Dr Clive Noble

Clive and Colleen Noble

Dr Clive Noble was born in Johannesburg in 1938. He says he disliked school and as such matriculated with four D’s, an E and a FF for Latin.

At this time, with his sights set on studying medicine, an Aptitude Test done by the Department of Labour told Clive that he had no chance of becoming a doctor – the highest he could aim for was possibly a medical technician.

Clive’s mother, a nursing sister, was very keen for him to become a doctor. He applied for medicine and, naturally, didn’t get accepted. His luck turned when, two weeks after the academic year started, Clive was called to come and study Medicine at the University Of Witwatersrand (WITS).

In his first year he got two firsts (above 75%), a second and a third. In his final year of medicine, he came third in his class of 92 students. Subsequently he was the first student to get a Higher Degree in Surgery in his class of 1961 – he beat the other students by a year.

Clive says “If you have the ambition and drive you can achieve anything”

With Clive’s motivation, nothing could stand in his way. He ended up becoming the professorial houseman (as a graduate doctor, you need to be invited to become a professor’s houseman), which changed his life for the better…

After having his life planned for him by the professor for the next 6 years – he decided to specialise in Orthopaedic Surgery.

Before Clive studied Orthopaedic Surgery, sport was one of his number one interests and pastimes. Clive played rugby at school where he was also the shot-put and discus champion. As a young boy, he was an avid boxer, competing in Germiston’s junior team. In his matriculation year he got a Black Belt grading in Judo. At Wits, Clive became a weightlifter and became the South African Junior and South African Universities Champion. In 1960 he became the Southern Transvaal weight lifting champion. As a result of his interest in sports, he decided to study sports medicine simultaneously with orthopaedics.

In those days there was no such thing as a sports medicine specialty.

He decided to become a Sports Injury Specialist.. It was a very successful career because he was the first doctor to specialise in such an area in South Africa. He was also the first President of the South African Sports Medicine Association.

Clive would keep notes on all the surgeries he had completed – from the results of these he was able to build up a large library of statistics which he could then write papers on. That was what Clive really enjoyed doing – with his research, he was able to travel the world, giving talks and lectures about his findings. He has lectured in the Far East, United States, Europe and Australia on all aspects of sports injuries, and continues to do this presently. Last year he was invited to Austria to give a lecture on ‘The African Foot’ and the year before then he spoke in Cancun (Mexico) on safety in boxing.

He considers himself as part of the “B Team”. The ‘A Team’ consists of professors in America and Europe who have a team working behind them.

Dr. Noble considers himself in the ‘B team’ – Those surgeons who have to do all the hard grind and the paper work themselves. Clive would then present the findings as a paper, which was interesting because he was in private practice- a non-academic situation but practising as an academic surgeon.

Due to all his own findings he was invited to talk in many places in the world.

Sometimes to properly assess injuries you may be required to take part in the sport. Clive took up long distance running to understand his patients who ran the comrades marathon – he ran three comrades marathons. During the first half marathon he ever ran – he met a gentleman by the name of Tate who ran with Clive and talked him through the race showing him what speed he should go. Clive finished the race in just under two hours which he thought was a great achievement for a novice runner. The last comrades Clive ran in he was 62 years old. To this day he still does long distance running (the Knysna half- marathon. His effort in running made a tremendous difference with his patients because he could then talk in their language.

Clive joined the Boxing Board of Control in 1963 and remained until until 1988. In 1980 he spoke at the World Boxing Association Convention in Puerto Rico.As part of his interest in protecting boxers from injury he s studied the cushioning properties of boxing gloves and then got involved with the University of Stellenbosch Polymer Science division where he got other scientists involved in seeing how much force an ordinary glove could handle before it began to deteriorate. He was able to show that “closed cell foams” were much more efficient than the old style gloves, which contained fibre such as horsehair. He presented the paper and this influenced the way that boxing gloves are manufactured today. At this congress he met Mohammad Ali. During his surgical career, one of his patients was Winnie Mandela. Whenever Winnie came for a check-up she would ask Clive questions about boxing. When Clive asked why she was so interested in boxing she said that Nelson wanted to know. The first time he met Nelson Mandela he was the team doctor in Barcelona for the Olympics;

The South African team all had to stand in a row and when Nelson Mandela (before he was president) got to Clive he recognised his name and thanked him for helping his family in difficult times. Clive met him subsequently at sporting events and is very proud to know this great man.

Besides talking on orthopaedic sports trauma he also spoke on head injuries in sport. He spoke in Germany in 1986 on head injuries from boxing, like the punch drunk syndrome (minor concussion episodes) and how people get killed in the ring and how this can be prevented.

Clive Noble has looked after soccer teams such as Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns. He treated the British Lions in 1980 and many other International Sportsmen including members of the All Blacks rugby team. During the 1995 World Cup he was the match doctor for the Final. Clive has treated many Springboks and Bafana Bafana players, as well as the South African Olympic team. He was also the orthopaedic surgeon to the Transvaal cricket team for many years. Among the famous people he has treated is Rod Stewart who was performing at Sun City. He was also the chairman of the medical group for Transvaal (Gauteng) Rugby. In 1980 the British Lions team doctor Jack Matthews sent the players with injuries to Johannesburg to see Clive and were worked on at his rehabilitation centre and gymnasium until they were able to play again.

Clive is now semi-retired with his wife Colleen and together they run Redford House in The Crags. He says that not only is it a great place to live, but his ancestors lived here as early as 1849. Many of them are buried in St. Andrews Church in the Piesang river valley in Plettenberg Bay. It is the oldest Anglican Church in the George diocese; Colleen, Clive and family are organizing the renovation of the Church . They are looking for donors to help with the costs of the restoration.

He still enjoys lecturing and these days, with more free time, he has included earth science to his life science interests. Painting and sculpture have also become major hobbies.