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Those who ran, jumped and threw themselves into politics!
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.
The next Champs star in politics was the PNP's Rudolph Augustus Burke (grandfather of JLP's James Robertson and PNP's Paul Burke) who also bit the dust in the first and only national contest (in West St Thomas) in 1944. But he served as Legislative Council Member (1951-62), opposition Senator (1962-67) and for decades, as an icon in local government and the agricultural sector. At JC, he had actually continued from where Manley had left off, but only after leaving Wolmer's, where in the 1911 Champs as a 12-year-old in Class Three, he had placed second in the 220 and third in the 100 yards.
In his first (Class Two) outing for JC in 1914, Burke tied for third place in the high jump with two others, then competed in all five Class Two events in 1915, winning the 100, 220 and 440 yards and all in record times of 10.6, 24.6 and 57, respectively. He also came second in both the high jump and long jump and was the Class Two champion with 13 of JC's 22 points, which only put them in third place. As a Class One athlete and team captain in 1916, Rudolph Burke ended his school career in a blaze of glory with wins in the 100, 220, the 440 in a record 54.2, 120 hurdles and the long jump, third in the high jump and became the Class One champion, scoring 16 points for his JC team which took Champs that year with 48 points.
Twenty-four years later at the 1940 Champs, his son KC Burke would continue the family tradition for JC with second place in the 880 yards.
The only other Champs athlete in the era of Manley and Burke to make a serious impression on the political life of the country was the JLP's Edward Rupert Dudley Evans -- more widely known as ERD Evans -- who became the only Champs star to be elected to the new House of Representatives in 1944, as one of the first 32 members. He was also the first "Minister for Agriculture" (in the Executive Council), as well as the first to lead a rebellion against Bustamante with four other JLP MHRs in 1947, which resulted in their resignation from the Party. A lawyer who had worked closely with Bustamante during the 1938 riots, Evans was elected the first representative for West St Andrew, but became a one-termer in the wake of his departure from the JLP and formation of his Agricultural & Industrial Party (AIP), and faded into political obscurity.
But for five years as a Wolmer's athlete, ERD Evans held his own with the best of them. At Class Two, he was third in the 440 yards in 1912, tied for third in the high jump with another Wolmerian, OR Bancroft in 1913, and in 1914 he shared first place in the high jump with Calabar's SG Somers and was third in the pole vault. At Class One in 1915, he placed second in the pole vault and third in the high jump, then won the high jump with a leap of 5'5.5" in 1916, as well as the pole vault (in a tie with Calabar's GM Graham) and came in second behind Rudolph Burke in the 440 yards.
Neville Noel Ashenheim, who started out at JC, took second place in the Class One 220 yards and third in the 100 yards for them in 1918; then as a Munro student in the 1919 Champs, he ran second in the 220. Neville Ashenheim would later become a member of the Legislative Council (1959-62) and served as a Cabinet Minister from the Senate, 1962-72.
There was Harry OA Dayes, more famous as a lawyer and sportsman than as a politician who was a founding member of the PNP, an NEC member and a KSAC Councillor (1945-47), notched third place in the Class Two high jump for the victorious JC team in the 1922 Champs. And although Louis Patrick Delapenha could only manage third for St George's in the 880 yards in 1923, he did however, manage to become a famous lawyer and in 1958 was elected the PNP Federal Member for Manchester, then later served as a PNP Councillor for Mandeville, 1966-74.
But the Champs star who shone from the mid to the late 1920s and later had the greatest impact on our politics would be the outstanding Kenneth George Hill of St George's, whose exceptional talents as a schoolboy athlete and versatility in all sports, naturally honed him to become an even brighter star as a journalist, a trade unionist and a politician.
One of the major founders of the PNP in 1938, Hill served as PNP vice-president for years, President of the TUC, elected PNP KSAC Councillor, 1947, MHR for West Kingston, 1949-55 and was KSAC Mayor, 1951-52. His expulsion (with the other three "Hs") from the PNP in 1952 led to the formation of his own National Labour Party (NLP), then later joined the JLP and was elected JLP Federal Member for Surrey in 1958, and returned to the PNP in 1969 to be elected once more a KSAC Councillor until his retirement in 1981.
As a 15-year-old Class Two schoolboy back in 1924, Ken Hill placed third in the 100 and 220 yards and the long jump for St George's, and in 1925 he won the high jump (in a tie with another Georgian, GC Tavares) and was second in both the 220 and the long jump. At Class One in 1926, he came third in the long jump, and in 1927, third in both the 120 hurdles and the long jump -- the latter in which his son, Norman would also score points for St George's in three Champs, 1952-1954.
Donald Burns Sangster, the first Munronian to be elected to the House and the only Champs performer to become Prime Minister of Jamaica, made his mark at Champs in 1928 when he tied for second place with three others in the Class One high jump, and ran second to Wolmerian, SB Chambers in the 120 hurdles in the 1929 Champs. Four years later at the tender age of 22, Sangster was elected a St Elizabeth Parochial Board (Parish Council) Member, the vice-chairman (1941-45), contested the South St Elizabeth seat as an Independent in 1944, Parochial Board Chairman (the youngest at age 36) in 1947, elected JLP MHR for South St Elizabeth (1949), became Social Welfare Minister then Finance Minister (1949-55), the Member for North-East and North-Central Clarendon (1955-67), independent Jamaica's first Finance Minister, 1962-67 and First Deputy Leader of the JLP from 1950 until his untimely death in 1967, a mere two months after succeeding Sir Alexander Bustamante as Prime Minister.
