Chris Chataway SPOTY’s first winner

5,000m runner beat Roger Bannister in the first Sports Personality of the Year Award in 1954.

The great and the good of British sport will gather in Leeds this Sunday night to see who is crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year

The winner will receive the famous trophy in front of 12,000 people in the audience and millions watching at home.

They’ll join a list that includes iconic names such as Sir Bobby Charlton, Sir Henry Cooper, Daley Thompson and Sir Steve Redgrave.

This is the 60th edition of the award, and things have come a long way since it was first staged in 1954.

The idea was conceived by Sir Paul Fox. He was editor of popular BBC show Sportsview and he wanted to organise an event to celebrate the year of sport.

So, viewers voted on postcards before everyone gathered for the ceremony at London’s Savoy Hotel.

There, it was announced that Chris Chataway was the first-ever BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

That year was the highlight of his career. He won gold in the 5,000 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver as well as silver at the European Championships.

He lost that race to Russian Vladimir Kuts, but he turned the tables in a London v Moscow athletics event at White City shortly after.

Not only did he beat Kuts, but he broke the world record for 5,000m.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pSW6VUoRdgs

The event was broadcast on TV and Chataway became one of the first sporting celebrities.

Also that year, along with Chris Brasher, he acted as a pacemaker as Sir Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile on May 6.

Yet, while Chataway took the BBC award that year, it’s the Bannister achievement that remains in British sporting consciousness.

Two years later, Chris retired from international athletics before working for both ITN and BBC as a newscaster, and then as a reporter on Panorama.

However, in 1959, his life took a different course when he became a Conservative MP, and he spent 12 of the next 15 years in the House of Commons.

He was a great campaigner on behalf of refugees in Africa and he played a key role in the introduction of commercial radio in this country.

But when the Tories lost the 1974 General Election, he left politics for business.

Now 82, Sir Christopher is happily retired, although he’s still an active member of the Thames Hare and Hounds running club in London!