|
Midland Masters Throwers Group | |
Home About us Membership Officers Results Archive News Archive Records & Statistics Links A tribute to John Howell |
A tribute to John Howell (1955-2006) John was a younger brother of the Chairman of MMTG, Clive. Whilst Clive in his younger days grew into an athletic 'power-house', John was intellectually fairly clever, BUT was unbelievably gifted at sport, and grew into what could be described as a 'poly-math' of sport. Today he would easily have made his living as a professional sportsman. With his hand-eye co-ordination, virtually all high performance factors at his finger tips, physique, strength, power and speed, his abilities in sport were without a doubt, absolutely awesome! Non-specific, but non the less verifiable references to this ability later in this article, despite the authors love and respect for John, the information is not to be seen as 'through rose tinted glasses', but as fact.
He ended up concentrating on
athletics, although it must be said he could have become an international
soccer or rugby star, just as easily.
( This text was added to bring to the attention of the reader content
of a meeting programme( 07 July 2007), to see and hopefully (if you
wish),- download
photos of John. They were originally published as part of the programme
for the 'John Howell Memorial Meeting'. The In-augral British (LSW)
Throwers Decathlon Championships 2007- as a one off! They will-not be
published by MMTG again.They do not and cannot even scratch the surface
when recording John's life,- which was full and eventful but cut
tragically short.There are thirteen photographs inserted into this tribute
and they may give some brief 'snapshots' over the past thirty years or so
of his life.
John won two English Schools
discus titles, and represented England for his first international,
against the home nations. He won a rare double of discus and triple-jump
at the national association of boy's club's championships in 1971. He had
British junior internationals at both discus and decathlon(photo1,photo2) and became a
highly regarded and ranked senior international decathlete. His many close
friends, team mates and 'adversaries' at the time included, Daley
Thompson, Mike Corden, Brad McStravick, Nick Phipps, Snowy Brookes, and
Pan Zeniou.( Photo3
)
In 1979, John was selected to
train for the British Bobsleigh team (Athletes are now regularly
recruited, but John was the first!!), and proved to have the qualities
required and was selected as 'brakeman' on both the #1, - 2 and 4 man
bobsleigh crews. Early in 1980, he helped to win the British
championships, and won the 'brakeman's trophy'.(Photo4,
Photo5) To say he was talented
here is just a statement but when it is known at pre-Olympic training he
was approached by Erich Shearer of East-Germany, the world record holder,
with a view to John being his brakeman in an attempt at a new record time,
says it all! Prior to this attempt John did something he rarely did, he
'crashed' on a run and was slightly injured but injured enough for the
record attempt not to take place.
He went out to LAKE PLACID
(New York State), for the winter Olympics of 1980, where he met his
beautiful wife Jeanne, who at the time was working as a producer for ABC Sport (television). They were covering the games and were and still are
as far as I know based in New York. In the games, John was 'brakeman' on
both 2 and 4 man #1 bobs. Both he and his fellow crew members were placed
9th (2-man), and 10th (4-man). People his family have met all over the
world , and I have met here, still hold his contribution to British
bobsleigh, with absolute sincere esteem and awe, and 27 years have passed
since!!
When he returned from Lake
Placid he was 200 points short of qualifying for the decathlon at the
summer Olympics in Moscow in 1980. He intended to do the double, but this
was finally 'dropped' as he decided to move 'over the pond', where he
became a very successful business man( Photo6), and father to his son and daughter.
He kept himself in fairly good shape, so we were shocked at his sudden
death after a boating and fishing trip, with his son , in June 2006.
Sadly, just 4 days after his 51st birthday.
He was aware of my efforts in
throwing, and also my role in helping set up MMTG and its administration
and was supportive but said, "these days I prefer golf"! On the
last occasion we spoke 2 weeks before he died we were talking about my
throwing efforts, and since we were still close he put on his 'false'
"potteries" dialect and said "...well youth, whatever rocks
your boat!!.." John was the rarest of men, he rarely fell out with
anyone and despite his wealth in terms of both family and fortune, never
boasted about his awesome abilities in sport. He is a sad loss to his
extended family in the USA, his family in the UK, relatives in Canada, and
his many friends world wide.
Having discussed some of my
feelings and John's attributes with Hugh, he suggested some time we would
honour his passing, and in due course he came up with 'THE JOHN HOWELL
MEMORIAL MEETING throwers decathlon' but not exactly the decathlon as he
would have known it!! If he had lived, he would have recognized, supported
and respected our aims, since we all aspire at our level to the
performances he achieved. He would be pleased that such events take place
and maybe would have "put his kit on" and taken part as a one
off. We will never know!
It is hoped that members of
his family in the USA and UK and his many nieces and nephews will have
some role both now and in the future in presentations (or at least be
present) for many years to come at the throwers decathlon championships,
as we wish them to be an annual British Championship ad-infinitum. C.S.S.H. 04.01.07 |
||
