byLarry EderFrank Horwill, the founder of the British Milers’ Club, died on January 1, 2012 at the age of 84. Pat Butcher, our friend from globerunner, wrote this piece on Mr. Horwill. I say this infrequently, but I must admit that I wish I had written this one…. Please watch for another piece on Frank Horwill later tonight…
Apparently, Mr. Horwill also followed one of my favorite history professors’ adages, which was, when attempting to educate high school males, who only have, at most, two things on their minds, sex and sports, the thoughtful and timely use of both the arcane and the profane should get their attention. Frank Horwill was, apparently, a superb communicator with athletes, young and not so young.
Per Mr. Butcher, and these examples (not for the meek), Mr. Horwill had a skill with the vernacular…the world is a sadder place without Mr. Batty (last summer) and now, Mr. Horwill…
The ‘official’ obituaries of Frank Horwill, who died on Sunday,
January 1, at the age of 84 will doubtless hint at his unoffical role in
British athletics over the last 50 years as Troublemaker-in-Chief.
There is a tradition for the obituarist to observe the ‘nil nisi bonum’
(nothing but good) of the recently deceased, but since Frank would have
scoffed at that, so do we.
So for those of you who only knew Frank as one of the founders of the
British Milers’ Club (BMC), as a coach to dozens of Olympians, and as
the creator of the ‘five-pace, multi-tier’ system of training – already
sufficient for any man – here are a couple of reminiscences of Frank,
including from himself…
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Although he would never admit it publicly, in the 1970s Frank was
instrumental in the publication of a scurrilous mimeographed magazine
called Athletics Truth, which attacked the then leading lights
of the administration. Frank’s abrasive style was apparent in the same
period when at a meeting to discuss Olympic selection policy, he
publicly accused a national coach of favouring a particular
middle-distance runner, “because he is fucking her”.
“I first met Steve (Ovett) at a Southern Counties Easter training
weekend… I was in the middle of explaining some exercise, and I remember
saying, ‘Listen carefully, because we’ve got to get this down,’ and I
heard a raspberry. So I said, ‘who did that? No need for you to own up, I
can see who it is, it’s you. You’ll never make a champion, you haven’t
got the right attitude.'”….. Years after, Horwill presented Ovett with a
BMC world record plaque. “I handed it to him, and he said, ‘This is
strange, because I was told by Frank ten years ago that I’d never make a
champion, and those words stung me into action'”.
“I first met (Seb) Coe when I put on a boys’ 800 metres at Copthall
(north-west London stadium). I remember getting ’em all together before
the race; I said, ‘Look here, boys, the BMC hasn’t paid your fares to
come down here and fuck about, so get stuck in”.
——————-
It may be that each successive generation has characters like this,
and I hope that is the case. Because, over the past year or so, as we
have lost people like Roy Fowler and Mel Batty and Peter Hildreth, and
now Frank, we can truly say of these of our contemporaries, they don’t
make ’em like that any more.
Frank Horwill was another ‘one-off’.
(recent pic by Dave Cocksedge)
Just one other thing, if you do not have Pat Butcher’s blog, globerunner, bookmarked, and consider yourself a fan of athletics, then, please, see a doctor, quickly, as you may have lost your mind….
