigerian sports. All of them are people of sports and are mainly products of Hussey College Warri.

Perhaps it is a coincidence or possibly there is something in the biology of Hussey College which prepares its students for animated service in sports and sports management. Now several years after the event, I feel no more resentment that Government College Ughelli shut its portals against me. I recognize that some protocols require to be upheld to maintain the integrity of the College. Besides, these days the feeling of envy which comes from contemplating the unattainable has been removed. For as a consequence of the Biafran occupation, I was myself compelled to move to Government College Ughelli where I wrote my  Higher School Certificate (Hsc) exams. I did not have much to complain about and now, when I find it agreeable, I can profit in the afterglow of Government College’s goodwill. But if you ask, I will still make my bed at Hussey College. As for Urhobo College and St Peter Claver’s College, Aghalokpe it can be said that having reached an accommodation with Government College Ughelli, any further resentment against Urhobo College or St Peter Clavers College would be simply pointless. The pique disappears and the outstanding obligation is to demand that more and more respect should be given to our sports heroes and transformative agents like O. N. Rewane who though he lived a limelight the limelight has hardly been remembered since he died 37 years ago. We must sing the same song in respect of the others, in particular about Alabi Aisien who in spite of his grand contribution to popular football has remained without any honor or decoration from the state. He has himself produced so much creative pleasure; he has assisted in developing countless youths, providing them with work and leisure. The convention which routinely ignores people of work and talent, while at the same time endorsing sloth is an evil one. We must reward public spirited labor with a regime of honor and support. The rash of talents which has at various times, flourished in Hussey College has been the result of hard work and active encouragement. We require to sustain that momentum so that we will continue to enjoy a continuous stream of healthy products.

  Olowu is a Veteran Journalist