[5] While as a player Craven is mostly remembered as one of rugby's greatest dive-passing scrumhalves ever,[1] he had also on occasion been selected to play for the Springboks as a centre, fly-half, No.8, and full-back.

28 June 1882) and Maria Susanna Hartman (d. 1958) on Steeton Farm near Lindley, a small town on the Vals River in eastern Free State province of South Africa.

At the age of 13 he was sent to Lindley High School, and started playing rugby with a stone in the dusty town streets.

[13] The switch was prompted by medical advice after his vocal chords were damaged by a kick to the throat while he tried to stop charging forwards during the 1932 test against Scotland.

[15] An all-round athlete, Craven represented his university in rugby, swimming (captain), water polo and baseball.

Craven was appointed head of physical education at the South African military academy with the rank of major.

[2][8] His military career was momentarily interrupted in 1947 as he was appointed lecturer in the Union Education Department at Stellenbosch University before returning to the brigade.

[1] Due to his fame as a Springbok, Craven's image was used in Afrikaans language newspapers during the Second World War to encourage men to enlist.

The advertisement showed Craven in uniform, looking into the distance and announcing, "I am playing in the biggest Springbok team ever; join me and score the most important try of your life.

[2] Craven played his first test match on 5 December 1931 as scrum half at the age of 21 against Wales at St Helens, Swansea.

[2] Craven's last test match was on 10 September 1938 as captain (also as scrum half) at the age of 27 against the British Lions at Newlands, Cape Town.

He started his coaching career with a bang, winning 10 matches in a row, including a 4–0 whitewash of New Zealand in their 1949 tour to South Africa.

Under his guidance the Springboks were undefeated from 1949 to 1952, and won 17 of 23 tests (74% success rate) – an achievement that makes Craven one of South Africa's greatest coaches.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the outlawed African National Congress allied with overseas anti-apartheid movements to successfully isolate South Africa from sporting and cultural contact with the rest of the world.

[22] Craven managed to maintain links with other rugby playing nations during the years of South Africa's sporting isolation through his position with the IRB.

[8] In 1988 Craven met leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) in Harare, Zimbabwe in a bold bid to return to global competition.

[8][23] An unprecedented deal emerged to form a single rugby association that would field integrated teams for participation in foreign tournaments.

[22] Although the deal did not lead to the immediate end of the sporting isolation, it paved the way for the formation of the unified body, the South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU) in 1992.

Craven was SARFU's first chairman until he died in 1993, having served for an unbroken 37 years at the head of South African rugby.

[29] There were "many contradictions and convolutions in Craven's life", wrote Paul Dobson, which made him both admired and despised: His home language was Afrikaans, but he would claim not to be an Afrikaner ... a sportsman and yet he set higher store by academic achievement ... accused of trying to hang on to an exclusively white preserve, and yet he devoted himself to breaking down racial barriers[30]Danie Craven was accepted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 1997, the first of 9 South Africans to date.

To commemorate him, Stellenbosch University commissioned sculptor Pierre Volschenk to execute a bronze sculpture of Craven and his faithful dog.