Ashanti's Most Successful Sports Program

Prempeh College is the school that holds all of Ghana's Commonwealth Games records. Ghana has won 48 medals in the Commonwealth Games since 1954, including 13 gold, 17 silver and 18 bronze medals. But Ghana holds only two records in the games: the 220m yard dash and the 4 x 100m yard relay.

Both of these Commonwealth Games records for Ghana are held by Prempeh stars. Senior Stanley Fabian Allotey of Serwah House secured the 220 yard Commonwealth record with a time of 20.7seconds while Fabian Allotey anchored the relay quartet of Bonner Mends-Eben Addy-Charles Addy-Stanley Allotey to set the relay record in the 1966 Commonwealth Games with a time of 39.8s.

Ghana Review cited Prempeh's Allotey as the "the greatest athlete Ghana has produced to date."

But a section of the Ghanaian media considers Prempeh's National Hall of Famer Michael Kofi Ahey as "the greatest of all time."

Ahey won the gold in the 1962 Games' long jump and a silver in the 1962 4 x 110 relay as well as a silver in the relay in 1970. The great Ahey's long jump record of jump of 8.17, which was set in Kampala in 1962 was only broken 42 years later in 2004, and remains the longest held record in the history of Ghana's athletics. Even one of his worst jump of 7.97 (set on 5/5/74) ranks 4th on Ghana's all-time list.

Ahey, the national Hall of Famer, placed 7th in the finals of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics with a distance of 7.30. In the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in 1970, he placed 4th with a distance of 7.97. In fact, when Ahey ran the 100m in 10.2 secs (on September 4, 1962) for Prempeh at the Kumasi Sports Stadium, it was ranked the 8th best time in the world between 1960-64. Venezuela's Horacio Esteves recorded the world's best time during this four year period -- a time of 10.0 secs.

Samuel Owusu Mensah displaying the President's Shield -- the Osagyefoo's Golden Boy honour. President Nkrumah also caused a radio Ghana broadcast to be focused on him.

Those were the days when the school's dynamic "die-hard" supporters union used to sing our famous and inspiring song "OBI BEWU KWA" which literally means: "Somebody's son will die a useless death."

The period saw the reign of S. Owusu-Mensah (Torino), Joshua Owusu and Stan Allotey. Those athletes were of international repute and before any race, the inferiority complex effect (I.C.E) alone defeated opponents. They represented Ghana in the Commonwealth Games and in the Olympics.

In appreciation of his sterling qualities as a great athlete, Ghana's President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah despatched Mr. Ohene Djan, the then director of Sports to the school in 1965 to present Owusu-Mensah with the accolade "Osagyefo's Golden Boy." The President also caused a special national radio broadcast to be focused on the Prempeh star. Some may still remember the day Owusu-Mensah defeated Achimota’s S.S Abugri on the tracks.

Another great national star was Joshua Owusu, who won the triple jump gold medal at the 1974 Commonwealth Games with a distance of 16.50 meters and a bronze in the long jump in that same tournament (a jump of 7.75 meters). He was one of the most feared athletes in the nation during the National Sports Festival at the Accra Sports Stadium. He won all the Ashanti and Ghana inter-colleges long jump, triple jump and high jump titles in 1968/69.

1971 Freeman House Championship Athletics Team

Again, the great Ahey's long jump record of jump of 8.17, which was set in Kampala on 6/10/62 was only broken 42 years later in 2004, and remains the longest held record in the history of Ghana's athletics, which is partly why he was honured by President JA Kufour with a National Medal of Honour in 2006.

Some of America's Collegiate Athletic records are held by Prempeh College products.

Sierra Leone's national record in the 200 metres and the 4 x 100 relays is also held by Pierre Lisk, a Prempeh College Olympian. Lisk also holds NCAA records in the 55 meter dash at the University of Kansas.

Sierra Leonean National Athlete and Olympian, Pierre Lisk

Prempeh also produced great athletes like Andrew "Archiman" Manu (1964-71), who was one of Ghana's greatest hockey players, if not the Greatest. He later played for the Ghana national Team while at Legon.

