1962 Trailblazers Celebrated

In 1962 they returned home from Jamaica without notice despite some medal performances. However, on Monday, December 19, the surviving members of 1962 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games team were met with thunderous applause at the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) Inc.’s Annual Awards Ceremony, for paving the way for modern-day athletes to represent Barbados regionally and internationally.

During the ceremony, eleven of the surviving team members received awards. Among them was Anton Norris, who won a bronze medal in the high jump and would go on to win a bronze medal in the high jump at the Commonwealth Games, and James Wedderburn, the first Barbadian to win an Olympic medal. In 1960, Wedderburn won the bronze medal at the Rome Olympics as part of a West Indies Relay Team in the 4x400 metres. The other team members present were Sydney Bradshaw, John Burke, Angus Edghill, Clarence Gilkes, Tyrone Mapp, Charles ‘Reds’ Packer, Vernon Parris, Harold Russell, Ian Small and Casper Springer.

Another of the highlights at the ceremony was a special presentation to the 1962 General Manager of the team, Michael Simmons. Simmons was one of four officials who accompanied the 1962 Team. Now based in Florida, he was the BOA’s first Secretary General, and along with the late Louis Lynch, the BOA’s first President, is credited with launching the BOA. The other 1962 officials were President Lynch and Assistant General Managers Kenneth Ince and Allan Longe. 

In his remarks to introduce the award, Steve Stoute, Immediate Past President of the BOA and Past President of Centro Caribe Sports, the only Barbadian to have held that post, said that Simmons was not only a founding father of the BOA, but was instrumental in the development of the regional Olympic Movement. 

“In 1975, he was the first Barbadian to be elected to the Executive Committee of a continental Olympic organization, namely the Pan American Sports Organization which today is known as Pan Am Sports. Shortly after his election, he became the first person from the Caribbean and the first black man to be elected Treasurer of Pan Am Sports and served in that position unchallenged until his resignation in 1993. In 2019, at a Pan Am Sports General Assembly, he was conferred with a special award by the President and Executive of Pan Am Sports in recognition for his significant contribution to the Continental Olympic Sports Movement,” Stoute added.

The 1962 team comprised 41 athletes (including two women), and participated in athletics, basketball, boxing, cycling, weightlifting, swimming, tennis, shooting and water polo, winning six medals – one silver and five bronze. The surviving medallists are Anton Norris, bronze medallist in the high jump; John Burke and Charles ‘Reds’ Packer, members of the bronze medal-winning water polo team; and Stephen Lewis, bronze medallist in boxing. Medal winners who have passed are Patsy Callender, silver medallist in the high jump, and bronze medallists Peter Johnson and Winston Bourne, in boxing and weightlifting, respectively. Charles Clarke, Mark Gittens, Lorenzo Best, George McClean, Carl Bayley and Geoffrey Foster were the other water polo team members. 

The full team was as follows:

OFFICIALS 

Louis Lynch (DECEASED)

Michael Simmons

Kenneth Ince (DECEASED)

Allan Longe (DECEASED)

ATHLETICS

Lloyd Bascombe

Sydney Bradshaw

Althea (Patsy) Callender (DECEASED)

Anton Norris

Harold Russell

Caspar Springer

Lenita Thompson 

James Wedderburn

BASKETBALL

Robert Bishop (DECEASED)

Chester Cheltenham (DECEASED)

Erskine Dottin (DECEASED)

Carl Garnes (DECEASED)

Adrian Garnes (DECEASED)

Anthony Gregiou (DECEASED)

Winston Lucas (DECEASED)

Rolrick Millar (DECEASED)

Anthony Sealey (DECEASED)

Ian Small

BOXING

Peter Audley Johnson (DECEASED)

Stephen Lewis

CYCLING

Richard Browne (DECEASED)

Vernon Parris

WEIGHTLIFTING

Winston Bourne (DECEASED)

SWIMMING & DIVING

David Burke (DECEASED)

John Burke

Angus Edghill

Christopher Gibbs

TENNIS

Noreen King

Tyrone Mapp

SHOOTING

Milton Tucker (DECEASED)

Arthur Selwyn Warren (DECEASED)

WATERPOLO

Charles Clarke (DECEASED)

Mark R. Gittens (DECEASED)

Lorenzo Best (DECEASED)

Neville Humphrey

George McLean (DECEASED) - Player/Coach

Clarence B. Gilkes

Carl Bayley (DECEASED)

Geoffrey Foster (DECEASED)

Randolph H. Cheeseman

Charles (Reds) Packer