Introduction
.jpg)
al organising committees; and Sport Aid for its contacts with the media, especially tv and musical entertainment. The Sport Aid team, an army of young volunteers and a small group of Unicef staffers seconded to London would show global mobilization and people’s power at work. Boudewijn Mohr tells a gripping story how the Unicef team lived through this all, juxtaposing that with the story of Sport Aid brain trust Chris Long as told in his book I Ran the World.
Starting Out
One day in February 1986 John Williams, director of DOI (Division of Information) called me to come to London and discuss my secondment to Bob Geldof’s Sport Aid team for the first global mega event of Unicef. The band leader of the Boomtown Rats was already known for 1985 Live Aid/Band Aid concerts from London and Philadelphia engaging major artists and raising massive funding for the famine in Ethiopia. I remember the tȇte à tȇte dinner with John, thoroughly enjoying his Australian humour mixed in with the serious topic at hand: how to ensure that the partnership of Unicef with Geldof’s Band Aid Trust would meet with the expectations of huge income and high global visiblity for Unicef.
In her 1986 book Children First: The Story of Unicef, Maggie Black pointedly describes Jim Grant’s vision of social mobilisation at the time: The popularity of Geldof’s mega events suggested that in the era of celebrity and media power, there were new heights of public attention and action to be commanded on behalf of the developing world if the right buttons were pushed. This diagnosis of the public mood greatly appealed to Jim Grant who saw an opportunity for “social mobilisation” on a much larger scale.
Band Aid Trust had approached the UK National Committee to seek a partnership with Unicef in organising races around the world as well as other sports events benefitting Africa. Robert Smith, the Committee’s director had facilitated a meeting with Unicef HQ to meet with Jim Grant’s entourage to explore whether Unicef would participate in organising these sport events through its large network of national committees and field offices raising funds for Africa.
Talk to UNICEF, Maybe They Can Help
Chris Long, brain trust of the Live Aid/Band Aid concerts remembers in his entertaining book, I Ran the World
I still see them coming on to the stage. Bob Geldof is the star of the launch, not Jim. The Band Aid volunteers cheer him on, they seem a down to earth, young and refreshing bunch. Geldof is wearing a t-shirt with the slogan Run the World and the new Sport Aid logo on the back– a map of Africa with the torch and flame. He takes the middle seat flanked by Grant and Britain's 1,500-meter Olympic gold medallist, Sebastian Coe. Jim’s t-shirt clearly did not make it.
Geldof says the primary goal of Sport Aid is to raise awareness of the continuing need to fight hunger, disease and poverty in Africa. Sport Aid would run from 17th to 25th May with hundreds of sports events taking place in that week and before and climaxing with a worldwide 10-kilometer 'Race Against Time' on Sunday 25th May. These dates had been chosen to coincide with the upcoming United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Africa. Sports activities for the 'Race Against Time' would kick off with a runner from Africa setting out from a refugee camp in Ethiopia with a torch lit from its burning embers. The runner would run through major European cities until he would arrive in New York on May 25th with the torch to light a Sport Aid flame at UN Plaza. This would signal the start of 10-kilometer runs throughout the world, exactly at 15:00 GMT. Geldof said negotiations were under way for events to be held in Eastern Bloc nations, notes that music and sport transcend borders.
Grant reminded world leaders that people evidently care about Africa. Sustained aid would help Ethiopia cut its death rate of children in half in the next five years. The 10 km run would be an opportunity to commemorate ten years of famine in Africa and emphasises the obligation of the international community to help Africa’s transit from famine to rehabilitation to self-reliance. Concluding his remarks Jim addressed the dire debt situation of the African continent. Receiving three billion dollars in aid in 1985, Africa paid out double that amount in capital and interest that year.
The press conference was widely televised in the UK, but most notably on the CBS morning news. Unfortunately, a huge charity national event to combat poverty and homelessness in the US was in the US and Canada was going to take place exactly on the day of the Race Against Time, Sunday the 25th of May 1986, the same day the Sport Aid torch would arrive at UN Plaza and the Race against Time would kick off at 15:00 GMT simultaneously in over 60 countries. Hands-Across-America was expected to stand in the way of Sport Aid in fundraising and media coverage.
