Gosper's Name Loses Lustre Among Old Boys
Newcastle Herald
Monday May 15, 2000
REMIS Velisque ? With Oars and Sails ? was the motto of Newcastle Boys High School in its halcyon days.
Every week, from the school's opening at Waratah in 1934 when my father Alan was school captain, until it changed to Waratah High in 1976, the select high school boys sang those words `loud and true' at assembly.
A rough translation would be `give it every effort you have got', which was what was expected of Boys High boys. Thousands of students who proudly wore the red and blue ties have been successful in almost every walk of life after a thorough education at Waratah.
Among the best-known `old boys' in upholding those traditions was Kevan Gosper, who in the past week has had his name printed in newspapers for the wrong reasons more times that he has in the school's athletics records, which is quite a feat.
Gosper dominated school athletics and led the school to numerous Lintott Cup victories, before he carved out a career in sport and sports administration while he made it to the top in business circles with the Shell company.
More students knew about Gosper's feats and his progress than they did of the other school hero, VC winner Captain Clarence Smith-Jeffries.
Gosper had his own war last week, fighting off criticism for allowing his daughter Sophie to be the first Australian to carry the Olympic torch after it was ceremoniously lit at Olympia.
The honour should have gone to Australian-born Yianna Souleles, a Sydney 16-year-old from a Greek background who attends St Spyridon College.
She was described and performed as the perfect diplomat, chosen from 340 students at a school where her grandfather Con Souleles is a `generous patron'.
Gosper was wrong to allow his daughter, under-age at 11 to even carry the torch in Australia under SOCOG's own rules, to accept the `gift' from the Greek hosts. But it is an honour she will always cherish.
There seems little doubt Gosper will weather the storm.
But his image among us `old boys' has been tarnished.
© 2000 Newcastle Herald