Legacy Legends

Roger Quinton – Legacy Legend

Roger Quinton was a founding Committee and Council Member of both the Association of Recreation Managers and the Institute of Leisure & Amenity Management (forerunners of CIMSPA). Roger edited a dozen of the early editions of its ARM News and was elected Chairman of the Association of Recreation Managers in 1976-77, and then again in […]

Dr George Torkildsen – Legacy Legend

George Torkildsen was the founding father of recreation management and a pioneering ambassador for leisure. George was the first indoor community sports centre manager in the UK and went on to become the most influential manager, motivator, thinker, writer and consultant across the sports and leisure scene over a period of 40 years. He was […]

Ron Pickering OBE – Legacy Legend

“Sport is the most precious commodity we have to hand on to the next generation” – Ron Pickering Ron Pickering is probably best known to the wider world as an athletics coach and commentator. He coached Lynn Davies to Olympic gold in 1964 and as Welsh national coach inspired a generation of athletes. As a […]

James (Jimmy) Munn – Legacy Legend

For over 30 years Jimmy Munn was one of the foremost influences on sports and leisure provision and its values and importance. Jimmy hailed from Ardrossan and his background in Scotland was the backbone of his leisure philosophy. He trained as a PE teacher and taught in Kilmarnock and Bristol. It was then as head […]

Denis Molyneux – Legacy Legend

Denis Molyneux represents the Project’s earliest connection with the ‘birth’ of the UK sports centre, which followed the Report of the Wolfenden Committee in 1960. Denis was later a member of the Working Party that produced ‘Planning for Sport’ in 1968. These two reports set the national agenda for subsequent sports provision, not least sports […]

Harry Littlewood – Legacy Legend

Harry Littlewood can truly be regarded as a “game-changer” in the recreation management and sports centre story. His contributions to the early development of sports centres and the recreation profession cannot be underestimated. Harry was born into a mining family in Derbyshire, he was an active sportsman in his youth where he played County rugby […]

Denis Howell, Baron Howell PC – Legacy Legend

Denis Howell was the first UK Minister for Sport and played the foremost political role in the establishment of The Sports Council following the Wolfenden Report in 1960. His influence on the sporting scene was enormous. He was a Birmingham City Councillor between 1946 and 1956, MP for Birmingham All Saints from 1955-59 and for […]

Ian Douglas – Legacy Legend

Ian Douglas was a pioneering Scottish manager at Bellahouston and Bishopbriggs sports centres. Ian trained in Physical Education at Jordanhill, and after teaching at Dollar Academy lectured in PE at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities. He was appointed as Manager of Bellahouston Sports Centre at the age of 26 in 1967, Scotland’s first sports centre. Thus, […]

Ted Blake – Legacy Legend

It is rare indeed that anyone could be regarded as a “legend” in more than one discipline, but in the case of Ted Blake it is arguable that he achieved legendary status in three. After leaving school at 14, Ted became an Army Physical Training Instructor during the War and qualified as a PE teacher […]

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