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A tribute to John Howell
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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 inaugral 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 They will-not be
published by MMTG again.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. Clive S.S.Howell 10 OCTOBER 2007)
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.
Lastly some Photo's of John and his dear
wife and his son and daughter on a happy vacation - with Mum on her
visit in 2005 (Photo's taken in Connecticut) and sadly, one of the
last photo's of John at his son's wedding in February 2006-Photo7,
Photo8, Photo9,
Photo10,
Photo11,
Photo12,Photo13.
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 |
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