EDITORIAL - The Shaming Of Champs

[Don1]

NW Manley, the father of the Nation learn his craft during his PE days at Wolmers in 1904 those skills his what he called on when he arrived at JC via St Jago

yeah right

On a more serious note, Calabar, KC and JC first won their champs after the arrival of GC Foster, the grand master of coaching.

your fantasia is quite interesting.... when did GC Foster "arrive" at Jamaica College?

[Don1]

what do you meaa by the most influential athlete at Champs level?

MAKING CHAMPS 1910-2010

BY TROY CAINE

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

IT all started with the amazing athletic achievements of Jamaica College's (JC) 17-year-old Norman Washington Manley. His tracks from JC would eventually lead to the halls of Oxford University and to the field of legal luminaries, before becoming one of Jamaica's most eminent statesmen and a National Hero.

One hundred years later, it is still Norman Manley who has had the most sensational impact on Champs, in spite of so many other great performers down through the years.

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First started at 12:30 pm on Wednesday, June 29, 1910 at Sabina Park and originally called the Inter-Secondary Schools Championship Sports (ISSCS), the games would also be held in later years at Melbourne Park, Kensington Park, Winchester Park, even George VI Memorial Park (now Heroes' Circle) for the jumps in 1957, before settling at home at the National Stadium since 1963.

Initially, there were only six participating schools -- Jamaica College, St George's College, Wolmer's School, Potsdam School (later Munro College), New College and Mandeville Middle Grade School competing in a total of 17 events. However, notwithstanding the powerful Manley/JC factor, it was Wolmer's that emerged the first winning school with their team of only 19 boys, who scored 35 points with just four wins, but with placings in all but four of the events contested.

Prior to this, we are told that there were actually six previous Inter-Secondary Schools Handicap Championships from 1904-1909, according to Sir Herbert McDonald in his History of the Inter-Secondary Schools Championships Sports, 1970. The first five were won by JC and the other in 1909 captured by Wolmer's. In later years, Champs would feature additional events, distances and other measurements would go metric, and dozens of other secondary schools, traditional and otherwise, would become participants. But throughout the history of Champs, one very interesting aspect besides the performances, have been the avenues of life those boys and girls later embarked on.

The discipline, dedication and inner strength required to be a star performer at Champs, clearly led to a wide variety of outstanding, iconic individuals becoming the influence and aspiration in so many areas of Jamaican life. People like Arthur Wint, Herb McKenley, Don Quarrie, Lennox Miller, Merlene Ottey, Usain Bolt and the other current crop of remarkable Olympians have gone on to glorify Jamaica's prominence in athletics. Others like Lindy Delapenha, Noel 'My Son' Tappin, Allan Rae, Carl Belnavis, Steve Bucknor and Tony Keyes later made indelible marks in other sports, while some like Herbert McDonald, HCW Chambers, Neville McCook, Trevor Parchment and Howard Aris became renowned sports administrators.

Long before establishing their eminence in the legal profession, men like brothers Leslie and Neville Ashenheim, Douglas Judah, Locksley T Moodie, Clinton Hart, KC Burke and Errington G Green established prominence in the early years of Champs for schools like JC, Munro, St George's and Calabar.

Blazing trails in business became quite synonymous with both Barclay Ewart and Frank Hall, two JC star athletes of the early '50s, who scorched the tracks at Champs in the sprints and sprint relays. And areas such as government, public service, education and the medical field became the beneficiaries of former Champs achievers like H Laurence Lindo, Egerton Richardson, Arthur Wint, Alfred W Sangster, Jimmy Lloyd, Ainsley Dujon, Louis Knight and Derrick Dyer.

Thus, it was also in the field of politics, where quite a large number of former Champs performers have graced the political corridors for both major parties, for third parties and even as Independents -- and with mixed results. Of some 21 who have contested national elections, only 13 were elected MHRs or MPs, eight failed to win any seat at all, eight became Cabinet Ministers, one became Speaker of the House, two elected as Federal MPs, one served as the Mayor of Kingston, at least 10 served as Parish Councillors, six were appointed as Senators or Members of the Legislative Council, one was our Chief Minister and Premier and one became the second Prime Minister of Jamaica.

The first real star of Champs was the first PNP president, Norman Manley, who was not only one of the first from Champs to contest the first elections in 1944, but also the first captain of a school track team (in 1911) and his total domination of the first three Champs (1910-1912) is legendary and remains unsurpassed.

Interestingly, except for his only success in the 120 yards hurdles and four second places in his other four events -- the 100 yards, 440 yards, 880 yards and long jump in 1910 -- Manley's athletic beginning with JC at Champs became a sort of precursor to the genesis of his political career 34 years later when both he and his party were unsuccessful participants in the first contest under adult suffrage. But that performance was still quite enough for him to be crowned the first Class One champion with 11 of JC's 30.4 points for second place behind Wolmer's. Of particular interest, too, is the fact that in the long jump, Manley had actually beaten into third place a Wolmerian named...CA Bolt!

