ARCHIVE:SPORT AT BOROUGH ROAD 1898 - 1998

It is almost impossible to talk about Borough Road and not mention sport. For more than 100 years it has held an important place in the development of the college. Sometimes the emphasis given to it was perhaps excessive and elements of aesthetic, literary and artistic life marginalised, if not ignored. And there are those who would say that an obsession with sport has been to the detriment of intellectualism. That is certainly not the case now, and that sport has had a long and distinguished history in the college and has contributed greatly to its success whether as a monotechic training college, as part of an institute of higher education, or as now as part of Brunel University.

The origins of sporting development at Borough Road date back to the last decade of the 19th century. The government had established a Royal Commission under Viscount Richard Cross to examine the working of the elementary education acts, The Commission sat from 1886-1888 and when it finally reported made some scathing comments about the conditions of training colleges nationally. Their criticisms, that the colleges had a restricted curriculum, were inward looking, were slow to adopt more progressive educational methods and philosophies were as true of Borough Road as anywhere else. It was at this time the British and Foreign School Society made two decisions that were to transform the college. The first was to appoint a principal and the second was to relocate to the then leafy and rural Isleworth.

The principal was P.A.Barnett a young man who was just thirty years of age. Barnett revolutionised the college. Games became compulsory and were played every afternoon and the college rapidly began to adopt the features of a public school of the period. This was no accident. There was widely held view in Victorian society that the playing of games was both morally and socially desirable. Indeed a whole new ideology of athletics was created to promote and justify the playing of sport with team game given especially high priority. Barnett had been educated at the City of London School and Trinity Oxford. He was a firm believer in the games playing ethos. Barnett was the first in a quartet of public school and ‘Oxbridge’ principals who presided over the expansion of games in college. It was during these years that the college began to gain a national recognition for sport. A.R.Smith, a tutor, in 1900 captained Scotland at rugby and R.T.Gabe (1900-1902) became the college’s first international sportsman being capped by Wales also at rugby.

The pre-war years also witnessed a growth of inter-college competitions. By far the most important was the Inter College Shield. This was inaugurated in 1898 and was the athletics trophy, which was competed for by initially Borough Road, St Mary’s and St Mark’s colleges and subsequently opened to include Westminster and St John’s college. This rapidly became the premier sporting competition for the London colleges and continued until 1968. The college also had its own soccer six a side competition, which was competed for by the various dormitories on the two floors of the main college building. The dormitories were called: Angels, Paradise, Alley, Purgatory, Broadway Poets, Utopia and Rotten Row. Sporting achievement was recognised by the awarding of caps for the major team games. Each year sports photographs were taken and displayed in the college. Indeed by 1914 the college was widely recognised as an outstanding college for sport.

The first World War had a devastating impact on the college. In 1914 it was forced to relocate to Richmond and by 1918 was financially on its knees. The period 1919-1945 was a relatively fallow one in terms of sporting achievements.

The post Second World War years, however, saw a steady expansion of sport and physical education in the college. Two men: George Little and James Biddle were in the forefront of this development. Little was head of the Physical education department for over 30 years, while Briddle was a student from 1947-49, a lecturer from 1956-74 and Head of Department 1974-82. It was during these years that a number of significant changes took place. In 1959 the college was designated as a specialist college for the training of teachers in physical education. The 1970’s witnessed the establishment of West London Centre of Excellence and the amalgamation of the college with Chiswick Polytechnic and Mary Grey College to become the West London Institute of Higher Education. In the 1980’s it became designated as the London Centre of Excellence and the National Coaching Centre for London. Finally, the 1990’s have seen its designation as National Sports Development Centre, whilst the Institute formally became part Brunel University in 1997.

The List of International honours won by students and staff over the years is so extensive that it is impossible to mention them all here. Every success, however, is recorded on honours boards in the George Little building. Some of the most outstanding achievements are Alan Pascoe MBE (1971 graduate) European and Commonwealth Gold medallist and Olympic finalist, 400 metres hurdles; Ian Taylor (1976) GB Hockey goalkeeper and Olympic gold medalist; Kevin Browring (1978) Wales National Ruby Union coach; Kathy Smallwood-Cook (1981) 13 medals at the Olympics, World, European and Commonwealth Games in athletics; Paul Stimpson (1981) GB and England Basketball Captain and most capped player of all time; Richard Hill (1995) British Lions, South Africa 1997; Iwan Thomas (1995) double Silver medallist in 1996 Olympics and 1997 World Championships; Steve Harris (current student) World Marathon canoe Racing champion K2.

Sport, therefore, has had a tremendous impact at Borough Road. Its contribution should not be ignored. It has undoubtedly been an important factor in attracting students. The way in which it developed in the next millennium will be worthy of study as would a more comprehensive analysis of its historical context than space or time permits here.

I would like to thank J.S.Hunter, Department of Sports Science and James Biddle, former Head of Department, for their assistance in compiling this brief overview.

C. F. Hickey

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