Looking at what might have been

Barrie Devenport (waving), the first person to swim Cook Strait, with final pacers Ian Greenwood (left) and Jim Cornish, rests on rocks at the South Island end of his crossing. Photo by Alexander Turnbull Library Dominion Post Collection

Murray Halberg. Photo by ODT.

Peter Snell crossing the finishing line when breaking the world mile record in Wanganui in 1962. Photo by Wanganui City Council.

This year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Halberg Awards. But the 1963 winner, NZ golfing great Bob Charles, was neither the first recipient of a Halberg Award nor the first to be crowned New Zealand Sportsman of the Year.

Confused? Tony Love tries to tie a couple of missing threads together.

All right then, sports trivia buffs. Your topic today is the Halberg Awards.

Of course, that title is comparatively recent (1992) and so what I'm really writing about concerns the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year title.

The winner could just as easily have been a team (or even a woman), but let's not complicate things any more.

So back to my initial challenge.

Tell me, who won the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year title in 1961?

Nothing immediately forthcoming?

Nothing at all? Can't blame you.

It's not as if it was exactly a stellar year.

The New Zealand outdoor basketball team (the terms netball and Silver Ferns were to come later, and much later), for example, played no tests that year. Not a one, although back then that was the norm.

The All Blacks contested just three as they whitewashed France in a home test series.

The New Zealand cricket side played three internationals at home against Dennis Silk's second-string MCC touring party in the early part of the year, splitting the series, but the four-day matches were not accorded test status.

Later that year, all-round great John Reid was to lead New Zealand on a record-breaking tour 1961-62 of South Africa but his, and the team's, gallant efforts mainly occurred in the 1962 calendar year.

There was no way athletics, then in its golden period, could match the heroics of Rome the previous year, and yet Peter Snell and Murray Halberg himself still covered themselves in glory. But no, not them either.

And, of course, I haven't forgotten Ivan Bowen, winner of the inaugural Golden Shears.

So, we're no closer to an answer.

Let's move on.

Who won the prestigious New Zealand Sportsman of the Year title in 1962?

Unlike 1961, it was a golden year. So how are you doing?

Anyone leaping out at you?

It should be easier. The Perth Commonwealth Games were held that year and success at the Commonwealth or, more especially, the Olympic Games, has very often led to Halberg success.

Obviously, Snell then comes into contention. But what about Val Young (two athletic golds in Perth), formula one driver Bruce McLaren, Reid and Barry Devenport?

Time, though for some background. In theory, we are this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Halberg Awards and, in a way, we are.

However, the award was originally presented in 1949, the creation of Jack Fairburn, editor of New Zealand Sportsman, a monthly magazine that appeared from 1947 to 1960.

The first recipient, cricketing great Bert Sutcliffe, was presented with a trophy on which were inscribed Fairburn's words: ''The New Zealand Sportsman's Trophy to be awarded annually to the New Zealand athlete whose personal performances or example, has had the most beneficial effect on the advancement of sport in the country''.

Sutcliffe is still regarded as perhaps New Zealand finest batsman and one of the world's greatest left-handed batsmen of all time.

He was followed in 1950 by the queen of New Zealand sport Yvette Williams, who became the first two-time winner in 1952 after winning gold in the long jump at the Helsinki Olympics.

She is still today our greatest sportswoman (sorry, Val) and God knows what she could have been if there had been a pentathlon, let alone a heptathlon, in those days.

The first back-to-back winner was the New Zealand rowing eight, in 1971 and 1972 (again in 1982), and the second middle-distance great John Walker (1975 and 1976).

Other two-time winners have been Snell, 1963 British Open winner Bob Charles, speedway sensation Ivan Mauger, New Zealand's greatest cricketer, Richard Hadlee, the All Blacks and rower Philippa Baker (the second time with double sculls partner Brenda Lawson).

Rowing champion Rob Waddell (1998, 1999 and 2000) and shot putter Valerie Adams (2007, 2008 and 2009) have managed threepeats.