The next politician who excelled at Champs was the indefatigable Herman A McMorris of Calabar, although his achievements in five straight Champs far outweighed his political exploits for the PNP. In 1944, he was the PNP candidate defeated by an Independent, Rev Enos R Philips in North-East Clarendon; in 1949, he was the Independent candidate clobbered by the PNP's Percy Broderick, Sr and in 1959, he was the PNP candidate trounced by the JLP's Donald Sangster. His only political success came in 1947 at the local level when he was elected the first Councillor for the Chapelton Division under adult suffrage.
But McMorris' performances at Champs some two decades earlier were a far different matter. At Class Two for Calabar in 1927, he came third in the long jump, and in the following year, he won the same event and was third in the 100 yards sprint. In 1929, he was second in the Class One 100, 220 and the long jump, then in 1930 as team captain, he brought the trophy to Calabar for the first time (setting the stage for the school's four-year lien on the title), winning the 100, 220 and 120 hurdles, placing second in the long jump and throwing the cricket ball, third in the 440 and became the Class One champion, who accumulated 14 of Calabar's 25.5 points.
Again as the winning captain at the 1931 Champs, another scintillating performance by Herman McMorris, with victories in the 100, 220, 440 and long jump, second in the 120 hurdles and throwing the cricket ball and again the Class One champion compiling 16 of Calabar's 38 points.
Another Munronian, John Percival Gyles, who became a very prominent St Catherine politician, educator, planter, cattle-breeder and an all-round sportsman -- especially in football and lawn tennis -- made his debut in the 1932 Champs with second place in the Class Two 440 yards and was a Class One member of both of Munro's winning teams in 1934 and 1935, the latter of which he captained.
His journey into politics started at the local level when he became the elected Independent Councillor for the Linstead Division, 1951-56, then the highest-polling Farmers' Party candidate who lost to the PNP's Ben Cox in the 1955 contest in North-East St Catherine, the JLP Member for North-East and North St Catherine for over 12 years and independent Jamaica's first Minister of Agriculture, 1962-72.
In 1938 after a nine-year drought at Champs, Wolmer's won for the seventh time with just 25 points. Among its 15-man team was young Ripton S McPherson, who would later become a lawyer, a two-term PNP Spanish Town Councillor (1966-74) who lost in the South St Catherine seat to the JLP's Victor Grant in 1967, then took it from Grant to become the area's next two-term Member of Parliament (1972-80), and also became the eighth and arguably, one of the best Speakers of the House.
But perhaps the Champs performer who became Jamaica's most celebrated athlete and who also dabbled in politics was the great Herb McKenley, whose tenure for Calabar spanned four years and was largely highlighted by his intense rivalry with L 'Coco' Brown of Wolmer's. As a 16-year-old in Class Two in 1938, Herb ran second in the 440 and third in the 220. The following year he won the 440, came second in both 100 and 220, and in 1941 he managed only third behind Douglas Manley and 'Coco' Brown in the 100 yards, and was beaten into second place by Brown in the 440 yards.
In later years, McKenley would establish himself as a world-class middle distance runner, winning a gold and three silver medals at the London and Helsinki Olympics in 1948 and 1952, holder of the 440 world record five times and the first man in history to run the 400 metres under 46 seconds!
Herb also became an impressive national and international track coach which he alternated with being a life insurance underwriter and manager, but his sojourn into both local and national politics for the JLP fell woefully short of his track career. He lost heavily to the PNP's Larel Maloney in the Havendale Division of North St Andrew (with less than 30% of the votes) in the 1969 Municipal Elections, and even worse in the same constituency against the PNP's Allan Isaacs in 1972 when he was swamped by the elections' highest margin of 7,788 votes!
Widely regarded as the most sensational 100 yards final in the history of Champs, the 1941 battle between 'Coco' Brown, Herb McKenley and Douglas Manley had all the ingredients required to become a humdinger -- the build-up, some exciting heats and extremely keen rivalry! Both Brown and McKenley had been at it from the year before when Brown took the 100 and 220 and McKenley, the 440. Not many, it seemed, reckoned too much about the presence of Norman Manley's quiet 19-year-old son representing Munro College -- not even when, as Herb revealed to me years later (in the '70s), both 'Coco' and himself had earlier false-started in the race. But when the dust was cleared, it was Douglas Manley, who created the greatest upset at Champs and snatched the race in 10 seconds flat, becoming the third boy in 30 years to equal his father's 1911 record! In the 220, however, Douglas had to settle for second best behind 'Coco', who set a new record at 22.1 seconds.
Which, more or less, was also the situation with Douglas and his more politically strident younger brother, Michael, who had taken over leadership of the PNP from their retired father three decades later, won power in 1972 and made Douglas a member of his first Cabinet? But in his first electoral contest, Douglas would soon discover that victory at the polls was no easier than winning at Champs. After he was declared winner of the South Manchester seat over the JLP incumbent, Arthur Williams, Sr by a mere 94 votes in the '72 election, an election petition reversed that result two years later, with the judgement handed down by Chief Justice Kenneth Smith in March 1974 citing electoral irregularities to the extent that Dr Manley was unseated by Court Order and the seat returned to Williams. However, in 1976 he had a convincing win over Williams, rejoined the Cabinet, walked away from the politics when the JLP ruled in 1980, then returned in 1989 to take back the seat for the PNP, before his final retirement in 1993.