Back to Work
The first thing at hand was to us find office space. Chris Long remembers:
"Unicef gave me access to places I could only have dreamed of, and introduced me to Christopher Patten, minister of Overseas Development at the time. Its goal was to promote sustainable development and eliminate poverty. “So, Chris, help us and help yourself”. It made sense. I got on well with Chris Patten and he found me an office – 4000 square feet on Waterloo Road, just down from the train station. And I got it for free."
A dynamic organisation got under way, with the London office soon coordinating thousands of Sport Aid focal points around the world. Some fifty volunteers worked from early morning to late at night. We had a varied group of volunteers, all of them young and engaged.
Chris Long was the brain trust of the Band Aid/Live Aid concerts as we have seen was now also the founder and brain behind Sport Aid. I found him a pleasant man, boiling over with ideas and a knack for grabbing doable opportunities. I remember Chris having a thin face with long hair and a pleasant, trifle bashful smile. Then, as we have seen, Simon Dring came on board, a former BBC war correspondent who had had a narrow escape while he was covering the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1976. I found Simon rather tense, aloof and abrasive, but who knows that that was a left-over of his days covering many wars. Chris Long had this impression of him: Simon was relishing his newfound stardom as the producer of the event, a title he had given himself. I had discovered he had a big ego, but I really did not care. It was channelled in the right direction, and he was doing a job I did not understand. It would have to be Simon or someone else, but I was grateful he was giving up his time, like all of us. For some reason or other he seemed to be pissing off many of our Unicef friends and I wasn’t sure why.
First slowly then in fast succession, things started to pick up and the pace quickened. Simon found a young and aspiring film director willing to film Omar’s run, to be beamed to newsrooms all over the world. British Airways gave us a plane to fly Omar around the European capitals and on to New York. John Anderson opened up European diplomatic channels to reach out to Heads of State or government willing to receive the runner on his way to New York. Sometimes I was put on a plane to assess problems involving the pre-run on the spot. Dispatched to Rome, there was a debate raging within the Italian Committee and Sport Aid whether the pre-run should go through Venice or Rome. Some preferred Venice as there was going to be the big marathon there around that time and Sport Aid could then be beneficially linked. Others wanted Rome, arguing that we could, in that case, “mobilise the Pope”. Sport Aid left no stone unturned!
We at Sport Aid thought that nothing stood in our way to get what we wanted. One day I will never forget was when Chris Long could announce that president Thomas Sankara, the flamboyant and much-loved leader of Burkina Faso had agreed to stage the African Run against time in Ouagadougou, with his whole cabinet running after him. The Ouagadougou country office led by Stan Adotevi had had much to do with that. Only problem, the country had no satellite uplink facility, and a plane would be needed to fly out a complete satellite ground station with crew. But even that Chris Long achieved. And the TV crew did that for nothing, we just had to get them and the equipment there and back. And we did that too, again with the help of our main sponsor, British Airways.
Chris Long “sold Sport Aid” to the Greek composer Vangelis, who agreed to write the Sport Aid theme song. It was a dramatic tune, very much in the vein of his “Chariots of Fire”. We had a television set in Waterloo, and there was always someone turning it on to listen to it over and over again. The tune really fired all of us up!
We drew up an “adoption” agreement for related sports events in the UK. In the end these adoptions covered hundreds of national and local events, such as rugby, basketball, gymnastics, tennis and international cricket, even an ice show at the National Exhibition Centre of Birmingham.
For the Race Against Time, we were constantly on the phone with the world, plagued by poor connections, crackling voices and strange sounds. In those days overseas telephone lines were particularly bad with Africa. I often had a phone on each ear listening to two countries all at once. We worked without computers. Fax machines existed but the world was still largely on telex and so were we. Bernadette Suffran remembers “kilometres of telexes rolling out of telex machines” throughout the day. Jo Howe, a communications specialist seconded by IBM, assisted Sport Aid with equipment troubleshooting and maintenance.
