July 2025

Virginia Wade 1977

Admin July 4, 2025

In 1977, the year in which Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Silver Jubilee, Virginia Wade was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY), beating cricketer Geoffrey Boycott and motorcycle racer Barry Sheene into second and third place, respectively, in a poll of readers of the ‘Radio Times’. Accepting the trophy from Prince Michael of Kent, she said, “I think this is the trophy that every sportsman or woman in this country longs to win win and I can’t be happier to have won it. I think it’s wonderful that Prince Michael is here, because his family have all been such popular followers of our game, tennis.”

Aside from the Silver Jubilee, 1977 was also a historic year insofar as it marked the centenary of the Wimbledon Championships, so Wade chose a good time to win her first, and only, ladies’ singles title at the All England Tennis Club after 16 attempts. Indeed, at the time of writing, she remains the last British woman to win a singles title, not only at Wimbledon, but at any Grand Slam tournament.

Wade, herself, has already won the US Open in 1968, beating Billie Jean King in straight sets in the final, and the Australian Open in 1972, beating Evonne Goolagong in similar fashion. However, she was a beaten semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 1974, a beaten quarter-finalist in 1975, and a beaten semi-finalist again in 1976, so the most famous victory of her career could also be viewed as completion of unfinished business.

Wade did not drop a set until the semi-final, in which she nonetheless beat top seed, and defending champion, Chris Evert 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 to set up a final with seventh seed Betty Stove. Evert later remarked, “I could see it in her eyes that she really wanted to win.” In the final, Stove won the first set, 6-4, but at 3-3 in the second Wade began her fightback and, playing some of the best tennis of her career, gradually took control of the match. She eventually prevailed 4–6, 6–3, 6–1 and said later, “It was like a fairy-tale, with everyone cheering for the Queen and cheering for me.”

Sebastian Coe 1979

Admin July 4, 2025

In 1979, athlete Sebasian Coe was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, ahead of cricketer Ian Botham and footballer Kevin Keegan. In his acceptance speech, he said, “I’d just like to thank everybody who voted and bought their copy of the ‘Radio Times’,” and also referred to “great help from Mr. [George] Gandy [Director of Athletics ] at Loughborough [University].

Coe had won a bronze medal in the 800 metres at 1978 World Athletics Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia, one place behind compatriot Steve Ovett, with whom he would dominate middle-distance races for much of the next decade. However, the summer of 1979 belonged to Coe; on July 5, in Oslo, Norway, he ran 1:42.33 for 800 metres, beating the previous world record set by Alberto Juantorena, on July 17, also in Oslo, he ran 3:48.95 for a mile, beating the previous world record set by John Walker and finally, on August 15, in Zürich, Switzerland, he ran 3:32.03 for 1,500 metres, beating the previous world record set by Filbert Bayi.

Coe went on to win four Olympic medals, including gold medals in the 1,500 metres at the Summer Olympics in Moscow in 1980, where Ovett finished third, and in Los Angeles, where Ovett did not finish and subsequently collapsed with chest pains. All told, he set set 12 world records, nine outdoors and three indoors, the most notable of which was 1:41.73 for 800 metres, sent in Florence, Italy in 1981, which stood until equalled by Kenyan-born Wilson Kipketer in Stockholm, Sweden in 1997. Kipketer went on to break the 800m world record, twice, later that year.

Off the track, Coe was was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1991. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Falmouth and Camborne between 1992 and 1997 and, in 2000, was granted a life peerage, becoming Lord Coe, of Ranmore in the county of Surrey. He was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 2006 and appointed Companion of Honour (CH) in 2012. In recent years, he has been best known as President of World Athletics and Chairman of the British Olympic Association.