But the champions of Champs in 1941 which was 'Coco' Brown's 16-member Wolmer's team captained by AS Dujon, also included boys like Allan Rae, Ramon Alberga and Owen Harcourt Stephenson, formerly a student of both Munro and JC. In later years, Stephenson would become a soldier, ADC to both Governors Foot and Blackburne, a first-class career cop, but a very unsuccessful JLP politician in West St Andrew, losing to the PNP's Dudley Thompson and OT Williams in 1980 and 1993, respectively.
On the other hand, one destined to be quite successful in politics was Munro's Kenneth AN Jones, who, along with his twin brother Keith, figured very prominently in the 1942 Champs when Munro lost to KC by only 1.5 points. Ken, who placed second in the 880 yards and third in the mile, entered the political arena nine years later at the local level and won the Manchioneal Division of East Portland as an Independent in the '51 Parochial Board Elections. But it was his impressive showing in the 1953 by-election following the death of Sir Harold Allan when he came third in a seven-man race, again as an Independent polling nearly 17% of the ballots that eventually got the attention of JLP leader Alexander Bustamante.
By 1955, Ken Jones was the JLP candidate who first won the East Portland seat when the Party lost power islandwide, and after losing it to the PNP's Ken Wright in 1959, he took it back in 1962 when the Party regained power and became the first Minister of Communications & Works when Jamaica attained independence. Sadly, his success would be short-lived, as in October 1964 while attending a Cabinet retreat in Montego Bay, he sleep-walked off the hotel balcony and to his death.
Another product of the 'city set upon a hill', Hugh Hart followed in the athletic footsteps of his father, Clinton Hart and was a Class Two member of Munro's victorious team at the 1945 Champs, captained by Lindy Delapenha. He was also among their next triumphant team in 1947 captained by LM Burke and included among others, Lumsden, Parchment, Evan Jones, Alfred Sangster, Nelson and Tappin. Hugh Hart never entered representational politics, but he served as Government Senator and an extremely influential Cabinet Minister during the JLP administration of the 1980s.
The name Amador Gilman would hardly be remembered today, but in 1972 he was the PNP candidate who came the closest to defeating a JLP Prime Minister. That occasion nearly occurred in South Clarendon when Gilman, a political freshman took on Hugh Shearer in his traditionally safe seat and defending a margin of 2,925 which he actually trimmed to just 343. Not bad for a man who had won the shot put with a throw of 38' 9" for Calabar when they triumphed at the 1946 Champs.
Howard R Aris, a KC star throughout five Champs (1951-55) when KC won three, and who became a physical therapist, national coach and trainer and sports administrator, also dabbled in politics at the local level when he served two terms as a PNP Councillor for Spanish Town Divisions, 1974-81. Back in 1951, Aris won the Class Two high jump at 5' 3", and then in 1952 he also repeated that victory along with winning Class Two 120 hurdles, the long jump with a record leap of 21' 6 3/8", third in the 100 yards and was Class Two champion with 14 of KC's 52 points. At Class One in 1953, he copped second in the high jump and third in the 120 hurdles, captained the winning KC team in 1954, and when they fell to third in the standings in 1955, he was second in the 120 hurdles and fourth in the hop, step & jump.
Another prolific schoolboy athlete who struck first-time success in politics was David Lindo. He became the first JLP MP for East-Rural St Andrew, the second youngest winner in 1967 and a Parliamentary Secretary, but lost the seat to the PNP's Eric Bell in 1972. However, Lindo's athletic career at both Munro and Wolmer's which spanned some six years (including as DaCosta Cup and Manning Cup goalkeeper for both schools) has remained far more memorable than his career as a politician.
In 1953 at age 16, Lindo was the silver medal Class Two champion with 17 of Munro's 25 points when he won the long jump and high jump and was second in the 220, 440 and 120 hurdles. In 1954, his dominance extended to Class One when he won the long jump and hop, step & jump, came second in the 100 yards and the 120 hurdles, and grabbed third in the 220 to become the Class One silver medal champion, who chalked up 16 of the 18 points scored by Munro. By 1956, after leaving 'In Arce Sitam Quis' for 'Age Quod Agis', David Lindo was actually the only Class One winner for Wolmer's with a record leap of 45' 10" in the hop, step & jump, and placed second and third, respectively, in the 100 and 220 yards when the 'maroon' boys won Champs for the 11th time.
In recent times, former PNP Senator and trade unionist, Lloyd Goodleigh might, like Kermit the Frog, find that "it's not easy being green", but back in 1955 when the "green" boys of Calabar swept Champs with 55 points, his contribution with second place in the Class Two 440 was just the start of things to come. The following year he placed third in Class One of the same event, then won both the 440 and 880 in 1957, and repeated both performances at the 1958 Champs when Calabar again triumphed, and Goodleigh was awarded the Jamaica College Old Boys Cup for his victory in the 440 yards Class One.