Others include the tripple jumper "Dziffa;" Obeng "Santo" Ntiforo (1961-69), who won so many laurels before Santo Jr. came in the 1970s to duplicate some of his records. Obeng "Santo Jr" Ntiforo even competed for Ghana in the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Canada.

More recently, the last two "Ghana's fastest youths" have been Prempeh boys. The current "fastest Ghanain youth" is Eric Goloe of Ramseyer, who was Ghana's sole representative at the World Youth Athletics championship in Morocco, where he reached th semifinals. Goloe's best time at age 16 is a remarkable 10.4 secs. Previously, Samuel Adade of the Class of 2002 was Ghana's "fastest youth." The West African 100m and 200m junior champion was a reserve in the 2004 Athens Olympics. He holds the super-zonal athletics record of 21.3s in the 200m race and is a finalist at the World Junior championship in Italy, finishing 7th.

Tennis Masters

Boys playing table tennis in 1950/51

Every house has a ping pong board in its common room, and Ramseyer, Butler, Freeman, and Pearson Houses are the most popular places to engage in a tennis battle. Table tennis is a part of the Prempeh culture and it has become an au fait for Prempeh College to win the Regional Table Tennis Championship every year!

A second place finish in a ping pong tourney is as unacceptable to Mother Prempeh as a World Cup runners-up is to Brazil in soccer. The boys play the game so well that one have to go deep into the archives of Ashanti Regional Sports Federation to find out the last time Prempeh failed to win the title. It has been correctly said that to figure out the number of times Prempeh has won the table tennis championship, one should list all the years from 1949 to present, and cross out about one or 2 years for each decade. the rest depicts the number of times Prempeh has captured the trophy in this sport.

The culture of the game has been ingrained so deeply in the animus of an average Prempeh boy that this is the only game on campus which is basically student-run: House Prefects selects their best two players for each of the houses for a very engaging Inter-House contest, with the aim of "OPERATION SCHOOL TEAM." Six boys are then selected and start an intensive training in either Freeman or Pearson Common Room with the aim of, again, "OPERATION SCHOOL TEAM." They will play weekly tournaments (in addition to daily practice) before the final selection of three with one reserve is made a week before the Ashanti Regional Championships. The selected players will then hold a series tournaments against highly experienced clubs in the Garden City - two of the toughest clubs which need mention are the Lebanon Club in Bantama and the Post Office Club in Adum.

After winning the 1964 Regional Championships (by beating AMASS 5-1) and the Northern Sector title (by beating Dormaa Sec Sch - who had beaten Upper and Northern Regions Champs - 6-1), Prempeh went on to Accra on March 18th to fight for the National title for the upteenth time.

Kwaku Duah, the two Ahwois, Senior Kofi Nuro, Sarrah-Mensah with Lartey as the reserve in case the unexpected happened did their best to defend the green and yellow flag of Mother Prempeh as they were cheered on by Agogo Girls and St. Andrews boys who had bet all their money on Prempeh's Nuro. However, the boys from O'Reilly Secondary, with their national stars Okine Quaye and Sammuel Hammond gave Prempeh a 5-1 spanking.

Never have we seen a whole campus so forlorn. It was like a funeral on campus! Kwame Nkrumah's Director of Sports, Mr. Ohene Djan was so disappointed and surprised at the Prempeh defeat that he offered to give an additional medal to our reserve player Lartey. Thus, he gave Prempeh four instead of the usual three!

Unsatisfied, the whole Prempeh campus decided to prepare for the 1965 National Tournament (The Presidential Shield) one year ahead. So two weeks after our defeat in Accra, they brought Okine and his friends from O'Reilley Secondary to come and play us at Prempeh. At our own Osae Assembly Hall, they beat us again 2-1. After bowing to them in shame, we embarked on another journey to find someone to beat. This time, at Accra, we pounced on Achimota 2-1.

Freeman House won the Inter-House 6 consecutive years (1959-66). However, in the last 20 years, Ramseyer boys have monopolized the Inter-House Table Tennis Championship.

Could it be that the best way to injure a Prempeh man is to beat him in table tennis? But that rarely ever happens.

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