The passing of Sandy Duncan earlier this month, at the age of 93, saw one more connecting thread to the post-war, "Ration Book" Olympics of 1948 cut, just a few days before the International Olympic Committee meets in Singapore to determine whether London might again stage the Games.
For Kenneth Sandilands Duncan was one of the stalwarts of post-war British sport, who ran the British Olympic Association as its General Secretary for 26 years and, after his "retirement", was recognised internationally as a pre-eminent source of information on Olympic history and regulation.
Less well known was that Duncan was instrumental in guiding the career of Roger Bannister when he arrived at Oxford in 1946, and that he played a pivotal part in Bannister's first sub-four-minute mile in 1952 - possibly the most famous world record in sporting history - gaining acceptance.
Duncan had a colourful career as an athlete, coach, administrator and as the Chef de Mission for the British team at 12 Olympics, summer and winter, between 1952 and 1972. He also worked as honorary secretary of the Commonwealth Games Federation from 1954 to 1982.
Duncan loved the ideal of the Olympics in their purest sense. As a teacher and coach by training, his involvement with the International Olympic Academy, located close to the site of the ancient Games at Olympia, was heartfelt. "It is hard to imagine a better way to bring some measure of understanding and friendship between the youth of many countries than for them to live and work in peace and harmony together in such a wonderful setting, united in the love of sport," Duncan wrote 30 years ago.
Sandy Duncan was educated at Malvern College, where in 1931 he managed a then record jump of 22ft 5¾in, and at Oxford, where he was awarded an athletics Blue in his first year. He was later to win both the 100 yards and the long jump in the annual match against Cambridge. He was also awarded a football Blue.
As a long jumper, Duncan was nationally ranked, finishing second at the AAA Championships in 1934, yet he was versatile enough to also make the AAA finals of the shot and discus. Internationally, he won a relay gold medal at the 1938 World Student Games, and he was selected for Great Britain in 1935 and 1936, when he ran 9.8sec for 100 yards.
But a hamstring injury denied Duncan the chance to compete at the notorious 1936 Berlin Olympics, which he nonetheless attended as a member of the British staff, at the invitation of Evan Hunter, the long-time BOA secretary whom he would eventually succeed. Duncan's assimilation into the British sporting Establishment was begun.
During the war, Duncan served in the Royal Artillery, where he rose to the rank of major, and 1941 saw his first marriage, to Katherine Darwall.
After the war, he taught at Bradfield and took up athletics coaching, which led to an historic meeting with Bannister at Iffley Road track in the autumn term of 1946. Bannister, a gangling teenaged medicine fresher seeking advice on his running, was beaten in his first mile race, running a modest 4min 53sec.
"Stop bouncing, and you'll knock 20sec off," Duncan told Bannister.
"The time he devoted to those London-Oxford journeys has reaped its benefit in the group of first-class athletes produced at Iffley Road," Bannister recalled. When Bannister next raced a mile, five months later, mindful of the advice and no longer overstriding, he clocked 4:30.8.
By the time of the 1948 London Games, Duncan was placed in charge of co-ordinating the Olympic Torch Relay from Greece, while as a coach he also converted Dorothy Manley from a high jumper to 100-metre sprinter, winning the silver medal behind Fanny Blankers-Koen.
The following year, he succeeded Hunter as secretary of the BOA. According to the Association's official tribute to Duncan, "This was a time when the country still had bruises of the war and the amateur ethos had a firm grip. His 26 years in the position covered a period of challenge and change which Sandy handled with diplomacy and skill".
The growing professionalism of athletes, and the professionalisation of sport, in the 1960s and 1970s often saw Duncan caught between the demands of the competitors and intransigence of Olympic officials, placing Duncan, the BOA noted "in extreme difficulties on some occasions when dealing with the media, a task one suspected he did not relish".
Possibly the most profound example of Duncan's skill at handling tricky situations came at Iffley Road in May 1954, and Bannister's lung-bursting and epoch-making world record run. A previous attempt on the mile record had been disqualified because of pace making - something strictly forbidden half a century ago.
As track referee for Bannister's next attempt, Duncan was well aware of what was required to achieve the historic clocking and what was planned between Bannister, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher. Mindful of the previous disqualification, Duncan went over to the runners and ordered: “Make sure you all finish.”
In the post-race pandemonium, with spectators on the track, no finishing time was ever recorded for Brasher, who had exhausted himself pacing the first half-mile. Duncan, though, as referee, would have signed off the timekeeper's result sheets for Bannister's 3:59.4 to go forward for ratification.
Duncan's career as an administrator was recognised at home - with MBE and OBE - and abroad, winning the Olympic Award from the IOC in 1984.
Simon Clegg - after Duncan and Dick Palmer, only the third general secretary, or chief executive as it is now termed, at the BOA since 1949 - said: "Sandy made a tremendous contribution to British sport and was ahead of his time in anticipating that professionalism in sport was the way forward. He will be remembered with considerable affection by all who knew him."
Duncan's first wife, Katerine, died in 1955. They had one son, Andrew. Duncan's second marriage, to Dorothy Wentworth in 1957, was dissolved in 1966.
Kenneth Sandilands Duncan. Born April 26, 1912. Died June 18, 2005.
