Sports Personality of the Year

A focus on sporting achievement

August 2025

Jim Laker 1956

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In 1956, Yorkshire-born cricketer James Charles ‘Jim’ Laker won Sports Review of the Year, better known nowadays as BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY), in recognition of his exemplary performance in the Ashes series. A right-arm offbreak bowler, Laker took a record 46 wickets in the five-match series – which England eventually won 2-1, thereby retaining the Ashes – at an average of 9.60. However, he delivered his coup de grace in the fourth Test at Old Trafford, Manchester in late July, which henceforth became known as ‘Laker’s Match’.

With the Ashes series tied at 1-1, England won the toss and elected to bat first, posting a total of 459 all out in the first innings. Before tea on the second day, Australia were 62-2 in reply, but thereafter collapsed, in dramatic fashion, to 84 all out. Laker took the last seven wickets for eight runs in 22 balls for figures of 9-37 in the first innings as a whole. The remaining wicket fell to orthodox left-arm spinner Tony Lock, who took 1-37 in his 14 overs.

Following on, Australia fared better in the second innings, but still only reached a total of 205 all out, thereby giving England victory by an innings and 170 runs. In a hitherto unprecedented display, Laker bowled 51.2 overs, 23 over which maidens, and took all 10 second innings wickets for 53 runs. He thus became the first bowler to take all 10 wickets in a single Test innings and his overall match bowling figures, of 19-90 off 68, still rank as the finest in the history of not just Test cicket, but all forms of first-class cricket. Decades later, no other bowler has taken more than 17 wickets in any first-class match.

Interestingly, representing his county, Surrey (for whom he played between 1946 and 1959), in a tour match against the Australians at the Oval in May 1956, Laker also took 10-88 in the first innings. He duly collected his BBC SPOTY award at the Grosvenor Hotel in London and went on to claim 193 wickets in just 46 Test matches for England, confirming his status as one of the finest spin bowlers in cricket history.

David Hemery 1968

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In 1968, athlete David Hemery was voted BBC Personality of the Year after winning the gold medal in the 400m hurdles at the Summer Olympics. Indeed, in the final, at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City on October 15, Hemery ran 48.12 second, beating his nearest pursuers – Gerhard Hennige of West Germany and compatriot John Sherwood – by nearly a second and setting a new world record in the process. In the public poll, Hemery finished ahead of Graham Hill, who won his second Formula One World Drivers’ Championship, following the deaths of his Lotus teammates Jim Clark early in the year, and Marion Coakes, who won the silver medal in individual show jumping at Mexico 1968.

By that stage of his career, Hemery had already won the gold medal in the 120yd hurdles at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica in 1966 and would go on to defend that title in the newly-metricated 110m hurdles in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1970. He would also win the silver medal in the 110m hurdles at the European Athletics Championships in Athens, Greece in 1969 and two more Olympic medals – silver in the 4 x 400m and bronze in the 400m hurdles – at Munich 1972.

Victory in the 400m hurdles at Mexico 1968 was historically significant, not just because of the world-record time, but because, as the first Briton to win since David Burghley at London 1928, Hemery broke the American strangehold on the event. His winning time would remain a world record for four years and a British record for 22 years. Fittingly, he was presented with his Olympic gold medal by David Burghley and with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award by Australian Ron Clarke, one of the best-known middle- and long-distance runners of his era.

Hemery retired from international competition in 1972, but later coached at Boston University, was elected inaugural president of UK Athletics, aka British Athletics, and served as vice chairman of the British Olympic Association (BOA). He was created a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), for services to athletics, in the 1969 New Year Honours.

Ian Black 1958

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In 1958, 17-year-old swimmer Ian Black became, and remains, the youngest winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) after an exemplary year in which he won six major championship medals, four of them gold. Black topped the public poll ahead of two footballers, Bobby (later Sir Bobby) Charlton of Manchester United and Nat Lofthouse of Bolton Wanderers. Charlton had survived the Munich Air Disaster, at Munich-Riem Airport in Munich,West Germany the previous Februrary, which resulted in 23 fatalities, including eight of his Manchester United teammates. Lofthouse, on the other hand, had scored both goals in a 2-0 win, ironically over Manchester United, in the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium in May and made his final appearance for the England national team in November.

Born in Inverness, Scotland on June 27, 1941, Black represented his home nation at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, where he won the gold medal in the 220yd butterfly, silver in the 440yd freestyle and silver again in the 4 x 220yd freestyle relay. Shortly afterwards, Black represented Great Britain at the 1958 European Swmming Championships in Budapest, Hungary, where he won further gold medals in the 400m freestyle, 1500m freestyle and 200m butterfly events.

By the time he collected the SPOTY Award, following in the footsteps of the 1957 winner, Ryder Cup captain Dai Rees – who, coincidentally, at the age of 44, remains the oldest ever winner – Black had already made himself a headline name at home and abroad. In 1959, again in Cardiff, he swam the 400m individual medley in a time of 5:08.8, thereby taking over four seconds off the previous world record. Black also represented Great Britain at the 1960 Summer Olympics, reaching the finals of the 400m freestyle, 4 x 200m freestyle relay and 4 x 100m medley relay. In the former event, he actually swam 4:21.8, the same time as the eventual bronze medallist, John Konrads of Australia, but was judged to have finished fourth in a photo finish. Black retired from competitive swimming in June 1962 at the age of just 21.

Gordon Pirie 1955

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Born in Leeds on February 10, 1931, Gordon Pirie has the distinction of being the first full-time athlete in Britain, at a time when athletes received no government or independent funding. Pirie was renowned for his high-intensity, daily training schedule, reportedly covering 200 miles or more every week, but he also to took a systematic approach to training, as espoused by German coach Waldemar Gerschler, which included high volume interval running sessions.

A long-distance specialist, Pirie set five world records during his career, notably for 5,000m in Bergen, Norway on June 19, 1956, for 3,000m in Trondheim, Norway three days later and for 3,000m, again, in Malmö, Sweden on September 4, 1956, where he took nearly three seconds off his personal best. Remarkably, though, he never won a major international title. The closest he came was at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, when he won the silver medal in the 5,000m, behind pre-race favourite, and easy winner, Vladimir Kuts of the Soviet Union. Pirie also won the bronze medal in the same event at the 1958 European Athletics Championships in Stockholm, Sweden.

In 1955, Gordon Pirie was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year largely as a result of beating Emil ‘Czech Locomotive’ Zátopek three times during the year, which catapulted him to stardom. Zátopek was, and is, best known for winning the gold medal in the 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, the latter coming in his first attempt over 26 miles and 385 yards. Pirie recorded his most notable victory over the man he sought to emulate over 10,000m at the White City Stadium, London on October 10, 1955 during a London v. Prague athletics match. In fact, Pirie beat compatriot Ken Norris, with Zátopek, who had held the world record at the distance since October 22, 1949, and improved it three times in the interim, only third.

Pirie emigrated to New Zealand in 1957 and, while he competed for Great Britain at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, but could finish only eighth in his heat in the 5,000m, thus failing to qualify for the final, and only tenth in the final-only 10,000m. He retired from the track in 1961.

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