We were in attendance at two lectures this morning; the first given by Sir Dr. Roger Bannister, and the second given by Dr. Rikky Rooksby. One sought to acquaint us with the substance that makes England, England, excepting geography of course. The other sought to introduce us to the role of Sport in International Relations (Note: In Britain the word "sport" is left singular, while in America we refer to it in the plural).
Who better to give a lecture on sport than the very first Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, Roger Bannister? As might be expected, the upcoming 2012 Olympics in London were discussed, as well as the results of the Olympic bid made public on Friday. Over the course of the lecture we reviewed not only Olympic highlights, from Athens to the present time, but also numerous anecdotes from the life of one of the world's most preeminent athletes, who also happens to be an Oxford don.
It was in 1946, at the age of seventeen, that Roger began at Oxford; a time when the majority of his classmates were combat veterans returning from the Second World War. As it happens, it was his status as a non-veteran that first inspired him to become an athlete at Oxford. He felt unqualified, as though his other classmates had done their part for the nation, and he had yet to do his. So he set out to make his contribution on the track.
After graduating from high school at seventeen, and starting at West Point two weeks later, I was able to identify very much with what he felt at the time. Today at my school, you have a good number of freshmen who have already returned from serving multiple combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. In contrast, those of us straight out of high school can only look at ourselves and wonder "who am I compared to that?"
Sir Roger's only experience in the Olympics took place in 1952 in Helsinki. Had he won the Gold Medal there, he is certain he would have ended his athletic career on the spot and returned to medical school. As it happens, he did not win the Gold. He came in fourth in the Men's 1500 Meters, three-tenths of a second away from the Bronze Medal. His performance in that race challenged him to continue as an athlete, even while a full-time medical student at Oxford. The rest, as they say, is history.
It was at Oxford, on May 6th, 1954, that Roger Bannister accomplished what had been loudly proclaimed "not humanly possible" when he became the first person in history to break the 4-minute mile. I asked him, as a neurologist and now also an eminent scholar, if he regretted any of the time he had invested in the, decidedly non-academic, field of sports. He replied that the time he spent as an athlete permitted him to visit and speak in America, and broadened his horizons in many other ways. He never gave his life over to athletics, and though his success on the track made it initially quite difficult for him to be perceived as a legitimate scholar and medical professional at times, he did not regret any part of it.
After the talk he came over to where I was sitting to talk with me and encourage me to continue in my athletics (formerly swimming, and now martial arts). Now from a man who pursued both athletics and scholarship and succeeded far and above his peers in both, that means something.
This is Oxford. The place where the 4-Minute Mile was broken. The home of Sir Roger Bannister, Richard Dawkins, and more than a few other notables. This is the place where they boast about having an expert in everything, so much so that if you desire to study a course not currently in the course catalog, they will create a course just for you, and find someone on the Oxford faculty who is more than qualified to teach it. As we were walking to our next event at the Bodleian Library I overheard three American students affirming to one another the worthlessness of the lecture and the necessity of their having slept through portions of it. At that, I had to smile. Like so much of life, the treasures here at Oxford are of the kind you have to seek in order to find.
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