Lots of people came through with side event fundraising ideas. Perhaps the most exotic proposal came frome a parachute jumping instructor. The plan was that celebrities would jump from 10,000 feet, with the instructor holding each “passenger” in a bear hug under him while going down. He assured me that the touch-down was perfectly safe. He had already enlisted two celebrities so far who would be sponsored by the public donating money towards the jump with proceeds going to Sport Aid. The hitch was the exorbitant cost of ensuring the celebrity for the jump, and the event could therefore not be included.
Donning Our T-Shirts
We received our Run the World Sport Aid T-shirts in time for our jogging through the streets of South London. Jogging was meant to engage the whole office so as to make publicity for Sport Aid. Our regular journey took us on a three-mile run several times a week crossing Waterloo Bridge through Westminster and St. James, turning right into Aldwych, then Fleet Street to as far as as Radio London in Marylebone Street or stopping at another radio or TV station for Chris Long or somebody else to be interviewed; then back to the Embankment along the Thames, crossing Waterloo Bridge once more and returning to the office. Apart from Chris Long, the faithful included Mary Kay, a young journalist from Minneapolis, Bernadette, Elfy, and the young and quite lively Tamsin. Many others joined in from time to time. My 11-year-old son Nadim became a regular runner for the short time he came with my wife to London, jogging during our lunch break in his own Sport Aid T-shirt “Run the World”. He stood eye to eye with Omar Khalifa, who happened to be in our office to discuss the details of the pre-run for which he had just been selected. Motivated by it all, Nadim wrote the Sport Aid story for his school in Geneva. On one of our jogs the “R.A.T. raiders” were photographed and the same evening our picture was in the Evening Standard. All pre-arranged of course!
Just days before the pre-run was about to begin the atmosphere in the office had become more hectic, frantic and electrifying than ever before. There were lots of TV camera men around with interviews going on in every corner. Sometimes sheer panic set in. Just days before the runner would land in Madrid, I got a call that Spain had not received the propylene gas from New York. Propylene apparently gives off a nicer flame than propane. We had learned about that too! Suddenly we had to follow up this detail with Germany and New York. The gas had indeed been shipped but was most likely held up at customs. I thought we were crazy to transport highly flammable gas on a plane. And little did we foresee that Khaddaffi would be arriving in Spain on a state visit precisely at the same time…. Chris Long vividly describes the atmosphere of these hectic days: As we got within two weeks of the big day, everything shifted up another gear. Day and night the office churned out its message. It had become a truly global operation and we were dealing with every country in the world. The buzz from the office was incredible. It was my little beehive-this densely packed group of hexagonal, square and prismatic cells all divided by maps, names of organisers and to-do lists. My little worker bees would shout out every time we secured a new race city and the buzz would intensify and followed by applause and high-fives. We all believed that we could, and would change the world.
Khalifa Sets Off
On May 16th, Khalifa started off on his journey to the United Nations, when he lit a torch at the El Moweilih relief camp in the Sudan. The Observer had a photo on the front page, the lone athlete running with the torch, casting a long shadow over the desert sands. Dramatic stuff but it worked:
“Flame of hope outpaces the shadow of famine
Omar Khalifa, Sudan’s star athlete, sets out across the desert on his Sport Aid run to New York
Meanwhile Bernadette and Hélène were far away from these hectic and emotional closing days in London. They joined Omar on the plane to some of the European capitals where he would run with the torch. On his way to European capitals, Omar was received by Helmut Kohl in Bonn, Francois Mitterand in Paris, Georgios Papandreou in Athens, the Pope in Rome, even Warsaw and Budapest. At Buckingham Palace Charles and Diana shook hands with Bob Geldof and Chris Long with our own Bob Walwer in tow. Omar entered the gates of Buckingham Palace and was introduced to Charles and Diana. But prime minister Margaret Thatcher was not in London, but on a working visit to Dublin. Press officer Nick Carter flew over on the plane with Omar to `’chase up Thatcher”. She met with the runner at the airport and reportedly had asked: Where is Mr. Long?” Chris remembers: It was crazy and surreal that the prime minister knew who I was and I couldn’t help feeling quite pleased about it.
