BELGRAVE HARRIERS

A meeting with 1968 Olympic gold-medallist David Hemery converted Eddie’s enthusiasm for athletics into practical involvement. It was at the 1972 Munich Olympics and having only won the bronze medal David felt that he’d let everyone down. Eddie was so impressed by Hemery’s self-effacement that it kindled the older man’s interest in helping. Two years later they met again, in New Zealand, at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games, and from thereon Eddie was determined to help up-and-coming talented youngsters to achieve their aims by giving financial assistance. So many top-class athletes, household names, owe their success to the help given by Sir Eddie.

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Sir Eddie became a Vice-President, trustee, and governor of the Sports Aid Foundation. His generosity extended to assisting the modern pentathlon team, and the yachting team. He organised multi-event athletic meetings to ensure Britain’s athletes got the best competition available in an attempt at Olympic qualification; he was chairman of the London Coaching Foundation and the Midland Coaching Foundation; he became Vice-President of  UK Athletics and chairman of the British Athletic Field Event Charitable Trust; the list became endless.

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When the ‘bible of athletics’ Athletics Weekly was purchased in 1987 by Emap and was dumbed down to target an audience far less discerning than the readership of the previous 42 years, Eddie funded the relaunch of Athletics Today, a formidable rival for the next five years and which probably dragged AW back onto the right track.

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In 1981 Eddie married the well-known actress Susan Hampshire and in 1993 he was awarded the O.B.E. for his services to British sport. A knighthood was to follow five years later, recognising his services to British theatre and sport.

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As for Belgrave, it was the idea of our Treasurer of the day, Ron Severn, to seek out a Patron, someone to act as a Club Benefactor, as had been a regular occurrence in many clubs in the late 19th century and even up to the Second World War. Some very distinguished names had assisted Belgrave Harriers in their earliest days. Ron contacted Sir Eddie to see if he would be interested in taking on such a role as the Club thought about entering its second century. There was no response, so Ron wrote again, and in Eddie’s own words, while reflecting with a colleague in later years:

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“I’d received a letter from Ron Severn asking if I’d be Patron of Belgrave Harriers and I hadn’t got around to answering it.  He then wrote me another letter mentioning that he hadn’t received a reply and that he’d like to call to see me.  Having not answered the first letter I thought it would be rude to turn him down and he arranged to call at my home at 7 pm.  I didn’t get there until 7:30 pm – and there wasn’t just Ron – there was a whole group of them.  I agreed.”

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The ‘whole group’ laid out their plans and ambitions, and Eddie didn’t respond immediately, he thought long and hard before replying in the affirmative. He made it quite clear that he was interested in Track & Field and individuals, and he was not interested in supporting teams in inter-club competitions.

Inevitably, when announced, this Patronage caused some consternation among other Clubs. “Why Belgrave? They’re not even in the top-flight of league athletics.” Undoubtedly his support of individual athletes benefitted the Club tremendously, for it takes individuals to make up a team. The Belgrave team went from strength to strength and before long he had become the Track & Field team’s most ardent supporter. There are far too many examples of his generosity to list, but an example would be the backing of what would have previously been thought of as an outrageous plan – to fly an athlete back from Texas for the weekend so that he could take part in the British League. But such activities also triggered envy and controversy. Even when, in the new millennium, the Club’s Road Running & Cross-Country team slowly began to make its mark, not directly benefitting from Sir Eddie’s support, letters were written to Athletics Weekly, complaining of ‘cheque-book athletics’. Response to AW from a member of the endurance running team in the vein, “I’ve never even seen Sir Eddie’s cheque-book,” cut no ice. It had to be accepted that tall poppies are always the first to feel the gardener’s scythe.

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George Harrison once sang All Things Must Pass, and so, they surely must. Over a cycle of 25 years, members on the ground within our Club aged and slowly lost the fire of earlier days, and Sir Eddie gradually reined in his generosity all round when athletes he had supported did not always act in a way he found to be acceptable. He was also hit pretty hard in the '90s when various shipping and oil rig disasters brought the insurers Lloyds of London to the brink of collapse; they had to call upon their 'Names'  to help write off debt.

 

But what an amazing period, and what an impact was made by Sir Eddie Kulukundis.

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By 2009 Sir Eddie’s health was no longer what it was. Susan, Lady Kulukundis, C.B.E., still known professionally by her maiden name, put her career on hold to care for him while he suffered from the encroaching twin scourges of type 2 diabetes and dementia.

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