K Churchill Neita of KC who became that amazing attorney who hardly ever lost a case, also became briefly, a politician who never won anything either, although representing both major parties at both levels of politics. The losing JLP candidate against the PNP's Dennis Ho in the 1981 Municipal Elections in Fletcher's Land, Central Kingston, and the vanquished PNP torchbearer against the JLP's Audley Shaw in the 1993 North-East Manchester contest when Audley first won, Churchill, however, had fared far better when he had pole vaulted KC into second place (behind Cornwall's M Arthurs) at the 1956 Champs.
Another Champs participant of the same era who became slightly more successful in politics was Robert 'Bobby' Marsh of St George's, whose two-year sojourn in Class Two stood out very well for the 'Light Blues'. His second in the long jump, third in the 440 and fourth in the 220 at the 1956 Champs were actually bettered in 1957 when he won the long jump (over KC's Ventura) with a leap of 21' 9.5", came second in both the 220 and 440, third in the 100 yards and a member of the winning St George's 4x110 Class Two relay team.
An intense politician, Bobby Marsh took the same kind of determination into his politics but did fail in his initial attempts to wrest the long-standing North-East St Ann seat from the PNP. Firstly in the 1974 by-election against Vivian Blake following Hazel Hamilton's death and then in the sequel to that contest in the 1976 elections. But in 1980, he bounced back to create history by becoming the first JLP MP to be elected in that constituency and by a margin of over 3,000 votes, served as a junior minister during the '80s, departed from the political scene by 1989 and later re-surfaced as an adherent of the National Democratic Movement.
In 1959, high jumper Laurie Broderick earned second place in the Class Two event when his JC team won Champs for the 13th time, then apparently jumped over the year 1960 and landed in the '61 Champs where he could only manage fourth in the Class One high jump, which was actually the same rank in the standings JC attained that year.
Fast-forward 41 years to 2002 and Laurie's first jump into the political arena for the JLP in North Clarendon missed the mark by some 627 votes, perhaps due to too much 'dilly-dallying'. However, with some energy, he was able to clear the bar marginally in 2007, 58 years after his dad, Percy Broderick, Sr won in a large section of that area, and 18 years after big brother, Percy, Jr walked away from 17 years of representation in the seat on his southern border.
As the Class One shot put champion in 1960 with a throw of 46' 0.5", KC's Errol Ennis couldn't quite help 'Fortis' to victory in the Golden Jubilee Year of Champs when Excelsior ruled. Yet after throwing himself into the West Portland seat for the PNP in 1989, he was to stay put there for over the next 18 years as MP and a junior minister, until retiring undefeated.
In that same Golden Jubilee Year of Champs 50 years ago, that renowned Georgian, Trevor Munroe -- now more known as the university professor, political scientist and commentator, former independent and government Senator, trade unionist and founder of the Workers' Party of Jamaica -- actually achieved the distinction of becoming only the second Rhodes Scholar after Norman Manley to score points for his alma mater at Champs. Holder of a 100 yards record at St George's which endured for some time, Trevor Munroe took second in the Class Two 220 yards and fourth in the 120 hurdles at the 1960 Champs where he also anchored the St George's team to third place behind KC and JC in the Class Two 4x110 relay.
But Dr Munroe's first venture into representational politics for the PNP in 2007 turned out to be far less inspiring than his track career. Like Norman Manley, he not only lost in his first contest, but also in the same area of East St Andrew where Manley went down to ************an in 1944. So, perhaps in time we could see Trevor, like the phoenix, rising from the ashes as Norman did, getting ready to tackle the next challenge, renewed by the rays of the rising sun!
And then there was Allie McNab, that outstanding all-round sportsman of Cornwall College vintage, who is probably best-known as the longest-playing footballer in the world and Jamaica's national football coach in the '80s. Actually the only Cornwallian I could identify who scored at Champs and entered politics, McNab's run in the outside lane for Cornwall in the 100 yards Class One dash in 1965 (which was won by KC's Lennox Miller in 9.8 seconds) and his part on the school's 4x110 relay team which placed fourth, was only the prelude of what would come the following year. In 1966, he won the 100 yards in 9.9 seconds, came second in the 220 and long jump, fourth with the 4x110 relay squad, and was the Class One champion with 10 of Cornwall's second-placed 42 1/3 points -- the best they had done in 36 years!
Thus far, Allie's only political adventure has not quite measured up to his athletic prowess at Cornwall and beyond. In 1993, he became the JLP casualty in the first contest of the then newly-created South-Central St Catherine constituency, won by eventual PNP one-termer, Heather Robinson, a native of the County of Cornwall.
Today, there is an increasing and disappointing trend that Champs performers who enter politics are fast becoming an endangered species, as there has been hardly anyone in this category for close to 40 years. Indeed, this situation is even worse on the female side and clearly resonates with the very low percentage of women who have been successful politicians in Jamaica. I stand corrected, but perhaps the closest any Girls' Champs star came to politics, was the marriage of former Queen's School and Jamaica's silver-medallist Grace Jackson to the PNP's Hugh Small.
With the legislative empowerment of representation so vital to the country's political development, maybe some of the boys and girls competing in this milestone year of Champs might want to consider the possibility of future political engagement and play a vital part in diminishing all that apathy to politics in Jamaica.
