Long-serving rugby administrator Tobie Titus has hung up his blazer and tie for the last time.

SA Rugby on Wednesday paid tribute to Titus‚ as well as Harold Verster‚ who quickly made it clear he is going nowhere until at least September‚ with every prospect of sticking around the corridors of power in Bloemfontein afterwards. Verster is SA Rugby’s longest-serving high-ranking official having served either as president or managing director of the Free State Rugby Union since 1993.

Titus‚ meanwhile‚ will disappear into the sunset after serving sport for six decades.

‘Mr T’ (not because he looks like an A-team character) or ‘Oom Tobie’‚ started his involvement in sport at the University of the Western Cape in the 1960s.

“From an early stage in his life‚ ‘Mr T’ decided to use his time and skills in sports administration‚” said SA Rugby’s president Mark Alexander.

“He was elected as the youngest president of the UWC Rugby Club‚ after which he served as president of the Tygerberg Rugby Union‚ whom he also represented during the unification talks with Western Province in the early 1990s.

“Mr Titus’ involvement in the upliftment of previously disadvantaged communities went beyond the rugby field – he did the same as the Dean of Students at the then Peninsula Technikon [now part of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology].”

Titus was a founding member of the South African Student Sports Union (SASSU) and served as chairperson for a total of seven years between 1995 and 2004.

Within the higher echelons of South African rugby‚ Titus served as president of Western Province‚ a position he vacated in 2012 to serve on the executive council of SA Rugby.

“His second term on the Exco has now come to an end and it’s time for ‘Mr T’ to take a well-earned rest‚” said Alexander.