This site, in covering the period from 1945 to 2000 in Scottish athletics, has dealt with the runners, the coaches, the club servants as well as the events, national and international, county and national organisations (such as the Universities, the veterans and the counties), the venues at which they all performed and of outstanding Games athletes. What has not been mentioned is the part played at international level by any of our capable administrators. Nobody thinks about these workers for the sport and yet the world structure of athletics depends on their presence and work. One of the very best, possibly the very best, was John Brown from Helensburgh.
John, whose father had been a runner, had been a good club standard athlete with Maryhill Harriers in the 1950’s before moving into officiating and gradually working his way up through the administrative chain. Chief time gauge operator and recorder at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh he went on to be Administration Officer for the Scottish and British international teams and for Great Britain in the Olympic Games in Seoul, Barcelona and Atlanta. We look at the Games in their chronological order and note that the preparations for Seoul were overlapping with the run-in to the XIII Commonwealth Games. Note too that these are not reports on the Games in Question but information about the team management and John’s tasks in relation to the meetings.
He dealt with the suitability of accommodation for teams, the welfare of individual athletes, the issuing of kit, transport as well as a myriad other details. Some big ones, some small ones and some apparently small ones that grew to to be really big issues. Much of his career has been covered on the pages linked below here and they all come from his own immaculately kept records and albums. The links are below the photograph.
John, Team Manager in 1986, is Centre of the Front Row.
NB: These pages do not cover or report on the athletics competitions but do cover the work done by a particular official on behalf of GB and Scotland.
The Beginning of his Career in Athletics What Is An Administrative Officer?
Commonwealth Games Team 1986: 1. Pre-Games Commonwealth Games Team 1986: The Games
The Seoul Olympics: European Championships 1986 & World Championships 1987 The Seoul Olympics: Preparation 1987/88.
The Athletes’ Accommodation: Barcelona .
Appointment as Admin Officer: Atlanta 1 The Lead In To the Atlanta Games 2. More On Atlanta
Retiring and the Tributes from Athletes In His Own Words