This article will most probably draw the comment "by nature we are people who never seem to agree with those in positions of trust and/or authority."
And although it is quite difficult to please all of the people all of the time, I, and many others, have wondered, from as far back as the second induction in1985, about the method used by the West Indian Tobacco Sports Foundation's panel of selectors in the selection of inductees to the Sports Hall of Fame, Totally disenchanted, by 1995 I divorced myself completely from this function.
However, last Friday night I was very happy and proud to see two hockey administrators with whom I had worked for many years inducted into the Hall of Fame. The late David Radix, President of the Men's Federation for 17 years, whose son, Brent received the accolades his father deserved and my long-standing friend and hockey colleague, Adelle King, an administrator par excellence.
Annette Hart, was the lone hockey player inducted. She had represented Trinidad and Tobago for six years rising to vice captain in her final year, before migrating to Canada in 1967. I was distressed that the Foundation had left out Carolyn Bart, the Women's Hockey Committee's choice, a most disciplined player who had played for her country for eleven years rising to the position of captain, and had played first class hockey for 16 years and captained Rockets for 13 years.
While Hart represented Trinidad & Tobago at the 8th Conference and Tournament of the International Federation of Women's Hockey Associations in Baltimore in 1963, and then Canada at the 10th Conference and Tournament in Auckland, New Zealand in 1971, Bart had represented Trinidad and Tobago at the 11th and 12th Conferences in Scotland and Vancouver, and as one of our most prolific goalscorers had scored the goal in Guyana in 1976 which allowed our country to be champions of the Caribbean. She was also the top goalscorer in 1976 at the Women's Federation Champion Clubs in the Caribbean and Latin America in Mexico, thereby helping her club, Rockets to win the championships.
Since Induction night, I have read a copy of the 2000 Sports Hall of Fame programme and again wondered about the Foundation. Hart's bio-data read "...... in Auckland, New Zealand in 1971 she was a member of the Canadian National team and this was certainly a source of pride to the Trinidad and Tobago delegates at that Conference." I was one of the two delegates at the New Zealand Conference and cannot remember being asked by any member of the Foundation or the West Indian Tobacco Company for a comment on this being "a source of pride" to me. How could such an assumption be made without verification.
King, a member of the hockey women's nomination committee, had this to say on the omission of Bart: "I think it was unfortunate that both Annette and Carolyn did not get in which is reasonable. I would have been happier because I consider Carolyn had a lot to offer in her time. I would say that in goalscoring, after Sandra Charles came Carolyn." (Charles, now Montano, was inducted in 1995). About her own induction, King's humble comment was: "Whatever I did to contribute to the Association and by the same nature to the country, it never crossed my mind of getting a reward. Lots of people do things and say I hope they don't leave me out, this never went across my mind."
It was as a member of Wren's Ladies Hockey Club that King became an ordinary member of the Women's Hockey Association's executive in 1955. "At the end of the first year a member of management asked me to take over the treasurer's job, for which I was proposed, seconded and accepted at the Annual General Meeting." For the next 29 years, she remained on the executive, twenty of which were as 2nd and 1st Vice President, never wanting to be President "because I was enjoying what I was doing with all the tours. I did not feel I would be as effective as President. After the 50th anniversary celebration I remember telling you as President that I was finished and I was out. I felt I had completed what I had set out to do."
King, who still keeps the records of the women's and schools' associations at her Long Circular Road home, the headquarters for women's hockey throughout her years on the executive, was also President of the Secondary Schools Association which was formed under her direction. "Anna Mahase was president of the TTWHA. At that time four schools were knocking up and needed to form a league but they needed to form an Association and it was suggested that somebody from the women's management guide them and work with them. I got the job and stayed with it for more than 20 years, actually I retired from that before the women's."
As president of the women's association from 1983 to 1987, I myself worked alongside David Radix during his presidency of the Men's Federation. There were many times when we did not see eye to eye, especially on the subject of an artificial surface for Trinidad & Tobago. David wanted this very expensive surface to the exclusion of everything else. I agreed that we needed it and the surface would come one day, but first our money should have been spent on things like improvement of coaches, umpires, and training players to bring our standard to the point where we would really benefit from the surface in international competition. In retrospect, David and I were working towards the same goal just that our time frame for getting there was different.
The government eventually supplied the funds for the surface, which I am told is not being used extensively as clubs find it hard to contribute towards its upkeep. The records will show that we have not achieved any great heights in the international world. Last week- end's news showed that Barbados at No 5 was the highest placed Caribbean team in the seventh Pan American Junior Men's Hockey tournament in Chile. Trinidad and Tobago placed seventh among the ten participants while Argentina had won for the seventh time.
Granted they have artificial surfaces but I am told that these youngsters start serious training from age five and the best are picked out from as early as 11 and 12 to play together. Most national hockey teams in Trinidad and Tobago are selected prior to each tournament.
I do however agree wholeheartedly with the suggestion that the surface at Tacarigua should be named after David Radix, who says King "had a mammoth job on his hand, to be quite honest, I do not think I would have liked to be a President to solve the financial crisis he faced when he came in. He came to the forefront at an unfortunate time, they had no money and nobody wanted that type of job and he worked hard in trying to keep it together."