In the second Champs of 1911, Manley swept the 100, 220, 440 and 880 yards and the 120 hurdles and was again second in the long jump. He was Class One champion with 17 of JC's winning 33 points and his record run of 10 seconds flat in the 100 yards, which was equalled by five individuals, including his son, Douglas, stood for an incredible 41 years until it was broken by JC's Frank Hall in 1952. In his third and final Champs in 1912, the day before his 19th birthday, Manley captured all of the six events he entered -- 100, 220, 440, 120 hurdles, long jump and high jump and again the Class One champion with 18 of JC's victorious 33 points. In all three Champs, Norman Manley had contested 17 events, won 12 (71 %), finished second in the other five and set a trend which has never quite been equalled in 100 years of Champs. That trend was also carried over into a most distinguished political life, especially his seven years as national leader (1955-62) and over 30 years as a statesman.

[Time]

yeah right




your fantasia is quite interesting.... when did GC Foster "arrive" at Jamaica College?

You are correct GC Foster built his famous JC sprint factory long after JC first win, it was Calabar and KC that he taught how to win

[Bricktop]

Some people have too much time on their hands.

[Historian]

Clarification Needed

Some people have too much time on their hands.

Bricktop, I’m not sure who you’re referring to, the headmaster or the writer of the Daily Gleaner editorial. If you’re referring to the editorial writer, I can assure you that the last thing that we need in our already extremely violent society is for gestures such as made by that student to be allowed to become fashionable!

Think, man! Our country is in a real sh!t hole, and extricating it is going to require changes in our attitudes, thinking and actions that I’m not sure many Jamaicans will want to or be able to tolerate!

[Bricktop]

Batistuta used to machine gun the entire stadium after scoring goals for Fiorentina. Not sure what that has to do with violence in society

[Historian]

I know, but....

Batistuta used to machine gun the entire stadium after scoring goals for Fiorentina. Not sure what that has to do with violence in society

I know what Batistuta used to do, but right now I’m not concerned with either Argentina or Italy.

Gun violence has long ago desensitized Jamaican society -- including students -- to the value of life. The last thing we need is another mode of glorifying this! Like I said, Bricky, think man! Based on your posts over the years, you are clearly an intelligent person, and I strongly suspect that deep inside you love your native country .

I will say no more on this topic, as I’m sure that you and every well-thinking Jamaican realize that major changes have to be made in certain aspects of our culture if we are to move forward as a society. If we had begun to seriously address similar issues since the ratchet knife-toting days of the 1960s (for example, through education and equitable distribution of resources), then we would have most likely not be faced with today’s seemingly out of control crime monster!

Dancehall Women: By the way (and I apologize for hijacking the thread at this point), while those women on the dancehallreggae.com web site generally look very good, is it that our women are rapidly losing their pride and their self-respect, or are they merely losing their sanity? As a dancehall man, I suspect that you visit that forum, and so you might have a comment to make on this last paragraph of mine .

[Time]

If the gleaner felt compelled to publish some dirt on this 100th anniversary then then should have talked about the students of school A who starting throwing things at school B and the how the students of school B ignored them.

Other the other hand, they could also have chosen to write something more positive, for example how the winning team figured how to win despite size restrictions and how this strategy may inspire relatively small teams to challenge the goliahs for the championship.

[Historian]

Not Publishing "Dirt"!

If the gleaner felt compelled to publish some dirt on this 100th anniversary then then should have talked about the students of school A who starting throwing things at school B and the how the students of school B ignored them.

Other the other hand, they could also have chosen to write something more positive, for example how the winning team figured how to win despite size restrictions and how this strategy may inspire relatively small teams to challenge the goliahs for the championship.

Time, the Gleaner’s news and sports reports on Champs 2010 have been filled with mostly positive things! There is certainly no shortage of positivity!

The editorial we’re discussing here has absolutely nothing to do with publishing “some dirt” on the 100 anniversary of Champs!! Rather, the editorial obviously chose to touch on what The Gleaner sees as the seeds of a possible future problem, and certainly a crude action that deserves to be condemned and ended immediately! In this way the paper is fulfilling its mandate as a watchdog of/for society!

To state it simply, I fully support this particular editorial, and like I said, I’m not averse to the matter being further addressed in follow-up editorials or in columns and commentaries in either newspaper.

[Mosiah]

he is a shooter. strikers shoot at goals. duh!

[Time]

he is a shooter. strikers shoot at goals. duh!

... and you are ok with the throwers simulating throwing stones into the crowd?