Alan Pascoe - 1997
Citation
It is a particular pleasure to present one of our own for an honorary degree. Alan Pascoe is not only a graduate of Borough Road College - and he will be pleased to know that more people use that name still than have ever heard of the Osterley Campus - but was also a member of staff here from 1974 to 1980.
Those who achieve much when young are too often remembered in the public mind for the heights they scaled then more readily than for their considerable successes later in life. We can all recall Roger Bannister's record-shattering sub 4-minute mile, Yehudi Menuhin's prodigious feats as a youthful violinist. But do we also remember Sir Roger's ground-breaking work as a medical practitioner and researcher or Sir Yehudi's creativity as an orchestral conductor? And so it is with Alan Pascoe. But his feats on the track were only a prelude to an outstanding career in sports promotion and sponsorship -his vital and original contribution to which has enabled many to pursue sporting excellence and many, many more to enjoy it. Few of us would have thought of following yacht-racing a few years ago. Now we anxiously watch the Whitbread Round the World Race on television and follow the fortunes of the competitors through the newspapers. It is Alan Pascoe's company, The Sponsorship Group, which is bringing us the seventh Round the World Race from its start in September to its finish in May of next year. And it is Alan Pascoe's company which has been promoting Cape Town for the 2004 Olympics, Malaysia for the 1998 Commonwealth Games and Manchester for the same Games in 2002. We watched the 1996 Cricket World Cup and the European Athletics Championships thanks to Alan. He is, without doubt, the UK's most successful and prestigious sports sponsor.
Athletics Weekly wrote of Alan Pascoe 'He never won an Olympic gold medal and he never set a world record but judged by all other criteria Alan Pascoe must be rated one of the most successful athletes in the history of the sport.
Given that Alan Pascoe represented Great Britain on no less than 50 occasions between 1967 and 1978 and won 13 Amateur Athletics Association indoor and outdoor titles, the statement brooks of no argument. He won four golds in European and Commonwealth Championships, 3 silvers including an Olympic silver in the 4 x 400 metres relay in 1972, and two bronzes. He had 21 International Match victories and held 21 Amateur Athletics Association titles. Alan's contribution to the success and the standard of hurdling in both this country and worldwide is immeasurable.
Athletics can be a very lonely pursuit and must place considerable strain on relationships. But Alan Pascoe had the good sense to find and marry another athlete, Della James. Their romance began at a Manfred Mann dance on Portsmouth pier and continued, through training sessions on various running tracks, where Della could give him more than a good run for his money over 80 metres, to successes at international athletics meetings. They married in 1970 after Alan had been 3 years at Borough Road, a place where, as he writes in his autobiography, 'I never once regretted going'.
Alan Pascoe's contribution to sport in general and athletics in particular has been by no means limited to the track and to sports promotion. He has been much in demand to serve with others of 'the good and the great' on bodies established to further achievement in sport including the Sports Council and the Minister of Sport's Working Party on Sporting Excellence. He has also been a member of the BBC Advisory Council.
Chancellor, may 1 present to you Alan Peter Pascoe, athlete, sporting entrepreneur and one of us, for the conferment of the degree of DUniv honoris causa.
DUniv - November 1997
