Nelson Mandela saw sport as way to connect S. Africans

• Springboks victory in World Cup at home was defining moment for South Africa
• Mandela saw importance of rugby to millions of white South Africans
• He recognized transformative power that sport could have

It is hard to think of any person — political, cultural or otherwise — of the past 25 years who inspires such universal admiration as Nelson Mandela. We seldom associate him with sports. The index in his autobiography makes no mention of sports, even though he excelled as a boxer and a runner in college. Nor is there any reference to "soccer," the sport that the majority African population of South Africa claims as its own.

The only sport discussed in Anthony Sampson's authorized biography is rugby. Mandela never played it. He barely understood the rules — until, that is, 1995's defining moment when South Africa's rugby team won the rugby World Cup on its home pitch.

Perhaps you will recall the picture of Mandela, in a replica of Francois Pienaar's green and gold jersey, awarding the trophy after South Africa's Springboks won the tournament, one of the iconic sports photos of the past generation. If you remember the expression on Mandela's face, it is impossible to picture anyone happier.

This was just a year after the black leader had been elected president. When he embraced Pienaar — the blond captain of a traditionally white team, a team that had been the personification of apartheid — sports and the future of South Africa were brought together. Mandela rightly assumed that the stirring moment of victory could serve as a symbol of a united country, as dramatized in the 2009 movie Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.

Like all politicians, Mandela had the capacity of a great actor. But there isn't any doubt that his joy for Pienaar, and more importantly for what it meant to his country, was genuine. That Mandela's role at the match happened at all is a tribute to his style as a conciliator and to his talent as a pragmatic politician.

My guess is that up until that time Mandela couldn't care less what took place on a rugby pitch. But he did know it mattered to millions of white South Africans. He wanted to show the white minority that blacks were not going to expect them to abandon such an important part of their culture.

Mandela's relationship with sport in a political sense was his recognition that sport matters. The vast majority of the anti-apartheid movement wanted the team's Springbok name jettisoned because it represented apartheid and racism. But Mandela overruled those people and reached his decision to support both the name and the team.

A significant number of his advisers thought he was making a mistake, both in supporting the Springboks and in getting nothing in return. He was willing to forgo promises of change in rugby to pursue using sport for the greater good. He could even overlook that Louis Luyt, the head of South African rugby, was a notorious racist who had participated in the "dirty tricks campaign" of the previous government and had recently used rugby matches to oppose every effort to create the "Rainbow Nation." Mandela was ahead of the curve in recognizing the transformative power that sport could have.

The one sport people most identify with Mandela, and the one at which he excelled, was boxing. He must have been an awesome figure in his youth. He enjoyed the combat and a sense of showing his ability and his manliness.

Mandela grew up in an English school tradition which assumed that sports teaches values, builds character, shows you how to work hard and play together.

Sport was a part of his life even during his time as a political prisoner in the brutal conditions of Robben Island, where he helped to organize a limited sports program in the isolation section. He and other isolation prisoners became fans of the prison soccer teams that played weekly matches in the general section of the prison. The response of the authorities was to build a wall to ensure that Mandela and others could not share in the pleasure of the soccer matches, even vicariously. Years later he referred to soccer on the Island as "more than a game. It can create hope where there was once despair … this game made us feel alive."

With feelings like that, it was no surprise that Mandela worked hard to get South Africa involved in international sports. The rugby World Cup in 1995 was followed by the 1996 African Cup of nations in soccer and the 2003 Cricket World Cup. The ultimate triumphant moment for him was in 2010 when FIFA brought the crown jewel of international sports, the football (soccer) World Cup, to South Africa. Mandela had thrown himself into the bidding process years earlier, even though his health was declining.

He recognized how much soccer meant to the vast majority of South Africans. The 2010 World Cup was one more example of using sports to bring together a nation in a common cause. This time, victory wasn't to win a trophy, rather to show the world that the new South Africa was ready to play host to a month-long international sporting festival. Quite a legacy for a man who never seemed to have much time for team sports, but a leader who knew how much they mattered to his people.

Charles P. Korr is history professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the author, with Marvin Close, of 'More Than Just a Game: Soccer vs. Apartheid: The Most Important Soccer Story Ever Told'