Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

With the annual Bay of Plenty Sports Awards just around the corner, it is always interesting to look back in time to earlier winners of the Bay of Plenty premier sporting award.

To find the inaugural winner of the supreme award on a night that celebrates excellence in sport in the Bay of Plenty – you need to go back several decades to 1969.

The winner of the first (then called) Sportsman of the Year was one of the best all-round New Zealand sportswomen of all time.

While the list of this years nominees are mainly in their 20s and a couple in their 30s, Una Wickham was closing in on her half century, when she was named Bay of Plenty Sportsman of the Year in 1969.

Born in 1922, Una was a remarkable sportswoman who represented New Zealand at golf, cricket and hockey.

She played a cricket test apiece against Australia and England in 1948 and 1949 respectively – however it was golf that saw her recognised as the first supreme winner at what has become the Bay of Plenty Sports Awards.

Ms Wickham was recognised in 1969 as the dual winner of the New Zealand women's strokeplay and matchplay championship. In addition she won the strokeplay title during 1968, with her first national crown coming back in 1959, when she annexed the matchplay title for the first time.

Una represented Bay of Plenty in golf from 1956 to 1968 then again from 1970 to 1975, as well as winning the Tauranga Golf Club senior women's championship on 14 occasions.

The second supreme winner was also no spring chicken, when he was presented with the Sportsman of Year trophy in 1970, at 38 years of age. Rotorua athlete Jack Foster didn't stared running until he was 32 years. Like a good wine, Jack got better with age posting world-class times for the marathon when in his forties.

Along with fellow distance runner Dick Taylor, who set the 1974 Commonwealth Games alive with his win in the 10,000 metres, Jack Foster made his mark for the host nation winning a silver medal at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games.

Two Olympic Games marathon appearances in 1972 and 1976 were interspersed with a big win in the 1975 Honolulu marathon.

The third winner of the recognition of excellence in Bay of Plenty sport went onto become an Olympic gold medallist. Wybo Veldman from Whakatane was awarded the 1971 supreme prize as a member of the eight that won the European rowing championship of the same year.

The European victory was big news over 40 years ago, with the crew including Wybo going on to annex the Olympic gold medal in 1972

One of the pioneers of Para Olympic sport in New Zealand became the second women to win the sportsman of the year in 1972.

Eve Rimmer became a household name in the country ending her career with 20 international gold medals.

Mike Nicholson was golf's second winner in 1973 followed by Ross Hynds (disability sport) with rugby the winner in 1975 and 76 with All Blacks Graeme Crossman and Greg Rowlands taking home the supreme title. The seventies winners were rounded out by Bruce Brownlee (squash) Mark Taylor (rugby) and Grant McAuley (rowing).

What made the performances of the early supreme winners even more meritorious, was that they were all amateur sports men and women, having to juggle full time employment with their training and competition.

Seeya at the Game