Sport

Long description:

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

Oral history interviews documenting the lives and careers of British sportsmen and women throughout the twentieth century, including tennis players, swimmers, and track, field and road athletes.  The collection also includes interviews with those involved in the coaching and teaching of sport, and those who witnessed historic sporting events.

This collection includes a five-part interview with Revd Nick Stacey, which ranges across his long career in sport, the clergy and social services.  As with all oral history recordings, the views expressed in the interview are solely those of the interviewee.  In the case of this recording, there are some descriptions of the culture of social services in the 1970s and 1980s which people may find disturbing, and which the Library in no way condones. However, as first-hand testimony of a period in our recent past we believe that it is important for the interview to continue to be available to researchers.

Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past.  The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective.  The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.

The Oral History of British Athletics (Sound & Moving Image Catalogue no: C790) collection is a rolling programme of life story interviews with British athletes. The project has suggested a number of themes worthy of further analysis, notably class differences; the shift from amateur to professional status between the 1930s and 1970s; the emergence of organisational structures for athletes in that period; the (slowly) changing attitudes towards women in sport; the rise of disabled people's sporting profile; the evolution of drug and gender testing; and politics in sport (such as the murder of protesting athletes at Mexico Olympics in 1968; and sporting boycotts).

Some interviews with sportsmen and women have been conducted by National Life Stories, including interviews with Sybil Cannadine and Kathleen (Kitty) Godfree.

Sport and leisure were a main feature of the Millennium Memory Bank (C900) recordings; the collection derived from the joint BBC and British Library project The Century Speaks: Millennium Oral History Project. This is one of the largest collections of oral history interviews ever to have been assembled - a unique and invaluable snapshot of how the British think of themselves and their past from the perspective of the beginning of a new millennium.  ‘Playtime’ was one of 16 themes and interviewees included athletes; sports journalists; golf professionals; sports consultants; as well as Olympic support staff.

Oral history at the British Library

The interviews on this site are a small selection from the many thousands held in the Oral History section of the British Library. These recordings go back over 100 years and cover many facets of life in Britain. Other oral history collections at the British Library relating to sport can be found on the ‘Sport’ collections page. All oral history recordings are catalogued on the Sound & Moving Image Catalogue.

Ethical use of oral history

The interviewees have been generous in sharing their memories and listeners are asked to treat this material with respect and sensitivity.