The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FOR the past 40 years, Stanley Mitchell has travelled from the CARIFTA to the Olympic Games documenting the performances of Bahamian athletes. Now he’s getting ready to finally display his work in a Hall of Fame museum and an audio visual lab for all to be able to view at their leisure.

Mitchell, known as a historian, will be working in conjunction with the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture to have the photographs and videos shown in one of the rooms at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium until a permanent home can be located.

“We will have a room that can seat about 60 students, who will be allowed to come in during the week and they can look at all of the photos of the great Bahamians who ever participated in sports where they can look and read underneath about some of their history,” Mitchell said.

“Then they will be able to go into another room and see a movie on something special like the history of the ‘Golden Girls’, the Chris Brown story, the Tommy Robinson story, the Keith Parker story, the history of the BOC (Bahamas Olympic Committee) or the BAAA (Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations).”

Mitchell, who has covered the performances of so many top Bahamian athletes from around the world, said they will also attempt to acquire memorabilia from athletes for safe keep in this museum where they can display them in the museum for persons to see.

“I know Tommy Robinson had some shoes that were bronzed by Deanza Burrows, who used to be one of his coaches when he ran in 1958 and that sort of thing,” Mitchell said. “We want the kids to see that track and field just didn’t start today. They might know Demetrius (Pinder) and Jeffery (Gibson) and Shaunae (Miller).

“But if they are 15 years old, they won’t know the history of the ‘Golden Girls’ when they ran or (national high jump record holder) Troy Kemp, who won a gold medal in 1995. It’s all to let them have a sense of pride. They don’t know Kingsley Poitier, who won a Mr World title (in bodybuilding).”

While discussions are done held as to exactly where the museum will be located, Mitchell said he is prepared to have the facility ready in a matter of days, which will allow him to have it reassembled in the shortest amount of time if he has to be relocated to a permanent location.

“This was something that was tried before when Neville Wisdom was the Minister of Sports, but my sister was the PS (Permanent Secretary) and she didn’t want it to be called nepotism, so she defied the minister and said she wasn’t going to hire me,” Mitchell said.

“Then when the FNM (Free National Movement) took over, Minister Charlie Maynard gave me access to the Pan Am Building to try to fix it up, but because it was such an old building and needed so much work, by the time we got around to almost finishing it, we had to knock it down for the construction of the new stadium.”

Despite the constant delay in getting it off the ground, Mitchell said it’s a project that needs to be done and he’s prepared to put in the time necessary to become the “curator of this facility” as he lends all of his work to the museum free of charge.

While there is an abundance of recordings in photo and video on athletics, Mitchell said there is sufficient images on just about every sport that has been played in the Bahamas and where the Bahamas has had its share of representation on the world stage.

“This has been like a life’s work,” Mitchell said. “I’ve been filming since 1980, but I’ve been taking pictures from before that. To actually get out there and see it being used from the places that I’ve travelled and covered to get the history for the country, I would love to see it done.”

Having followed in the footsteps of his father, Edward Seymour Mitchell, better known as ES Mitchell, when he served as the president of the Bahamas Baseball Association and a founding member of the BAAA, a player in the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association and a long-time supporter of Charlie Major with wrestling at the Nassau Stadium, Mitchell said he felt he was born to be a historian.

“My brother (Steven ‘Daddy O’ Mitchell) was involved in sports at SAC (St Augustine’s College), I played basketball at the Priory Grounds, so it was just a natural thing. When I started taking pictures with my good friend Bob Thompson, who eventually worked for ZNS, and two other friends who were at The Tribune and the Nassau Guardian, I just went out with them taking pictures unofficially.

“Then came TV and when ZNS started in 1977, I had the first video camera in 1980 and I started video taping events. I got the video when we had CARIFTA in 1986 when Pauline Davis ran down everybody in the 4 x 400 relay. I dare say if you go anywhere and try to find that footage, you can’t find it. I’ve travelled all around the world recording different events.”

During his time, Mitchell said he would have covered just about every CARIFTA Games, the Olympic Games from 1996 in Los Angeles, California and the IAAF World Championships since 1995. Mitchell said any Bahamian who would have done anything of significance, he would have a clipping of the achievement, even though he never considered it a job because he never made any money from it.

“I really never sat down and put a value on it, but I keep telling people when they call me and tell me that I need a piece of tape of this or that, I would tell them that I went all the way to Australia in 2000 where I had to live and eat and to be there to hide behind the reporters in the mixed zone where I was not supposed to be doing any video taping, it’s costly,” Mitchell said.

“I’ve never ever gotten any assistance from the government, the federations or the Olympic committee. The most that they could have afforded me was the accreditation to get into the meets. I was shocked this year when Minister Daniel Johnson insisted that I travel on the charter to the CARIFTA Games because he wasn’t going to St Kitts. I had to pay for everything there, but he afforded me the trip there and back.”

Mitchell, whose claim to fame would have been when he set the national high jump record in 1964 at 6-feet, 3-inches for Government High School, gives a lot of credit to his wife Leona Mitchell, whom he met in high school, for the support that she gave him, allowing him to travel freely to follow his passion.

Now Mitchell said he wants to find a permanent home where his work can be displayed for all to see.