The great trike race: an investigation into the history of sport at International House

The history of sport at International House (IH) is one of great variety, from the range of sports played at the House, to the results of these pursuits. Despite sport’s rather tumultuous history, there remains one sport that perhaps best captures IH’s spirit, the Trike Race.

While the early years from the founding of International House in 1957 until the mid-1960s may not have resulted in many sporting victories, this does not negate the community spirit that sport created at the House. Residents were quick to try to form sports teams, especially the classic Australian college sports of football and cricket, but these early years did not prove to be particularly fruitful in regards to winnings. Richard Seddon (1961), one early resident writing in Selamat Datang (the IH orientation handbook), noted that some of these sporting difficulties may have been due to the novelty of Australian football to international students. This, coupled with a lack of resources for sports other than the major intercollegiate games, hindered IH’s chances of sporting success. Regardless, photos from the time, particularly from student-made albums show students enjoying themselves, often posing a little awkwardly in the mud but with supporters who turned out despite the weather. What IH lacked in material wins, it certainly made up for in community spirit.

This spirit was at last able to be funnelled into effective and notable sporting wins with the start of IH’s involvement in the event known by many names but most simply, ‘the Trike Race’.

The Trike Race in premise was simple. A homemade tricycle was to be ridden from Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula to Union House in Parkville, racing against other university departments and colleges to raise money for charities such as Abschol (a secondary school scholarship scheme for Indigenous students). The Race was originally conceived by engineering students who wanted to provide a “demonstration of physical fitness and endurance” to counter claims in the press concerning low levels of stamina and health in students (“The Great Trike Race,” 1965). The offer to join the race was extended to a few other colleges and university departments, and on 11 August 1965, the Trike Race was born.

However, from the first race and the subsequent yearly races following, the event often proved to be a logistical disaster.

Along the five-hour race, which required multiple riders, there were traffic accidents, trike breakages that necessitated repairs, and incidents of tomfoolery. A prime example of this was the 1978 race, which resulted in a disqualification of all teams due to a ‘flour-fight’ in a recently opened dining establishment Elsternwick Mcdonalds (Robertson, 1978).

Despite both the physical challenges of the race and the random yet persistent additional hicupps – which at times resulted in arrests of students for reckless driving (“SM Dismisses Tricycle Counts,” 1968) – IH remained, without a shadow of a doubt, the team to beat. With consecutive wins from 1971 to 1976, no other college or department was involved in as many trike races nor managed to effectively challenge IH’s dominance in triking. This is demonstrated to this day, with the trike race trophy being permanently housed at IH.

What were the reasons for IH’s continuous wins? Compared with the other departments and colleges, IH was small and did not have a history of sporting glory. Yet precisely the reasons for IH’s previous pitfalls in other sports actively benefitted them in the Trike Race.

The race required a great level of teamwork. From building the trike, which went through multiple iterations over the years to achieve the best vehicle possible, to the motorcyclists providing support and clearing paths through traffic, there was a chance for every resident to be involved. Reflecting on the race, Frank Schrever, an IH resident and participant in the Trike Race from 1971 to 1974, commented that “everyone seemed to be involved one way or another” (F. Schrever, personal communication, November 18, 2022).

The event drew residents together in a way that other sports failed to; it didn’t require everyone to be the model Australian sportsperson who overachieved at football and cricket, sports that during this time IH still struggled to achieve many victories in. Writing in Satadal in 1976, eleven years after the first Trike Race, the sports editor Andrew Godden stated that the race appeared to be “the only sport IH ever looks like winning” (Godden, 1976).

The skills needed for victory could be picked up and honed quickly, bringing together both international and domestic students who covertly practised during the night throughout the year on the quieter roads around IH. Wins predicated further wins as IH kept returning to the Race, participating in all yearly races until the last in 1983. This is unlike other colleges such as Trinity who despite dominating in other sports, entered the Trike Race only three times, failed to claim victory and did not renew their entry past 1979 (Thomas, 2022).

The end of the Trike Race came not with a bang but with a whimper, with the event cancelled in 1984 and failing to ever occur again. A number of reasons were given for the cancellation, largely on the lines of health and safety by the police. The race was becoming increasingly unfeasible due to increased traffic along the route. Where the trikers of the 1960s had managed to dodge a few cars along the relatively empty small roads, trikers of the 1980s encountered bustling traffic along multiple-lane highways. Despite the 1984 Satadal expressing disappointment at the event’s cancellation and a hope for the event to be re-organised the following year, these hopes did not come to fruition. An event that had been a key feature in IH life with its own separate page in Satadal for more than a decade fizzled quickly out of existence. 

It is important to note that the end of the trike race did not see the end of IH’s sporting successes; in fact, the final trike race coincided with a high point in IH’s sporting glory. 1983 saw great successes in squash and soccer, with IH winning its second intercollegiate soccer competition (Jones, 1983). The year was also the first time that IH provided office bearers for the Inter-Collegiate Sports Council, at last cementing IH’s place as one of the ‘big five’ of the Collegiate sports competitors. Perhaps it was these new successes in sports other than the Trike Race that prevented any concerted effort to resurrect the race. 

Regardless, it is not a leap to suggest that community spirit that the Trike Race created, along with the legitimacy it had garnered for sports other than the traditional collegiate sports of football and cricket, helped bolster some of IH’s future sporting victories, even as the race itself was consigned to history. Today, traces of the Trike Race can be found across the House, from the trophy in the Junior Common Room, to one of the infamous trikes stored in the basement. Ultimately, the race represents both the unconventional sporting successes of the House and arguably more importantly, the success of community spirit.

References and further reading

Godden, A. (1976). Trike race. Satadal, 51.

The great trike race. (1965, August 9). Farrago, 16.

Kovacs, T. (1984). Trike race. Satadal, 15.

Robertson, A. (1978). Trike race. Satadal, 45. 

Seddon, D. (1961). Sport at I.H. Selamat Datang, 26-27. 

SM dismisses tricycle counts. (1968, July 2). The Age, p. 9.

Thomas, B. (2022, November 4). Three wheels, will travel. Trinity College, Shorthand Stories. https://trinity-college.shorthandstories.com/have-three-wheels-will-travel/index.html