Telephones were ringing constantly. In the end, Chris Long recalls, “there were more than 130 of us in all and almost everyone was on the phone. Every one of them a volunteer. Everyone in Run the World t-shirts. We were now managing 89 national organising committees around the clock. The noise, the vibe and the atmosphere were energising”.
People were hugging each other for no reason at all or perhaps only to relieve tension. Of course, there was great sentimentality in the air as we knew that in a few days most of us would never see one another again. There was still time for last parties. Martin Robinson invited us all for a party at his flat with a group of actors and actresses. I was dancing with a girl who got seriously dizzy, I wondered why. Another night the whole office was invited to a famous London disco to promote Sport Aid. The disco was equipped with a lot of psychedelic swirling lights that made your head turn. In the afternoon I already had been asked in the office by Lucie who was our receptionist, a sweet, dark-haired girl, if I could dance with her that evening. And that was after I had told her story of the dizzy girl at Martin’s party! Although I was flattered to be “booked” that far in advance, I was apprehensive –of course I gracefully accepted - as I am a very clumsy dancer, and I was certainly not looking forward to having another girl faint in my arms! The disco was very glamorous and posh. I still see the image of the ceiling above the dance floor starting to descend upon us very slowly with all its lights seemingly swirling even faster. I was looking in vain for Lucie to see if she was OK. That spectacular ending announced that the disco was about to close.
Hugs and Goodbyes
For weeks afterwards I kept seeing images of the sentimental goodbye party in the office two days before the race. The atmosphere had been electrifying, full of human radioactivity, sentimentality, and perhaps even a bit of sensuality and playful jealousy. It had been just like the end of a play. Geldof was sick with a severe cold but vowed to go to New York and be back in time to run the race in London. But in the end he stayed back in London for the race.
Many talked about their hopes and plans after Sport Aid. Nick Carter, press officer, who was always around and about with a big mouth, who was now very quiet as the end was near; Nadia wanted to set up an agency for volunteers to bring business closer to non-profit organisations. I told her about a letter I had written to Per Gyllenhammar, the CEO of Volvo, making the point about the “converging interests of multinationals and voluntary organisations”.
Debbie and Lucie, who as reception girls saw and heard a lot, promised to share gossip for the play I intended to write about Sport Aid. Lulu, the blond “English school girl” offered to write it with me and wanted to be cast for the main role. Bob Walwer just back from shaking hands with Charles and Di, was in a happy mood. Overhearing our plan for a play he advised that it should end - like here in the office - just before it happens so it leaves the audience in suspense. Then there was Chris Long strolling around, immersed with his own thoughts, about to realise his brainchild; Tamsin of the press department, a small girl with a very big mouth, member of the infamous RAT joggers, a very charming and funny girl surrounded by a couple of admirers; spirited volunteers like Jacqui Shaw, Maggie Mason; Zoey who always had solutions for the impossible; and not to forget Martin Robinson of great party fame.
The Largest Sports Event in History at that Time
.JPG)
On the 25th of May 1986 an estimated twenty million people in some 200 cities in 66 countries ran in the Race against Time, making it the largest sports event in history at that time. TV images with proud and happy people running the race flashed live all over the world. Without a doubt the most spectacular TV images came from Ouagadougou and Budapest. Captain Thomas Sankara the country’s young and dynamic president delivered, leading his entire cabinet to come out jogging with him; and to see thousands of Burkinabe running after their leader through the streets of super-hot Ouagadougou, who would ever forget that image; and a most inspiring moment for that young nation.
