Just as the football family started to come to terms with the sad passing of football legend Ou /Hurob Zimmer Goreseb, another well-known football personality followed him to his fresh grave.
Still licking their wounds following the shock relegation from the country’s flagship league, the National Football Premier League NFPL, Orlando Pirates diehards have been dealt another blow following the death of founder member Hans ‘Ou Heirareb’ Eichab. May his gentle soul rest in ancestral power.
Ou Heirareb took a bow from the game of life on his birthday, 20 May after a prolonged battle with ill-health, aged 77.
He was one of two surviving founding members of the Buccaneers, and has now been reunited with fellow founders Elliot Oom Paul Hiskia and Ertjie Claasen.
In 1963, the quartet teamed up to form Orlando Pirates Football Club as a non-profit recreational entity.
Pirates boast a filthy-rich pedigree among the biggest crowd-pullers, arguably the second-best supported football entity in the country’s top-flight league behind fellow Katutura giants African Stars.
Upon retirement from playing competitive football, Narib and non-playing member Eichab continued to follow and monitor the team’s rapid progress, while the ever-present Narib also weighed in as an auxiliary coach whenever the need arose.
The latter was the designated ‘Poster Boy’ of Pirates, and served the Buccaneers with distinction over an extended period way into his mid-40s. In their own words, the quartet formed Pirates after severing ties with Katutura outfit Try Again.
The young Pikininis, then residents of Katutura township, hardly out of their pair of shorts, doubled as newspaper vendors after school to supplement their skeleton pockets.
The initial plan to break away from Try Again and form a new team was hatched by the four football-crazy young boys. Elliot ‘Oom Paul’ Hiskia went on to establish himself as a steady defender for Tigers and also served as SWAFA and NFA president at different intervals.
In an exclusive interview with Narib and Eichab, they narrated that the name Orlando Pirates was proposed by Claasen and Harald Sam, who were students in South Africa at the time. The bookish pair wrote a letter to the authentic Orlando Pirates in South Africa, requesting permission to use the name, including the adoption of the same jersey colours.
The request was successful, but it was clearly stated in the affirmation that the newly-formed South West Africa (SWA Namibia) must keep a healthy distance from using the inscribed skull and cross-bones emblem on the Pirates badge (logo).
“We assembled a very good squad made up of talented youngsters with an average age of 18. We bought our first set of playing gear for R60 from profits derived from the sales of newspapers.”
Pirates played their first official match against the star-studded Eleven Explorer at the old Katutura stadium, and although they narrowly lost 3-2 in a closely-contested high-tempo encounter, the young lads certainly gave a good account of themselves since Explorer basically boasted all the best players in their armoury combined from Katutura and Khomasdal.
”Very few teams could match Explorer pound for pound in the domestic football set-up,” narrated the amazingly ageless Narib with a twinkle in his eyes.
Soon afterward, the youthful Pirates outfit attracted the crème de la crème of highly-gifted ballers from Nama location, spearheaded by devastating wingers Daniel Koopman and Willem Eichab, complemented by the attacking flair of attackers Bassieman Jimmy-Naruseb and ‘Ou Pine’ Pienaar Sr, in addition to the free-scoring Narib, completing a full package.
Pirates was a dominant force in domestic football, and were perfectly baptised ‘The Invincible Ghosts’ in the early 70s, winning almost every available piece of silverware there was to be won. However, with time calling on the golden generation, highly-talented youngsters were roped in from the south, ushered in by the nimble-footed, left-footed playmaker Norries Goraseb, versatile defender Alu Hummel and speedy winger Killer Kamberipa.
The inevitable acquisition of the great Doc Hardley put the cherry on top of the cake under the stewardship of ‘Captain Fantastic’ Steve ‘Mr Reliable’ Stephanus. Pirates won back-to-back Mainstay Cup finals against bitter rivals Black Africa through young Erich Muinjo’s late strike (1-0) at the packed-to-the-rafters Katutura stadium in 1978.
The smooth-sailing Buccaneers ship successfully defended the title, defeating cross-town rivals Sport Klub Windhoek (SKW) 5-3 after extra-time following a 3-all stalemate at the Windhoek Stadium (nowadays Independence stadium).
Regrettably or rather shockingly, Pirates was denied a well-deserved victory on the “green table” after officials of the white-dominated SWAFA executive resolved to declare SKW the winners as a result of Pirates’ unexplained late arrival for the scheduled kick-off.