Stevenage 75th anniversary magazine | biz4Biz - Magazine - Page 31
Sport Legends
Alan Munro wins at Ascot 1991
Yet we bemoan a rising obesity crisis
among children, who are all too happy to
compete like mad in an online arena but
woe betide them if the egg falls off the
spoon on sports day.
The penny seems not to have dropped.
Particularly when many of those I spoke
to for this book talked of how competitive
sport prepared them for life. It is tough
outside those school gates. There are
both winners and losers but we no longer
equip your kids to learn to cope with both
winning and losing.
Several Hall of Famers had to fail, often
more than once, before they succeeded.
One lad broke down in tears at 14 when
he was told his Premier League team were
letting him go. He was crushed. But the
man delivering the message relented
and gave him another chance. That
teenager is now a full international and
features in his country’s World Cup
qualifying plans and has a first-class
schooling record and has even trained in
stockbroking.
Sports success also opened doors
for many of these people - into law,
accountancy - for some it offered a
pathway to stay in their chosen sport as
a coach or administrator.
Above all, sportspeople have lives
outside sport. Some have personal crises
and others have happy families. Yet they
all have a story to tell - whether it being
on a plane turned back on 9/11, coming
face to hooded face with an armed
Palestinian terrorist - or being a stunt
double in a Bond film.
Many no longer live in Stevenage. But it
always has a place in their hearts. And the
town should be rightly proud of them all.
Town’s Got Talent, by Paul Fry
Published by Proactive Media, £20.
Available from Stevenage FC club
shop, Stevenage Museum, online
and paulmarkfry.com and some
bookshops.
Paul grew up in Stevenage, worked
as a journalist with the Stevenage
Gazette before a career in Fleet St,
regional and international newspapers.
He is married and lives in Leicester.
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