100 years of Champs! 400 pages of history, Champs book tells it all
IT’S a body of work that has been 100 years in the making and one which all those involved in the publication of the ‘Champs’ 100: A Century of Jamaican High School Athletics 1910-2010 commemorative book are proud.
Editor Michael A Grant talked about the countless hours that he and his team at Great House OmniMedia Ltd spent conceptualising, designing, and compiling the 400-page edition.
Grant, renowned athletics analyst and statistician Hubert Lawrence, author Colin Channer, who wrote the foreword, and photographer Bryan Cummings were the main contributors, though it could be considered a labour of love as many others, most notably Earle Spencer, donated photos and images from their personal archives to the book.
The original concept for a commemorative edition was an extended magazine and focussed on the boys’ section, but Grant told the Observer that after discussions with Lawrence, the book evolved into its current form.
“We realised the thing had to be a lot wider in scope to really do justice to it and ISSA decided to put the resources into it to do a proper history, not just who, what, when, but the whole sociological connection of the event to Jamaican society and culture,” he said.
Grant, who has a master of arts degree in communication from the University of Pennsylvania, also led the team that designed and produced Jamaica’s bid for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
The book looks back at the origin of the rivalries of what has grown to become the largest high school athletics meeting in the hemisphere.
“The event…has grown from a contest among six boys’ institutions into a world-class coeducational event for almost 200 high schools,” Lawrence says in his introduction.
“Back then, small teams of teenage athletes ran, jumped and threw on grass tracks in a schedule that required multiple efforts by almost every student-athlete…those involved with the sports in 1910 would be amazed by the century of transformation.”
There are over 1,000 photos, the oldest of which dates back to 1910 when Wolmer’s Boys’ captured the very first Boys’ Championships title or The Jamaica Schools Championship Sports — as it was then called — but there are also images of medals, drawings and old programmes.
It includes snapshots of outstanding Championships and Jamaican athletes, including Arthur Wint, Lennox Miller, Donald Quarrie, Merlene Ottey, Bert Cameron, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Melaine Walker and Usain Bolt.
Some of the familiar names that pop up include noted sportsmen and broadcasters Lindy Delapenha and Allie McNab; politicians Taran Peralto and Paul Robertson, former minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance, Don Wehby, and Vin Lumsden.
There are comprehensive statistics, a chapter for every year of competition, as well as a timeline which explains the gap year in 1944 when the competition was “suspended by headmasters citing concerns about schoolboy overenthusiasm”.
The first incarnation of a Girls’ Championships won by Montego Bay High in 1941 is mentioned and also when the girls’ section became an annual event, post-1957, when St Hilda’s claimed the crown.
Lawrence gives a lot of credit to Sir Herbert MacDonald, who did his own comprehensive history of the championships up to 1970.
“We wanted to follow that but we also wanted to tell other important stories that deal with the various ingredients that go into the ‘Champs’ we have today and that would include doing more than giving a synopsis of each individual champs competition,” he added.
“You’ll get a sense of where Champs fits in the life of the country and my guess is that after you look at the great pictures you’re likely to walk away with a sense of how Jamaica evolves over time,” Lawrence said.
Both Lawrence and Grant have credited the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) with having the vision and being prepared to put the necessary resources into the book.
“It is something that we are very, very proud of and pleased,” ISSA president, Dr Walton Small, told the Observer.
‘Champs’ 100: A Century of Jamaican High School Athletics 1910-2010 may be ordered online through its publishers at www.greathouseomnimedia.com