Born in Hebburn, County Durham on January 12, 1948, Sir Brendan Foster was knighted for services to international and national sport in North East England in the 2020 Birthday Honours. However, the best part of half a century earlier, Foster was also voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY), beating boxer John Conteh and rugby union player Willie John McBride in a poll of ‘Radio Times’ readers. After accepting the SPOTY trophy from the 1973 winner, Sir Jackie Stewart, he delivered a genial speech, which he began, “This is indeed a great honour, but I’ll let you into a little secret. The BBC are a little bit sneaky; they could have least told me beforehand, given me a clue. But, it’s a well-guarded secret.”
A member of Gateshead Harriers, Foster won the silver medal in the 5,000 metres at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, finishing in a time of 13:14.4, just 0.2 seconds slower than the gold medallist, Ben Jipcho of Kenya. Later in the year, he won the gold medal in the 5,000 metres at the European Athletics Championships in Rome, Italy. In the final, at the Stadio Olimpico on September 8, Foster set a fast pace right from the gun and, with Lasse Viren of Finland effectively giving up the chase after 3,000 metres or so, ran the last four laps in splendid isolation. He eventually cruised home in a time of 13:17.21, which was, nonetheless, a championship record, with Manfred Kuschmann of East Germany a distant second and Viren third.
The previous month, Foster had also run 7:35.2 for 3,000 metres on his home track at Gateshead International Stadium, thereby breaking the previous world record set by Emiel Puttemans in Aarhus, Denmark two years previously. Later in his athletics career, he won the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada – the only track and field medal that Britain won – and the gold medal in the same event at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada. Foster retired from competive athletics following the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, having reached the final of the 10,000 metres, but finishing only eleventh.