An autobiography can tell us much about the world as witnessed through the eyes of the writer.
When that writer is Honorary Chairman of the University of London Athletics Club, David Morgan, the result is the closest thing we have to a history book of London university athletics.
David Morgan, 72, interleaves historical accounts of his life in sport with challenging political views and tributes to sporting heroes across several sports.
The man who became Honorary Chairman of ULAC in 2015 and who had the LUCA Indoor Championship Trophy named after him in the same year, has published his autobiography this summer. It will be on sale at LUCA Indoors this Saturday with £2 for each sale donated to LUCA.
Morgan was head groundsman at Motspur Park, after being a trainee gardener at Kew, where he started his athletics at 17 years old. Motspur Park was owned by the University of London and hosted championships throughout the year. The track was sold to Fulham Football Club in 1999. The newly formed alumni club, Motspur AC is named in honor of the grounds that served as the home of London university athletics for so long.
Morgan joined Thames Valley Harriers in 1962 and became a Welsh International runner. He won quite a few steeplechases, which included a win in that event in the poplar old Fire Brigade meeting, at the White City Stadium.
However, his ‘Life Through the Corridors of Uncertainty’ came true on August 26th, 1967, when he looked on course to win a 3000m steeplechase on the old cinder track at Crystal Palace when he put his foot down below the water jump and broke his foot on the clods of earth.
The very next day, his brother died of Hodgkinson’s disease, aged only 19.
David has worked alongside, and met many of athletics finest athletes. He was a general manager and secretary of ULAC and secretary of the United Hospitals AC. He led ULAC teams home and abroad – as far as Japan and the USA.
He will be present at Indoor Championships to meet athletes and sell copies of his autobiography.
Follow the build up to indoor championships here.
