This not a report on the 1986 Commonwealth Games. It is an account of the involvement of one of the country’s best ever administrators, John Brown, his selection, preparation and involvement in what was to be the first such involvement in many Games including four Olympics.
John’s first experience of the Commonwealth Games had been as chief Wind Gauge operator in 1970; by the next Games in Edinburgh, in 1986, he was in a vastly different position. His first Scotland team had been in 1979 as Admin Officer in a match against England and Sweden at Crystal Palace and he worked with more Scotland teams in 1980, ’81, ’82 and ’83. It was in January 1984 that he was appointed Team Manager through to the end of the 1986 athletics season which would include the 1986 Commonwealth Games. This overlapped with his first Great Britain and Northern Ireland team manager which had started in 1983 and we will deal with that later. We are fortunate that he kept all his records in such an immaculate fashion. It may well be the only such collection by any team manager or admin officer. And now we can see just what was involved in such a task in the second half of the twentieth century. We can open the first of John’s box files. Although labelled XIII Commonwealth Games, the box contains information on other meetings at which he officiated for either Scotland or Great Britain. John also officiated at this time in lower level ‘representative’ matches as well as internationals (A representative match would be Scotland v Midland Counties, or Scotland v Wales and Southern Counties). We concentrate here on the Games and it will consist mainly of reproduced letters and documents with only linking comments.
The appointment for such a post is never made in the actual year of competition for obvious reasons and in John’s case it was made at the start of 1984. The handwritten letter below from Ian Clifton congratulating him and assuring him of every support is dated 29th January 1984.
And of course there was the official letter of congratulations from president John Fairgrieve, dated 8th February 1984, which tells him that the SAAA will ‘pressure’ the AAA to give him more international experience than he already has in the two years leading up to the Games.
Whether it was because of the efforts of the SAAA, or because of his work done for them previously, the BAAB had invited John to be Admin Officer for the International against Yugoslavia in Split.
It is interesting to note that his first letter following the appointment was to the National Coach, David Lease, one that very topic:
David replied on 10th February and they met on Tuesday 14th at Haymarket in Edinburgh and spent the evening at David’s home discussing the Games and related matters. Whether it was as a result of pressure by the SAAA or not, John was selected for the British Team to travel to Split later in the year.
These were different days. Although officials like John Brown were officiating as Team Managers or Admin Officer for Scottish or British teams they were not full time employees of the governing bodies. They were dependent on who their line manager was and their attitude to the sport. Joh was fortunate in that respect. Just look at the letter below giving him permission to go to four different meetings in four different venues from Norway to Israel.
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There were of course a number of social functions to be attended dealing with various aspects of fund raising and awards dinners where the plans were explained and support for 1986 gained. One of the biggest was the Royal Gala Performance with the Queen and Prince Philip present – John has kept the invitations and the elaborate programme for it. We reproduce the pre-event letter simply because of the detail that was informed for those attending!
In July came another invitation to work with a Scottish international team – this time for the Eight Nations International to be held in Tel Aviv. The correspondence is below.
And of course there was the British team competition in Split before the New Year. We will leave 1984 and 1985 here and have a separate section on the Games year of 1986. See link below.