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.
1/2
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.
The next Champs star in politics was the PNP's Rudolph Augustus Burke (grandfather of JLP's James Robertson and PNP's Paul Burke) who also bit the dust in the first and only national contest (in West St Thomas) in 1944. But he served as Legislative Council Member (1951-62), opposition Senator (1962-67) and for decades, as an icon in local government and the agricultural sector. At JC, he had actually continued from where Manley had left off, but only after leaving Wolmer's, where in the 1911 Champs as a 12-year-old in Class Three, he had placed second in the 220 and third in the 100 yards.
In his first (Class Two) outing for JC in 1914, Burke tied for third place in the high jump with two others, then competed in all five Class Two events in 1915, winning the 100, 220 and 440 yards and all in record times of 10.6, 24.6 and 57, respectively. He also came second in both the high jump and long jump and was the Class Two champion with 13 of JC's 22 points, which only put them in third place. As a Class One athlete and team captain in 1916, Rudolph Burke ended his school career in a blaze of glory with wins in the 100, 220, the 440 in a record 54.2, 120 hurdles and the long jump, third in the high jump and became the Class One champion, scoring 16 points for his JC team which took Champs that year with 48 points.
Twenty-four years later at the 1940 Champs, his son KC Burke would continue the family tradition for JC with second place in the 880 yards.
The only other Champs athlete in the era of Manley and Burke to make a serious impression on the political life of the country was the JLP's Edward Rupert Dudley Evans -- more widely known as ERD Evans -- who became the only Champs star to be elected to the new House of Representatives in 1944, as one of the first 32 members. He was also the first "Minister for Agriculture" (in the Executive Council), as well as the first to lead a rebellion against Bustamante with four other JLP MHRs in 1947, which resulted in their resignation from the Party. A lawyer who had worked closely with Bustamante during the 1938 riots, Evans was elected the first representative for West St Andrew, but became a one-termer in the wake of his departure from the JLP and formation of his Agricultural & Industrial Party (AIP), and faded into political obscurity.
But for five years as a Wolmer's athlete, ERD Evans held his own with the best of them. At Class Two, he was third in the 440 yards in 1912, tied for third in the high jump with another Wolmerian, OR Bancroft in 1913, and in 1914 he shared first place in the high jump with Calabar's SG Somers and was third in the pole vault. At Class One in 1915, he placed second in the pole vault and third in the high jump, then won the high jump with a leap of 5'5.5" in 1916, as well as the pole vault (in a tie with Calabar's GM Graham) and came in second behind Rudolph Burke in the 440 yards.
Neville Noel Ashenheim, who started out at JC, took second place in the Class One 220 yards and third in the 100 yards for them in 1918; then as a Munro student in the 1919 Champs, he ran second in the 220. Neville Ashenheim would later become a member of the Legislative Council (1959-62) and served as a Cabinet Minister from the Senate, 1962-72.
There was Harry OA Dayes, more famous as a lawyer and sportsman than as a politician who was a founding member of the PNP, an NEC member and a KSAC Councillor (1945-47), notched third place in the Class Two high jump for the victorious JC team in the 1922 Champs. And although Louis Patrick Delapenha could only manage third for St George's in the 880 yards in 1923, he did however, manage to become a famous lawyer and in 1958 was elected the PNP Federal Member for Manchester, then later served as a PNP Councillor for Mandeville, 1966-74.
But the Champs star who shone from the mid to the late 1920s and later had the greatest impact on our politics would be the outstanding Kenneth George Hill of St George's, whose exceptional talents as a schoolboy athlete and versatility in all sports, naturally honed him to become an even brighter star as a journalist, a trade unionist and a politician.
One of the major founders of the PNP in 1938, Hill served as PNP vice-president for years, President of the TUC, elected PNP KSAC Councillor, 1947, MHR for West Kingston, 1949-55 and was KSAC Mayor, 1951-52. His expulsion (with the other three "Hs") from the PNP in 1952 led to the formation of his own National Labour Party (NLP), then later joined the JLP and was elected JLP Federal Member for Surrey in 1958, and returned to the PNP in 1969 to be elected once more a KSAC Councillor until his retirement in 1981.
As a 15-year-old Class Two schoolboy back in 1924, Ken Hill placed third in the 100 and 220 yards and the long jump for St George's, and in 1925 he won the high jump (in a tie with another Georgian, GC Tavares) and was second in both the 220 and the long jump. At Class One in 1926, he came third in the long jump, and in 1927, third in both the 120 hurdles and the long jump -- the latter in which his son, Norman would also score points for St George's in three Champs, 1952-1954.
Donald Burns Sangster, the first Munronian to be elected to the House and the only Champs performer to become Prime Minister of Jamaica, made his mark at Champs in 1928 when he tied for second place with three others in the Class One high jump, and ran second to Wolmerian, SB Chambers in the 120 hurdles in the 1929 Champs. Four years later at the tender age of 22, Sangster was elected a St Elizabeth Parochial Board (Parish Council) Member, the vice-chairman (1941-45), contested the South St Elizabeth seat as an Independent in 1944, Parochial Board Chairman (the youngest at age 36) in 1947, elected JLP MHR for South St Elizabeth (1949), became Social Welfare Minister then Finance Minister (1949-55), the Member for North-East and North-Central Clarendon (1955-67), independent Jamaica's first Finance Minister, 1962-67 and First Deputy Leader of the JLP from 1950 until his untimely death in 1967, a mere two months after succeeding Sir Alexander Bustamante as Prime Minister.