.JPG)
The “Race against Time” had suggested strongly that time was running out for children. By running across the globe, 20 million people had made that point. The focus was now firmly on Africa, and people were ready to do more. According to spokesman Nick Carter on the day after, a total of $ 22 million was raised worldwide, of which $ 15 million in the UK. Indeed, Hands across America turned out to be a serious drawback for fundraising and visibility. Chris Long worried out loud: Will the UN listen to all those blistered feet? We will have to wait and see. But yes, the United Nations did listen: exactly 3 years later the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. From that moment on something important was happening. The principle of “Best interest of the child” became anchored forever in the rights of children, and that was non-negotiable, period.
Boudewijn Mohr
12 December 2021
"Approaching Unicef happened at a moment of serious desperation. The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham had just pulled out of a partnership with Band Aid for gymnastic events and multiple races across cities in the UK. NEC had second thoughts, not being sure that Band Aid could deliver. Just days before that disaster, Bob Geldof had told Chris Long that he had just met a seasoned British war correspondent and television broadcaster in Rome by the name of Simon Dring. Chris Long was desperate and decided to take a chance and call him. He recalls: I desperately needed to unload on someone, and I called Simon to see if he was free. I hardly knew him, but I felt I could talk to him. We talked for hours. Then Simon threw at Chris the challenge: “Have you ever thought about talking to Unicef?”
“No, why?’
“I know them, maybe they can help.”
Simon arranged a meeting to see the UK Committee at Lincoln Inn’s Field. Chris Long paints the scene:
“No, why?’
“I know them, maybe they can help.”
Simon arranged a meeting to see the UK Committee at Lincoln Inn’s Field. Chris Long paints the scene:
"Simon and I, dressed in T-shirts, sat opposite the Unicef men, dressed smartly in their suits and ties. They were excited. This year was Unicef’s 40th anniversary and something like this could fit in nicely. Only Unicef Headquarters could make the decision I needed. A few days later, Simon called me to say that Unicef had agreed to pay for both of us to go to the Big Apple. The UK Committee had set up a meeting with Jim Grant and senior UN officials.
It was on the second trip that an excited Jim Grant greeted us with the news that there was going to be a UN special session on Africa from 26th to 30th of May. Grant was a visionary who insisted on strategic action and measurable results. Jim Grant thought outside the box! “Can we have the UN as a stage, can we use it as the focus for the race?” “Yes, yes, I’ll deliver the UN for you”. I really liked Jim Grant. He commanded a massive international resource. He could deliver the UN as a stage, for me to deliver my message from Africa. Suddenly, I had the support of another organisation with a shit-load to lose. On the plane back to London, I hatched my plan to deliver the Sport Aid flame to the United Nations and stage the biggest race the world had ever seen."
Picking Up the Pace
It was on the second trip that an excited Jim Grant greeted us with the news that there was going to be a UN special session on Africa from 26th to 30th of May. Grant was a visionary who insisted on strategic action and measurable results. Jim Grant thought outside the box! “Can we have the UN as a stage, can we use it as the focus for the race?” “Yes, yes, I’ll deliver the UN for you”. I really liked Jim Grant. He commanded a massive international resource. He could deliver the UN as a stage, for me to deliver my message from Africa. Suddenly, I had the support of another organisation with a shit-load to lose. On the plane back to London, I hatched my plan to deliver the Sport Aid flame to the United Nations and stage the biggest race the world had ever seen."
Picking Up the Pace
Things started to move very fast. On 24 February 1986 Sport Aid and the Race Against Time was launched at a press conference at London’s London’s Park Lane Hotel. On the eve of the launch a small Unicef group huddled around in Grant’s suite to prepare the event from our side. There was Robert Smith, the elegant, lean and sparsely bearded Director of the UK Committee; Edith Simmons, his right hand for media relations; Mehr Kahn of Programme Funding Office (PFO); and Hélène Gosselin, information officer at the regional office in Abidjan, who was going to be seconded to Sport Aid like me. Everybody was in a jolly mood, discussing among other things a t-shirt for Jim to wear under his jacket: “45,000 children dying each year”, several sizes too large, even for a big man like him. Then he disappeared in the bathroom, locked the door, the sound of running water. After a while we noticed steam coming out through the door. I knocked and Jim then reappeared armed with a hairdryer, telling us that that did not do the job to shrink it. The hotel room slowly dispersed the steam, quite a surrealistic scene.
