DOCTOR OF SCIENCE
JACK CHARLTON
A Uachtaráin
na hOllscoile,
a dhaoine uaisle go léir, mo cháirde acadúla agus go speisialta Jack Charlton, ba mhaith liom ‘céad
míle fáilte, a chur romhaibh chuig
an ocáid mór sea. We are gathered here today as an academic
convocation to honour one of
Born in Ashington,
Northumberland in
In 1986 Jack Charlton was appointed
as Irish Manager, and three months later he piloted
Recently, of course, Jack managed
Ireland to our second successive World Cup Finals, when, in beating Italy in
normal play, we did something that not even Brazil could do when winning their
goal-less Final on a penalty shoot-out.
To qualify for the World Cup Finals,
Some people may wonder in what
context a university, representing the world of academia, could honour a member
of quite another world, that of sport. However, there are many sound academic
reasons, not least of which is the original classical background to all the
great festivals of sport. Some 4,000
years ago there arose, from ancient tribal rituals, the Greek spring time
festivals in honour of the Nature God Dionysos. There were numerous Dionysia,
and they included opening and closing ceremonies (Pompe
and Kosmos), and contests (Agon)
in dramatic presentations and recitations, in which no less than Aeschylus,
Sophocles and Euripides were among the victors.
Indeed, in the Dionysia may be said to lie the origins of Drama itself.
The Ancient Olympic Games and the Panathenaic and other Games –(all
religious festivals, to honour Zeux, Athena and other
gods) – were structured on the same pattern, but their contests included
sports. Thus, sport and the various art-forms
would seem to have evolved from the ritual practices associated with the magicoreligious beliefs of primitive societies, from which
today’s ceremony also in part derives. Masterton has acknowledged that “Sport has a strong
affinity with the Arts, because it originates from the same source”.
Secondly, sport is evolving apace
in a number of academic disciplines. The
science of sport has emerged as a strong area in its own right over the past 25
years, embracing physiology, biochemistry, nutrition, biomechanics, physics,
materials science, psychology and sports medicine.
Sport is also being increasingly
studied in Humanities Faculties in many universities. I first gave a paper on the poetry of sport,
entitled the Poetry in Motion, to a major University conference entitled
‘Sporting Fictions’, back in 1981. The
conference involved sessions on drama, film, television, the novel, and
poetry. (Indeed, at
that 1981 conference references were quoted in some of the presentations to
statements by Jack Charlton himself).
Also, there is a burgeoning academic literature on the sociological
aspects of sport. For example last month
there was published ‘Sporting Females’, analysing critical issues in the
history and sociology of women’s sports, a major text by Jenny Hargreaves, who
has the Chair of the The Politics and Sociology of
Sport at the Roehampton Institute in London. A number of university departments of
Geography run joint courses with Physical Education departments on Tourism and
Leisure, and Departments of Law run increasingly relevant conferences on ‘Sport
and the Law’.
There are many football poems, and
some are good.
“It
is, after all, a kind
Of
music, an elaboration of themes
That
swell and subside, which
In
the converting of open spaces
Take
on a clean edge.
A
throw, a chip,
A
flick,
To
The
diagonals cross, green space is charmed.” (from ‘World
Cup’, by Alan Ross).
“I’ll
stand the lot of you, I said
to the other kids. They
said: Right!
The
four others were the Rest of the World:
Banks;
Pele, Best; Pele, Charlton, Best;
Pele,
Pele, Charlton, Charlton, Best.” (from ‘I’ll Stand the
Probably the
oldest football poem is from the Scottish Maitland Folio of 1580. In previous centuries, both football and golf
had been banned in
“Brissit brawnis and brokin banis, Stryf,
discord, and wastie wanis,
Cruiket in eild, syne halt withall – This are the bewteis of the fute-ball.”
“Twisted
muscles and broken bones, Strife, discord and broken homes,
Old
players stoop, their bodies tall, These are the beauties of football.” (Alan Bold).