The next politician who excelled at Champs was the indefatigable Herman A McMorris of Calabar, although his achievements in five straight Champs far outweighed his political exploits for the PNP. In 1944, he was the PNP candidate defeated by an Independent, Rev Enos R Philips in North-East Clarendon; in 1949, he was the Independent candidate clobbered by the PNP's Percy Broderick, Sr and in 1959, he was the PNP candidate trounced by the JLP's Donald Sangster. His only political success came in 1947 at the local level when he was elected the first Councillor for the Chapelton Division under adult suffrage.
But McMorris' performances at Champs some two decades earlier were a far different matter. At Class Two for Calabar in 1927, he came third in the long jump, and in the following year, he won the same event and was third in the 100 yards sprint. In 1929, he was second in the Class One 100, 220 and the long jump, then in 1930 as team captain, he brought the trophy to Calabar for the first time (setting the stage for the school's four-year lien on the title), winning the 100, 220 and 120 hurdles, placing second in the long jump and throwing the cricket ball, third in the 440 and became the Class One champion, who accumulated 14 of Calabar's 25.5 points.
Again as the winning captain at the 1931 Champs, another scintillating performance by Herman McMorris, with victories in the 100, 220, 440 and long jump, second in the 120 hurdles and throwing the cricket ball and again the Class One champion compiling 16 of Calabar's 38 points.
Another Munronian, John Percival Gyles, who became a very prominent St Catherine politician, educator, planter, cattle-breeder and an all-round sportsman -- especially in football and lawn tennis -- made his debut in the 1932 Champs with second place in the Class Two 440 yards and was a Class One member of both of Munro's winning teams in 1934 and 1935, the latter of which he captained.
His journey into politics started at the local level when he became the elected Independent Councillor for the Linstead Division, 1951-56, then the highest-polling Farmers' Party candidate who lost to the PNP's Ben Cox in the 1955 contest in North-East St Catherine, the JLP Member for North-East and North St Catherine for over 12 years and independent Jamaica's first Minister of Agriculture, 1962-72.
In 1938 after a nine-year drought at Champs, Wolmer's won for the seventh time with just 25 points. Among its 15-man team was young Ripton S McPherson, who would later become a lawyer, a two-term PNP Spanish Town Councillor (1966-74) who lost in the South St Catherine seat to the JLP's Victor Grant in 1967, then took it from Grant to become the area's next two-term Member of Parliament (1972-80), and also became the eighth and arguably, one of the best Speakers of the House.
But perhaps the Champs performer who became Jamaica's most celebrated athlete and who also dabbled in politics was the great Herb McKenley, whose tenure for Calabar spanned four years and was largely highlighted by his intense rivalry with L 'Coco' Brown of Wolmer's. As a 16-year-old in Class Two in 1938, Herb ran second in the 440 and third in the 220. The following year he won the 440, came second in both 100 and 220, and in 1941 he managed only third behind Douglas Manley and 'Coco' Brown in the 100 yards, and was beaten into second place by Brown in the 440 yards.
In later years, McKenley would establish himself as a world-class middle distance runner, winning a gold and three silver medals at the London and Helsinki Olympics in 1948 and 1952, holder of the 440 world record five times and the first man in history to run the 400 metres under 46 seconds!
Herb also became an impressive national and international track coach which he alternated with being a life insurance underwriter and manager, but his sojourn into both local and national politics for the JLP fell woefully short of his track career. He lost heavily to the PNP's Larel Maloney in the Havendale Division of North St Andrew (with less than 30% of the votes) in the 1969 Municipal Elections, and even worse in the same constituency against the PNP's Allan Isaacs in 1972 when he was swamped by the elections' highest margin of 7,788 votes!
Widely regarded as the most sensational 100 yards final in the history of Champs, the 1941 battle between 'Coco' Brown, Herb McKenley and Douglas Manley had all the ingredients required to become a humdinger -- the build-up, some exciting heats and extremely keen rivalry! Both Brown and McKenley had been at it from the year before when Brown took the 100 and 220 and McKenley, the 440. Not many, it seemed, reckoned too much about the presence of Norman Manley's quiet 19-year-old son representing Munro College -- not even when, as Herb revealed to me years later (in the '70s), both 'Coco' and himself had earlier false-started in the race. But when the dust was cleared, it was Douglas Manley, who created the greatest upset at Champs and snatched the race in 10 seconds flat, becoming the third boy in 30 years to equal his father's 1911 record! In the 220, however, Douglas had to settle for second best behind 'Coco', who set a new record at 22.1 seconds.
Which, more or less, was also the situation with Douglas and his more politically strident younger brother, Michael, who had taken over leadership of the PNP from their retired father three decades later, won power in 1972 and made Douglas a member of his first Cabinet? But in his first electoral contest, Douglas would soon discover that victory at the polls was no easier than winning at Champs. After he was declared winner of the South Manchester seat over the JLP incumbent, Arthur Williams, Sr by a mere 94 votes in the '72 election, an election petition reversed that result two years later, with the judgement handed down by Chief Justice Kenneth Smith in March 1974 citing electoral irregularities to the extent that Dr Manley was unseated by Court Order and the seat returned to Williams. However, in 1976 he had a convincing win over Williams, rejoined the Cabinet, walked away from the politics when the JLP ruled in 1980, then returned in 1989 to take back the seat for the PNP, before his final retirement in 1993.