The group met again in Jim’s suite at the Park Lane at 8 o’clock in the morning to do the final brief. Then, the sound of the doorbell and Robert, the driver of Geneva office, always impeccably dressed in suit and tie, opens the door for Geldof who shakes his hand, mistaking him for Jim Grant. The bandleader is 45 minutes late, which reportedly is usual. Shoulders pulled up high, simply dressed in jeans and a striped shirt, there’s something scruffy and yet romantic, even sensual about Geldof. Cool! They settle down on an uncomfortably narrow sofa and we groupies huddle around them just taking a listen. Chemistry between the two is excellent. Geldof saying that giving through Live Aid was a rebellious act: we the people can do far better than organisations, he says. Grant saying there was in effect far more people’s power in the last years than ever before, and that was a good sign. Geldof comments that he is sick of Ethiopia and the way it handles its aid. If Ethiopia would have had a good PR man, they could at the least have explained their internal, forced migration policy to the world. After the warm-up we follow them to the press conference.
The Launch
The group met again in Jim’s suite at the Park Lane at 8 o’clock in the morning to do the final brief. Then, the sound of the doorbell and Robert, the driver of Geneva office, always impeccably dressed in suit and tie, opens the door for Geldof who shakes his hand, mistaking him for Jim Grant. The bandleader is 45 minutes late, which reportedly is usual. Shoulders pulled up high, simply dressed in jeans and a striped shirt, there’s something scruffy and yet romantic, even sensual about Geldof. Cool! They settle down on an uncomfortably narrow sofa and we groupies huddle around them just taking a listen. Chemistry between the two is excellent. Geldof saying that giving through Live Aid was a rebellious act: we the people can do far better than organisations, he says. Grant saying there was in effect far more people’s power in the last years than ever before, and that was a good sign. Geldof comments that he is sick of Ethiopia and the way it handles its aid. If Ethiopia would have had a good PR man, they could at the least have explained their internal, forced migration policy to the world. After the warm-up we follow them to the press conference.
The Launch
I still see them coming on to the stage. Bob Geldof is the star of the launch, not Jim. The Band Aid volunteers cheer him on, they seem a down to earth, young and refreshing bunch. Geldof is wearing a t-shirt with the slogan Run the World and the new Sport Aid logo on the back– a map of Africa with the torch and flame. He takes the middle seat flanked by Grant and Britain's 1,500-meter Olympic gold medallist, Sebastian Coe. Jim’s t-shirt clearly did not make it.
Geldof says the primary goal of Sport Aid is to raise awareness of the continuing need to fight hunger, disease and poverty in Africa. Sport Aid would run from 17th to 25th May with hundreds of sports events taking place in that week and before and climaxing with a worldwide 10-kilometer 'Race Against Time' on Sunday 25th May. These dates had been chosen to coincide with the upcoming United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Africa. Sports activities for the 'Race Against Time' would kick off with a runner from Africa setting out from a refugee camp in Ethiopia with a torch lit from its burning embers. The runner would run through major European cities until he would arrive in New York on May 25th with the torch to light a Sport Aid flame at UN Plaza. This would signal the start of 10-kilometer runs throughout the world, exactly at 15:00 GMT. Geldof said negotiations were under way for events to be held in Eastern Bloc nations, notes that music and sport transcend borders.
Grant reminded world leaders that people evidently care about Africa. Sustained aid would help Ethiopia cut its death rate of children in half in the next five years. The 10 km run would be an opportunity to commemorate ten years of famine in Africa and emphasises the obligation of the international community to help Africa’s transit from famine to rehabilitation to self-reliance. Concluding his remarks Jim addressed the dire debt situation of the African continent. Receiving three billion dollars in aid in 1985, Africa paid out double that amount in capital and interest that year.
