The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE date: October 23, 1964. The place: Tokyo, Japan. The event: Olympic Games. The participants: Sir Durward ‘Sea Wolf’ Knowles and the late Cecil Cooke. Recipients: Gold medal in Star Class Sailing.

At those games, Knowles and Cooke knocked off a field of 17 countries over a seven-race series to clinch the gold.

Fifty years later, the Bahamas Olympic Committee and Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture have joined forces to remember the two national heroes for their historic feat. All year long, the public will get a chance to pay their tribute leading up to a gala banquet on October 23.

At a joint press conference that featured Knowles and Sandra Cooke, the daughter of the deceased Cooke, BOC president Wellington Miller and Tim Munnings, the director of sports at the Ministry of Sports, spoke about the significance of the celebrations.

“Most of us will never witness this again in our lifetime,” Miller said. “It was a sweet victory as the struggles and determination finally paid off.”

Speaking on behalf of Minister of Sports, Dr Daniel Johnson, Munnings said they are delighted to take this opportunity to recognise the achievement of Knowles and Cooke.

“The achievement that Durward Knowles and Cecil Cooke made back then has served as a platform for many other exploits, which all persons in the country should have received some benefits from,” said Millungs, who himself competed in two Olympic Games as a member of the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay team.

“Sir Durward has not only succeeded in sailing, but he has gone on to help many sports, basketball, softball, regatta sailing. His contribution to national development has been extensive. So we invite the entire Bahamas to join the Bahamas Olympic Committee, to join the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture as we recognise this significant gentleman for all that he has done for the Bahamas.”

In recognition of their achievement, Miller said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has already designed a special award to mark the occasion. Additionally, a commemorative book is being published to highlight the special celebrations. The public is being asked to contact the BOC’s office for more details.

“We want to show the country’s gratitude by celebrating this milestone through a number of events this year,” said Miller, noting that more details will be revealed in the coming weeks. “We want the whole Bahamas to share in this achievement and commemorate this occasion for their children and grandchildren.”

For Cooke, she felt it was long overdue for her father to join Knowles in getting the accolades that is being heaped upon them.

“On behalf of myself and my brother Charles, we would like to thank the Olympic Association and the Ministry of Sports for coming together to do this to showcase our heroes in this country,” she said. “We do have them and we don’t need to look abroad for them. We have a lot of them right here.

“I’m totally overwhelmed by all of this. It’s been a long time coming for my family and for my dad to get his recognition. So we are very grateful and we are very proud of his accomplishment. So I would like to say to Sir Durward, there’s nothing more pleasurable than to be sitting next to you. If you hadn’t taken my father that year, then I wouldn’t be here.”

The usual witty Knowles, who at age 96 doesn’t seem to have lost any of his memory at all, concurred with Cooke to say that if it wasn’t for Cooke travelling with him as crew, he would not have been able to accomplish the feat that they did.

“Sandra Cooke, I hope during the luncheon that your family will be there. It will be a great time for all of us,” he said. “She says it like it is. Sometimes she says it behind my back. I don’t mind that. I know Cecil Cooke, ‘Go to hell Harry’ with his remarks, was the life of the team.

“Although Sloane Farrington couldn’t make the trip, the Lord changes things in a way that it comes out. This man made us all happy after the races. He had a few drinks. I won’t tell you no lie about that. But he would be the life of the party. ‘Go to hell Harry’, you could hear all over the hotel.”

Unfortunately, Knowles said he regrets the fact that Cooke is not alive to share in the celebrations. He also paid tribute to Sloane Farrington, whom he teamed up with to win the bronze medal at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia and Monty Higgs, who also at times crewed with him on many occasions.

“It took me a long time to do it. The last championship that I won was the North American Championships and that sets the whole thing,” said Knowles who, during his prime, had the distinction of being just one of three persons who was able to win every major championship in the Star Class.

“You heard me before and I am glad that I am living to appreciate all that is going on here,” he said. “My only regret is Cecil is not here with us. Sloane Farrington is not here with us. Monty Higgs is not with us. The Lord has kept me for 96 years with the power and the brain to assist me. I can remember every race in the Olympics. I can remember any race that you want to call out that I won. It’s a great feeling.”

Knowles, who has produced his latest book that will be on the market today outlining all of his achievements over the years, including Rotary and all of the charitable works that he’s done, said it was such a great feeling when the announcer said: “Well done Bahamas.” Knowles said he turned to Cooke and told him “I think we won. What a time. What a time.

“Really, it was something that we were all very proud of. During the night after the celebrations, I called home to (his wife) Hollie and I didn’t realise that it was 4 o’clock in the morning over there. She said ‘yeah you won.’ And I told him let me tell you what happened. She said you wouldn’t have called me if you didn’t win. That was just how happy we were that night.”

Again, Knowles extended his hand of gratitude to Cooke for her father in his absence, for making that historic trip to Toyko with him.

Also joining in the press conference were the Rev Dr Philip McPhee, Bahamas Boat Owners and Sailors Association, Laura Lowe and president of the Bahamas Sailing Association.

In congratulating Knowles and Cooke, McPhee said Knowles has been an “icon, a father to all of us, father to the sloop sailing arena and indeed sailing in general in the Bahamas,” he said. “His aachievement over the many years and indeed in the Olympics, brought tremendous attention to the Bahamas itself.

“We are proud of him and today we want him to know how much we appreciate him in so many ways in bringing to the world, the artistic gifts and talents of Bahamians who are a part of sailing in our country. So to Sir Durward and Ms Cooke, the daughter of Cecil Cooke, we say to your families, thank you so much for allowing your father and Sir Durward and your family to make the Bahamas so proud.

“Sailing enthusiasts all over the Bahamas will join the Bahamas Olympic Association this entire year in giving our full support and we pray that as we celebrate, we pray that somewhere along the line, there will be a sloop race in honour of Sir Durward in Montagu Bay.”

Lowe said the achievements of Knowles and Cooke can and should not go unnoticed because of the way it has transcended sports in the country.

“They provide our junior sailors and some of our adult sailors the goal to achieve,” she said. “We certainly hope, if not in the next Olympics, or the next ones to come after that, we will have somebody who can live up to the same level of sporting ability as Sir Durward and Cecil Cooke and bring us another medal in sailing.”

Lowe noted that last year, the BSA began a fun run/walk that bares the name of Sir Durward Knowles and they are hoping with the celebrations of the 50th anniversary, the participants will increase tremendously.