But the champions of Champs in 1941 which was 'Coco' Brown's 16-member Wolmer's team captained by AS Dujon, also included boys like Allan Rae, Ramon Alberga and Owen Harcourt Stephenson, formerly a student of both Munro and JC. In later years, Stephenson would become a soldier, ADC to both Governors Foot and Blackburne, a first-class career cop, but a very unsuccessful JLP politician in West St Andrew, losing to the PNP's Dudley Thompson and OT Williams in 1980 and 1993, respectively.
On the other hand, one destined to be quite successful in politics was Munro's Kenneth AN Jones, who, along with his twin brother Keith, figured very prominently in the 1942 Champs when Munro lost to KC by only 1.5 points. Ken, who placed second in the 880 yards and third in the mile, entered the political arena nine years later at the local level and won the Manchioneal Division of East Portland as an Independent in the '51 Parochial Board Elections. But it was his impressive showing in the 1953 by-election following the death of Sir Harold Allan when he came third in a seven-man race, again as an Independent polling nearly 17% of the ballots that eventually got the attention of JLP leader Alexander Bustamante.
By 1955, Ken Jones was the JLP candidate who first won the East Portland seat when the Party lost power islandwide, and after losing it to the PNP's Ken Wright in 1959, he took it back in 1962 when the Party regained power and became the first Minister of Communications & Works when Jamaica attained independence. Sadly, his success would be short-lived, as in October 1964 while attending a Cabinet retreat in Montego Bay, he sleep-walked off the hotel balcony and to his death.
Another product of the 'city set upon a hill', Hugh Hart followed in the athletic footsteps of his father, Clinton Hart and was a Class Two member of Munro's victorious team at the 1945 Champs, captained by Lindy Delapenha. He was also among their next triumphant team in 1947 captained by LM Burke and included among others, Lumsden, Parchment, Evan Jones, Alfred Sangster, Nelson and Tappin. Hugh Hart never entered representational politics, but he served as Government Senator and an extremely influential Cabinet Minister during the JLP administration of the 1980s.
The name Amador Gilman would hardly be remembered today, but in 1972 he was the PNP candidate who came the closest to defeating a JLP Prime Minister. That occasion nearly occurred in South Clarendon when Gilman, a political freshman took on Hugh Shearer in his traditionally safe seat and defending a margin of 2,925 which he actually trimmed to just 343. Not bad for a man who had won the shot put with a throw of 38' 9" for Calabar when they triumphed at the 1946 Champs.
Howard R Aris, a KC star throughout five Champs (1951-55) when KC won three, and who became a physical therapist, national coach and trainer and sports administrator, also dabbled in politics at the local level when he served two terms as a PNP Councillor for Spanish Town Divisions, 1974-81. Back in 1951, Aris won the Class Two high jump at 5' 3", and then in 1952 he also repeated that victory along with winning Class Two 120 hurdles, the long jump with a record leap of 21' 6 3/8", third in the 100 yards and was Class Two champion with 14 of KC's 52 points. At Class One in 1953, he copped second in the high jump and third in the 120 hurdles, captained the winning KC team in 1954, and when they fell to third in the standings in 1955, he was second in the 120 hurdles and fourth in the hop, step & jump.
Another prolific schoolboy athlete who struck first-time success in politics was David Lindo. He became the first JLP MP for East-Rural St Andrew, the second youngest winner in 1967 and a Parliamentary Secretary, but lost the seat to the PNP's Eric Bell in 1972. However, Lindo's athletic career at both Munro and Wolmer's which spanned some six years (including as DaCosta Cup and Manning Cup goalkeeper for both schools) has remained far more memorable than his career as a politician.
In 1953 at age 16, Lindo was the silver medal Class Two champion with 17 of Munro's 25 points when he won the long jump and high jump and was second in the 220, 440 and 120 hurdles. In 1954, his dominance extended to Class One when he won the long jump and hop, step & jump, came second in the 100 yards and the 120 hurdles, and grabbed third in the 220 to become the Class One silver medal champion, who chalked up 16 of the 18 points scored by Munro. By 1956, after leaving 'In Arce Sitam Quis' for 'Age Quod Agis', David Lindo was actually the only Class One winner for Wolmer's with a record leap of 45' 10" in the hop, step & jump, and placed second and third, respectively, in the 100 and 220 yards when the 'maroon' boys won Champs for the 11th time.
In recent times, former PNP Senator and trade unionist, Lloyd Goodleigh might, like Kermit the Frog, find that "it's not easy being green", but back in 1955 when the "green" boys of Calabar swept Champs with 55 points, his contribution with second place in the Class Two 440 was just the start of things to come. The following year he placed third in Class One of the same event, then won both the 440 and 880 in 1957, and repeated both performances at the 1958 Champs when Calabar again triumphed, and Goodleigh was awarded the Jamaica College Old Boys Cup for his victory in the 440 yards Class One.