The press conference was widely televised in the UK, but most notably on the CBS morning news. Unfortunately, a huge charity national event to combat poverty and homelessness in the US was in the US and Canada was going to take place exactly on the day of the Race Against Time, Sunday the 25th of May 1986, the same day the Sport Aid torch would arrive at UN Plaza and the Race against Time would kick off at 15:00 GMT simultaneously in over 60 countries. Hands-Across-America was expected to stand in the way of Sport Aid in fundraising and media coverage.
Back to Work
The first thing at hand was to us find office space. Chris Long remembers:
"Unicef gave me access to places I could only have dreamed of, and introduced me to Christopher Patten, minister of Overseas Development at the time. Its goal was to promote sustainable development and eliminate poverty. “So, Chris, help us and help yourself”. It made sense. I got on well with Chris Patten and he found me an office – 4000 square feet on Waterloo Road, just down from the train station. And I got it for free."
A dynamic organisation got under way, with the London office soon coordinating thousands of Sport Aid focal points around the world. Some fifty volunteers worked from early morning to late at night. We had a varied group of volunteers, all of them young and engaged.
Chris Long was the brain trust of the Band Aid/Live Aid concerts as we have seen was now also the founder and brain behind Sport Aid. I found him a pleasant man, boiling over with ideas and a knack for grabbing doable opportunities. I remember Chris having a thin face with long hair and a pleasant, trifle bashful smile. Then, as we have seen, Simon Dring came on board, a former BBC war correspondent who had had a narrow escape while he was covering the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1976. I found Simon rather tense, aloof and abrasive, but who knows that that was a left-over of his days covering many wars. Chris Long had this impression of him: Simon was relishing his newfound stardom as the producer of the event, a title he had given himself. I had discovered he had a big ego, but I really did not care. It was channelled in the right direction, and he was doing a job I did not understand. It would have to be Simon or someone else, but I was grateful he was giving up his time, like all of us. For some reason or other he seemed to be pissing off many of our Unicef friends and I wasn’t sure why.
Countering Threats of a Pullout
Soon John Anderson came on board via Unicef New York. John was a fine planner, meticulous, with a quick eye for detail. He simply had a clear head where he wanted to go. Although he did not have much of a spark he was badly needed as our media people had perhaps too much of it! Chris Long:
John was not your typical Unicef man. He was really useful! John had been asked by Jim Grant to evaluate Sport Aid and report back exactly how much resource Unicef needed to put in the project. He only stayed for a few days before returning with his report to Unicef HQ in New York What I did not know at the time was that both Unicef and Band Aid were considering pulling out of the event. They were afraid that it was not going to be the global success I had pitched to them. I found out much later that John had been so fired up by the energy and total commitment of my team of volunteers that he not only told Jim Grant to proceed, but also make him Chief of Global Special Events and assign him to London for the remainder of the event to coordinate the Unicef contribution to our overall organisational needs.
Organizing the Pre-Run
John was not your typical Unicef man. He was really useful! John had been asked by Jim Grant to evaluate Sport Aid and report back exactly how much resource Unicef needed to put in the project. He only stayed for a few days before returning with his report to Unicef HQ in New York What I did not know at the time was that both Unicef and Band Aid were considering pulling out of the event. They were afraid that it was not going to be the global success I had pitched to them. I found out much later that John had been so fired up by the energy and total commitment of my team of volunteers that he not only told Jim Grant to proceed, but also make him Chief of Global Special Events and assign him to London for the remainder of the event to coordinate the Unicef contribution to our overall organisational needs.
Organizing the Pre-Run
Multi-tasking notwithstanding, I was part of the Unicef liaison to organise the torch lit pre-run from Africa to UN Plaza. Bernadette Suffran, who joined us from Geneva, a quiet worker and a real trooper; Hélène Gosselin, information officer at the Regional Office covering West and Central Africa, who liaised with Unicef information officers around the world. and Elfy MacLay, who was a special events officer at HQ. At the same time, we were setting up worldwide banking arrangements and sponsorships.
Sport Aid reminded me in many ways of my student days 20 years before when I was part of NBBS, the student-run travel agency in Leiden for students in the 1960s: young people committed to a cause, with the office always short of materials and equipment, money and everything else, but never short of fun and laughter - and people falling in love but having no time for it as time moved on us so fast.