Thirdly, and
very relevantly to this most entrepreneurial of Irish universities (with our
first-class College of Business), sport is very big business indeed, with a
huge retailing and staffing infrastructure, spreading extensively into the
vital leisure and tourism industries, creating employment and generating income
on a larger scale. Sport accounts for
£225 million in annual spending in the Irish economy, and supports more than
8,000 full time jobs. If jobs in
sports-related activities such as golf and fishing are included, the figures
rise to £560 million and 18,000 jobs. In
1990 over half a million tourists took part in a sports-related activity during
their stay in Ireland; just under half of these visitors indicated that the
availability of sports facilities influenced their decision to come to Ireland,
(according to a report commissioned by the Department of Education from
Professor Martin O’Donoghue of Trinity College Dublin,
and published last month).
Fourthly, as the
novelist-philosopher Julian Barnes has indicated, Time is turning all of us
into History, a process which is often mentally and spiritually painful. One might ask what defences do we have to
ease the pain of this historical process of Time? For most people, love would be their main
counter (of spouse, children, parents and family); for many also religion is
their main counter; for others it includes the arts – music, drama, dance, art,
literature and poetry; for still others it includes sport. Jack Charlton’s taking of
So, given these major aspects of
the interweaving of sport, academia and society, what has been Jack Charlton’s
contribution to all this? What do soccer
managers actually do? In a single word
it is ‘everything’ – either directly, or by delegation. Before the team even leaves the country the
manager has been ultimately responsible for team selection, training the
playing skills and techniques, the tactics and play-patterns, the kit, the
psychology, the sports medicine, the fluid and nutrition, and the physical
fitness. The sheer physical fitness, for
a body-contact multiple-sprint sport such as soccer, is complex in itself,
comprising aerobic stamina, anaerobic local muscle endurance, muscle strength
and speed, joint flexibility, and even how much fat the players have – and
everything is increasingly scientifically based.
Jack Charlton’s phenomenal
managerial success with
“His
was the impartial vision of the great, Who see not as
they wish, but as they find.”
“Men
must be taught as if you taught them not,
And
things unknown proposed as things forgot.”
Pope.
Perhaps Jack’s greatest tactical
contribution has been to recognise that the role of the midfield playmaker (the
one who has dictated the tactics of so many continental teams) is possibly
becoming obsolete. He sensed that
Oliver Wendell Holmes could well
have been referring to Jack Charlton in writing:
“See
how he throws his baited lines about,
and plays his men, as anglers play their trout”.
And Pope:
“It
is not strength, but art, obtains the prize.
And to be swift is less than to be wise”.
There is another major facet to the
character of Jack Charlton, one which was important in bringing him to
Such a recreation is ideal for
football managers, to whom we might say:
“Then
come, my friend, forget your foes, and leave your fears behind,
And
wander forth to try your lunch, with cheerful quiet mind.”
Jack is also renowned for his
enjoyment of the Irish craic…
Of
a land where ever the old are fair,
And
even the wise are merry of tongue”, as Yeats put it.
Finally, Pope
could have had Jack Charlton in mind when he wrote of:
“…the
man who counsel can bestow,
Still
pleased to teach, and yet not pound to know?
Unbiass’d, or by favour, or by spite:
Nor
dully prepossessed, nor blindly right;
Tho’ learn’d, well-bred; and tho’ well-bred, sincere;
Modestly
bold, and humanly severe:
Who
to a friend his faults can freely show,
And
gladly praise the merit of a foe.”
Mencius said;
“The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart”, and La Rochefoucauld: “To be a great man, one must know how to
make the most of fortune”.
Jack Charlton in his contagious
enthusiasm for the Irish countryside has shown that he has not lost his child’s
heart, and in his perfecting of the Irish soccer team, he has shown how to make
the most of fortune. In his taking of
“Look
next on greatness; say where greatness lies;
Where
but among the heroes and the wise.” Pope.