The only winter athlete to have won it is Annelise Coberger, in 1992, the first competitor from the southern hemisphere to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.

Before 1987, there was simply a New Zealand Sportsman of the Year award.

In 1987, when the All Blacks won the supreme award, Hadlee was the sportsman of the year, Susan Devoy the sportswoman of the year and Brian Lochore the coach of the year.

The awards became the Halberg Awards in 1992.

The magnificent work of the Rome 5000m gold medallist in helping children with disabilities into sport - the awards raise funds for the Halberg Disability Sports Foundation - was finally recognised in that year.

A rather pointed speech from ''sportsMAN of the year'' winner Philippa Baker the previous year also played a part in the name change.

But now we must backtrack somewhat.

The thing is that after Snell, voted sportsperson of the 1960s and New Zealand's all-time greatest sportsperson, won the honour in 1960, the awards ceased for a period following the closure of Fairburn's magazine until Halberg helped revived them in 1963, hence the half-century anniversary.

So we don't have a winner for 1961 or 1962.

But I have a few thoughts on the matter ... In 1961, the first national Waitangi Day celebration was held (although it was not yet a public holiday), the post-war baby boom peaked, capital punishment was abolished (for the second time), the first Golden Kiwi draw was held and diners at The Gourmet restaurant in Auckland became the first to have wine legally served with their meals.

On the sporting front, the All Blacks for the first time hosted a team representing a single European country (as opposed to the Lions) when the French played a three-test series.

Ross Brown (second five-eighth), Neil Wolfe (first five-eighth) and Dennis Young (hooker) played outstandingly and were among the Rugby Almanack's five players of the year.

Others to impress were fullback Don Clarke, halfback Des Connor (he had played for the Wallabies against the All Blacks as recently as 1958), loose forward Kel Tremain and, of course, locking great Colin Meads, as well as props Wilson Whineray (an inspirational leader) and Don's brother, Ian.

Cricket must make life difficult for those wishing to pick a sportsman of the year, given that the season, especially in 1961 when much less cricket was played, falls into two calendar years.

Cantabrian Zin Harris (father of Chris), who collected the Redpath Cup awarded to New Zealand's outstanding batsman, was also the choice of the Cricket Almanack.

Interestingly, Sutcliffe averaged 66.50 for Otago in the 1960-61 season, 16 runs higher than Harris' first-class average, but was not considered for the Redpath Cup as he played no international cricket that season, having retired after the 1958-59 season.

He did make a comeback, however, on New Zealand's 1965 tour of India, Pakistan and England.

The Winsor Cup for outstanding bowler was awarded to Otago legspinner Jack Alabaster while the almanac went for Canterbury paceman Dick Motz.

Ivan Bowen beat nearly 300 shearers from New Zealand and Australia to win the inaugural Golden Shears competition in Masterton.

Probably, though, he will always be remembered as ''brother of'' (the great Godfrey).

I'm afraid, though, none of those performances, as fine as they were, really cut it when it comes to the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year award.

Let us remember, this was the golden age of New Zealand athletics, and the heroes of Rome, Snell and Halberg, were again in the headlines.

Snell started the 1961 season slowly by his standards but, at the World Games in Finland, won the 800m-1500m double.

He then travelled to Ireland, where he beat Jamaican George Kerr in a fine 1min 46.4sec for 800m, the fastest time of the year.

Halberg also carried on from where he left off in 1960.

He firstly broke the two-mile world record on July 7, running 8min 30.0sec and, 18 days later, clocked 13min 10sec to break the world record for three miles.

Halberg and Snell also combined with fellow Kiwis Barry Magee and Gary Philpott to break the world 4 x 1 mile record in Dublin in a time of 16min 23.8sec.

So, there you have it.

Far from a vintage year, so who would it have been?

Snell or Halberg? Halberg or Snell?

I think Halberg's three world records, including the prestigious three-mile mark, give him the edge.

