John James “JJ” Virgo: A YMCA Pioneer Who Shaped Communities at Home and Abroad

Born and raised in Glenelg, John James “JJ” Virgo began his working life with a future in accounting ahead of him. But everything changed when, at just 19 years old, he attended a YMCA event in Adelaide. Deeply inspired, he set aside his original career path and joined the Adelaide YMCA staff; a decision that would shape not only his own life, but also the lives of countless others.

Within two years, at the age of 21, JJ became CEO of the Adelaide YMCA. For the next 14 years, he drove innovation and growth that would shape the organisation for generations. Under his leadership, the Adelaide YMCA launched Australia’s first structured youth development program, bringing together sport, education, music, camps, employment training and social activities in a way that had never been done before.

Sport was one of JJ’s great passions, and he excelled in football, cricket, lacrosse and boxing. But his most lasting sporting legacy was introducing basketball to Australia. In 1897, only six years after the YMCA invented the game in the United States, JJ brought a coach to Adelaide to teach the game to locals. The first-ever basketball match in the country was played at the Adelaide YMCA’s Wakefield Street stadium, then the largest indoor arena in Australia. From there, JJ established the nation’s first basketball league, sparking a sporting movement that spread across the country.

Also a skilled speaker, each month, JJ filled Adelaide’s Theatre Royal on Hindley Street with Sunday evening gatherings. As a gifted speaker, preacher and singer, he drew crowds of up to 2,000 people , around five per cent of Adelaide’s population at the time, the modern-day equivalent of 72,000 people, filling more than Adelaide Oval.

JJ’s reputation for vision and leadership soon reached overseas. He was appointed CEO of the London YMCA, where the YMCA was first founded. With the outbreak of World War I, he oversaw the organisation’s welfare efforts for British and Commonwealth troops, including the ANZACs. He travelled through war-torn Europe, speaking to more than two million soldiers and raising the equivalent of $3 billion in today’s currency to fund YMCA support services on the frontlines.

When he returned to Adelaide in 1925, the press summed up his extraordinary contribution: “John James Virgo… is a particularly fine type of Australian… The advance in the organisation is due to his organising power, enthusiasm, and energy.”

A century later, YMCA South Australia remembers JJ Virgo as a visionary whose passion for community, innovation and service continues to inspire.