Honorary
Doctorates |
Brendan Foster MBE receives Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Leeds Met
Former
long-distance runner of world-class standing Brendan Foster received
an Honorary Doctorate from Leeds Metropolitan University
during Graduation 2004.
Born and educated on Tyneside, Brendan went on to study successfully for a Diploma in Education at Carnegie College, a constituent of Leeds Metropolitan University, now known as the Carnegie Faculty of Sport and Education.
Brendan said: “I was proud to be at Carnegie College. Carnegie is the symbol of sport which attracted me to come here.
“Wilf Paish, National Coach who taught me at Carnegie College, helped me to get into international competitions which I really needed to do at the time. Another person I remember is Esther the dinner lady, who saved my food for me so I could eat after training in an evening. “
He added: “You have to be confident, if you have a vision or a plan, that the right environment has been set. In my case it was here at Carnegie College that the groundwork was laid, that I had the support. I was very fortunate in my period here that I learnt about planning for achievement and to be successful. During my career I have always gone back to basics and thought about what I was really trying to achieve. My advice to graduates is to always try to prepare the environment in which you are going to work, both at home and in your business or sporting life, and lay the groundwork.”
In the days of amateur status for athletes, Brendan combined a teaching job in Hebburn, Tyne and Wear, with a demanding training programme to support a promising middle- and long-distance-running career. A bronze medal in the 1,500m at the 1970 Commonwealth Games set him on the road to becoming a household name. In the years that followed he added steadily to his medal collection, including an Olympic bronze in 1976 for the 10,000m, and gold medals at the 1974 European Games for the 5,000m and at the 1978 Commonwealth Games for the 10,000m. During his career as an athlete he broke two world records and held British records for five distances. He won recognition for his achievements on the track with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award in 1974 and the award of an MBE in 1976.
When his time as an international runner was drawing to a close, he joined the BBC as a sports commentator. He remains one of the voices of UK athletics broadcasting. Over the last two decades his media work has run alongside a career in promoting athletics, both as elite and mass participation activities. It was while taking part in the Round the Bays Race in New Zealand that he first conceived the idea of the Great North Run. The event has grown in popularity since it was launched 24 years ago to become the world’s biggest half-marathon: these days around 50,000 participants toe the starting-line.
Brendan Foster now heads sports marketing agency Nova International, which specialises in organising mass participation events for terrestrial and satellite television.