Halberg would have/could have/should have added to the award he won in 1958.

And so to the following year, 1962.

New Zealand heart surgeon Brian Barratt-Boyes became only the second surgeon in the world to replace a heart valve, using one from a cadaver.

Two members of the Soviet Union's legation in New Zealand were expelled for spying, the country's first roll-on roll-off ferry, New Zealand Railways' Aramoana, entered service between Wellington and Picton, and New Zealand-born Maurice Wilkins and his colleagues James Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on the structure of DNA.

Bruce McLaren, whose name is enshrined in formula one to this day, won the Monaco Grand Prix for Cooper-Climax and was third overall in the world championship (behind Graham Hill and Jim Clark).

Put that in perspective by picturing a Kiwi driver replicating those feats today.

Believe it or not, but speedway was once big.

And we had Ronnie Moore, Barry Briggs and Mauger.

Briggs, a four-time world champion, also got close that year, finishing second in the final at Wembley.

Reid's deeds on the cricket fields of South Africa in 1961-62 were simply outstanding.

He captained New Zealand to just its second and third test wins, and first overseas, to enable the touring side to share the five-match series (he had also led New Zealand to its first test win over the West Indies in 1956).

The hard-hitting allrounder, New Zealand Sportsman of the Year in 1955, topped the batting averages and also claimed valuable wickets.

The sporting event which captured the public's imagination more than any other in 1962 occurred in November.

Wellington surf life-saver Barrie Devenport left Cape Terawhiti in the North Island and swam to Wellington Rock in the South Island in 11hr 20min.

Many had tried and failed to swim Cook Strait before Devenport and so the feat was akin, albeit on a smaller scale, to Roger Bannister's first sub-4min or Sir Edmund Hillary's conquest of Mt Everest.

Devenport immediately became a household name (world famous in New Zealand) and among his rewards were a television set and a truckload of manure.

If Snell had made a slow start to 1961, the same very definitely did not apply for 1962.

In January, he broke the world mile record before a huge crowd at Cooks Gardens in Wanganui and, a week later, set world records for both the 800m and 880yds in Christchurch.

He then won the 880yds-one mile double at the Commonwealth Games in Perth (fellow Kiwi John Davies was second in the mile).

Snell later in the year set world indoor marks for the 1000yds in Los Angeles and the 880yds in Tokyo.

His efforts that year were rewarded with an MBE.

Halberg also won gold in Perth that year in the three miles while Val Young (nee Soper) won gold in the shot put and discus.

In total, Young won five Commonwealth games gold medals, as well as a silver and a bronze. All right then, in a year out of the box, who wins?

Reid and McLaren's feats that year should be remembered forever and, if they had occurred a year earlier, either would have comfortably done enough to win the award.

In 1962, however, not even close.

It has to be between Snell and Devenport.

When I first came with the idea for this article - before any research at all - I thought Snell might have won in 1961 and definitely in 1962.

Looking back 52 years later, I wasn't far off about 1961 and what Snell achieved in 1962 would surely have won the award in nine years out of 10 at least.

The trouble is, I'm missing something. Context, perhaps?

I think we need to understand that what Devenport achieved was like Lindbergh, Bannister, Hillary, Armstrong.

OK, I'm exaggerating, but it was something the country had been wanting to see for a long time.

Team New Zealand is not going to win the Halberg award for 2013 but no sporting event this year even came close to gripping the country in the way the America's Cup did. Devenport was the same - and he succeeded!

And so, the man who remains without doubt New Zealand's greatest sportsperson of all time, and perhaps the greatest middle distance runner in history, misses out again.

Devenport it is.

Halberg awards
Supreme title

1949 Bert Sutcliffe

1950 Yvette Williams

1951 Ron Jarden

1952 Yvette Williams

1953 Barry Browne

1954 Bob Charles

1955 John Reid

1956 Norman Read

1957 Philippa Gould

1958 Murray Halberg