Tony Becca

THE SPORTS fraternity recently lost three people - Mickey Murdoch, David Hunt and Kitty Sharpe.

Based on the reaction of the people in sport, and more so by the numbers or the lack of it at the service of thanksgiving for her, Sharpe was the least remembered.

Murdoch who, in his white boots, once played football at inside left for Kingston College and for Melbourne, and was a member of the champion Manning Cup and Olivier Shield teams of 1952. He was also the left-handed batsman who played cricket for Kingston College, Melbourne and later on for St. Catherine CC, and was a member of the champion Sunlight Cup team of 1953. Hunt, also of Kingston College, was a coach of young footballers and a good and successful one at that.

Champion woman

Sharpe will be remembered not only as a champion woman in sport, not only as a champion in women's sport, but also as one of the champions, men or women, of sport in this country.

A past student of Hampton Girls School and Wolmer's Girls School, Sharpe loved hockey and she played hockey. After leaving school, she 'mothered' hockey at Wolmer's, she played for Cecelio on the half-line and, after hanging up her stick, after leaving Cecelio and founding Sharpe's Rebels in 1964, she served as the first vice-president of the male-controlled Jamaica Hockey Association, as the president of the women's arm of the JHA and then, on its formation in 1963, as the first president of the Jamaica Women's Hockey Association.

As a player, a coach, an administrator and, most important, as one who begged for and found funds for the sport, Sharpe devoted her life, nearly all 97 years of it, to hockey.

Like Leila Robinson in netball, she was almost everything to her sport, and that is why, or partially why, I was so disappointed at the service of thanksgiving at the St. Andrew Parish Church on Tuesday afternoon.

As was the case at the thanksgiving services for Sir Herbert McDonald of track-and-field fame some years ago, and for the Honourable Alan Rae of cricket fame a few years ago, I was disappointed at the small number of people who turned up to say thanks to someone who had done so much for sport, and especially so for young girls in this country.

Although the deeds of the old are hardly ever remembered, and in spite of my experiences re McDonald and Rae, I still expected to see a church full of women of all ages.

I expected it to be a reunion of female hockey players. I expected to see some of the outstanding players this country has produced, and I expected to see, for the first time in a long time, some of the outstanding women in this country who, thanks to one like Kitty Sharpe, played hockey and enjoyed playing hockey.

What I saw instead was a small group of mostly family, a sprinkling of former players and a handful of administrators - most, if not all of them, former administrators.

I did not see even one youngster in the church, that means that not even one member of the Wolmer's team or of the Jamaica team was present.

Deeply disappointed

Kitty Sharpe

As one who loves sport, as one who knows the sacrifice that people like Sharpe make in their contribution to sport in this country, as one who knows the contribution that Sharpe made to sport in general and to hockey particularly in this country, I was deeply disappointed.

I remember meeting Sharpe when, as a boy just leaving Wolmer's, I went to work at the PAYE section of the Income Tax Department. She was a kind woman who had time for everyone - including me, and I will never ever forget her smile.

Murdoch, in his own way, contributed to sport in this country, and so, too, did Hunt.

When compared with those like Robinson, McDonald and Rae, however, Sharpe, the woman who became the assistant commissioner of income tax more than 40 years ago, was one of a kind, or rather, one of a few of a kind.