K Churchill Neita of KC who became that amazing attorney who hardly ever lost a case, also became briefly, a politician who never won anything either, although representing both major parties at both levels of politics. The losing JLP candidate against the PNP's Dennis Ho in the 1981 Municipal Elections in Fletcher's Land, Central Kingston, and the vanquished PNP torchbearer against the JLP's Audley Shaw in the 1993 North-East Manchester contest when Audley first won, Churchill, however, had fared far better when he had pole vaulted KC into second place (behind Cornwall's M Arthurs) at the 1956 Champs.
Another Champs participant of the same era who became slightly more successful in politics was Robert 'Bobby' Marsh of St George's, whose two-year sojourn in Class Two stood out very well for the 'Light Blues'. His second in the long jump, third in the 440 and fourth in the 220 at the 1956 Champs were actually bettered in 1957 when he won the long jump (over KC's Ventura) with a leap of 21' 9.5", came second in both the 220 and 440, third in the 100 yards and a member of the winning St George's 4x110 Class Two relay team.
An intense politician, Bobby Marsh took the same kind of determination into his politics but did fail in his initial attempts to wrest the long-standing North-East St Ann seat from the PNP. Firstly in the 1974 by-election against Vivian Blake following Hazel Hamilton's death and then in the sequel to that contest in the 1976 elections. But in 1980, he bounced back to create history by becoming the first JLP MP to be elected in that constituency and by a margin of over 3,000 votes, served as a junior minister during the '80s, departed from the political scene by 1989 and later re-surfaced as an adherent of the National Democratic Movement.
In 1959, high jumper Laurie Broderick earned second place in the Class Two event when his JC team won Champs for the 13th time, then apparently jumped over the year 1960 and landed in the '61 Champs where he could only manage fourth in the Class One high jump, which was actually the same rank in the standings JC attained that year.
Fast-forward 41 years to 2002 and Laurie's first jump into the political arena for the JLP in North Clarendon missed the mark by some 627 votes, perhaps due to too much 'dilly-dallying'. However, with some energy, he was able to clear the bar marginally in 2007, 58 years after his dad, Percy Broderick, Sr won in a large section of that area, and 18 years after big brother, Percy, Jr walked away from 17 years of representation in the seat on his southern border.
As the Class One shot put champion in 1960 with a throw of 46' 0.5", KC's Errol Ennis couldn't quite help 'Fortis' to victory in the Golden Jubilee Year of Champs when Excelsior ruled. Yet after throwing himself into the West Portland seat for the PNP in 1989, he was to stay put there for over the next 18 years as MP and a junior minister, until retiring undefeated.
In that same Golden Jubilee Year of Champs 50 years ago, that renowned Georgian, Trevor Munroe -- now more known as the university professor, political scientist and commentator, former independent and government Senator, trade unionist and founder of the Workers' Party of Jamaica -- actually achieved the distinction of becoming only the second Rhodes Scholar after Norman Manley to score points for his alma mater at Champs. Holder of a 100 yards record at St George's which endured for some time, Trevor Munroe took second in the Class Two 220 yards and fourth in the 120 hurdles at the 1960 Champs where he also anchored the St George's team to third place behind KC and JC in the Class Two 4x110 relay.
But Dr Munroe's first venture into representational politics for the PNP in 2007 turned out to be far less inspiring than his track career. Like Norman Manley, he not only lost in his first contest, but also in the same area of East St Andrew where Manley went down to ************an in 1944. So, perhaps in time we could see Trevor, like the phoenix, rising from the ashes as Norman did, getting ready to tackle the next challenge, renewed by the rays of the rising sun!
And then there was Allie McNab, that outstanding all-round sportsman of Cornwall College vintage, who is probably best-known as the longest-playing footballer in the world and Jamaica's national football coach in the '80s. Actually the only Cornwallian I could identify who scored at Champs and entered politics, McNab's run in the outside lane for Cornwall in the 100 yards Class One dash in 1965 (which was won by KC's Lennox Miller in 9.8 seconds) and his part on the school's 4x110 relay team which placed fourth, was only the prelude of what would come the following year. In 1966, he won the 100 yards in 9.9 seconds, came second in the 220 and long jump, fourth with the 4x110 relay squad, and was the Class One champion with 10 of Cornwall's second-placed 42 1/3 points -- the best they had done in 36 years!
Thus far, Allie's only political adventure has not quite measured up to his athletic prowess at Cornwall and beyond. In 1993, he became the JLP casualty in the first contest of the then newly-created South-Central St Catherine constituency, won by eventual PNP one-termer, Heather Robinson, a native of the County of Cornwall.
Today, there is an increasing and disappointing trend that Champs performers who enter politics are fast becoming an endangered species, as there has been hardly anyone in this category for close to 40 years. Indeed, this situation is even worse on the female side and clearly resonates with the very low percentage of women who have been successful politicians in Jamaica. I stand corrected, but perhaps the closest any Girls' Champs star came to politics, was the marriage of former Queen's School and Jamaica's silver-medallist Grace Jackson to the PNP's Hugh Small.
With the legislative empowerment of representation so vital to the country's political development, maybe some of the boys and girls competing in this milestone year of Champs might want to consider the possibility of future political engagement and play a vital part in diminishing all that apathy to politics in Jamaica.