Early on things looked bleak for Sport Aid. We still had no sponsors, no runner, nothing. Things at the office were still pretty chaotic and disorganised. Meanwhile we were promising the world to the media in press releases and interviews. I warned Geneva office of the situation. Bob Walwer, close to retirement as chief of the Greeting Card Operation in Geneva was dispatched to strengthen the Unicef team.
One day Chris Long found the runner, possibly through Seb Coe and possibly, even the Italian Committee. He name was Omar Khalifa, the Sudanese 1500-meter gold medallist at the African Games in Cairo. Omar was training in Italy at the Italian Institute in Fornia for the 1988 Olympics. Chris Long: He had an amazing face and statuesque figure. More importantly, he was healthy and represented what all Africans could be, if given half a chance. He was perfect. We looked over the logistics: “We need a film crew. We need a director, we need a support runner, we need a doctor, we need a plane!’
The Pace Speeds Up
Sport Aid reminded me in many ways of my student days 20 years before when I was part of NBBS, the student-run travel agency in Leiden for students in the 1960s: young people committed to a cause, with the office always short of materials and equipment, money and everything else, but never short of fun and laughter - and people falling in love but having no time for it as time moved on us so fast.
Early on things looked bleak for Sport Aid. We still had no sponsors, no runner, nothing. Things at the office were still pretty chaotic and disorganised. Meanwhile we were promising the world to the media in press releases and interviews. I warned Geneva office of the situation. Bob Walwer, close to retirement as chief of the Greeting Card Operation in Geneva was dispatched to strengthen the Unicef team.
One day Chris Long found the runner, possibly through Seb Coe and possibly, even the Italian Committee. He name was Omar Khalifa, the Sudanese 1500-meter gold medallist at the African Games in Cairo. Omar was training in Italy at the Italian Institute in Fornia for the 1988 Olympics. Chris Long: He had an amazing face and statuesque figure. More importantly, he was healthy and represented what all Africans could be, if given half a chance. He was perfect. We looked over the logistics: “We need a film crew. We need a director, we need a support runner, we need a doctor, we need a plane!’
The Pace Speeds Up
We at Sport Aid thought that nothing stood in our way to get what we wanted. One day I will never forget was when Chris Long could announce that president Thomas Sankara, the flamboyant and much-loved leader of Burkina Faso had agreed to stage the African Run against time in Ouagadougou, with his whole cabinet running after him. The Ouagadougou country office led by Stan Adotevi had had much to do with that. Only problem, the country had no satellite uplink facility, and a plane would be needed to fly out a complete satellite ground station with crew. But even that Chris Long achieved. And the TV crew did that for nothing, we just had to get them and the equipment there and back. And we did that too, again with the help of our main sponsor, British Airways.
Chris Long “sold Sport Aid” to the Greek composer Vangelis, who agreed to write the Sport Aid theme song. It was a dramatic tune, very much in the vein of his “Chariots of Fire”. We had a television set in Waterloo, and there was always someone turning it on to listen to it over and over again. The tune really fired all of us up!
We drew up an “adoption” agreement for related sports events in the UK. In the end these adoptions covered hundreds of national and local events, such as rugby, basketball, gymnastics, tennis and international cricket, even an ice show at the National Exhibition Centre of Birmingham.
For the Race Against Time, we were constantly on the phone with the world, plagued by poor connections, crackling voices and strange sounds. In those days overseas telephone lines were particularly bad with Africa. I often had a phone on each ear listening to two countries all at once. We worked without computers. Fax machines existed but the world was still largely on telex and so were we. Bernadette Suffran remembers “kilometres of telexes rolling out of telex machines” throughout the day. Jo Howe, a communications specialist seconded by IBM, assisted Sport Aid with equipment troubleshooting and maintenance.
Lots of people came through with side event fundraising ideas. Perhaps the most exotic proposal came frome a parachute jumping instructor. The plan was that celebrities would jump from 10,000 feet, with the instructor holding each “passenger” in a bear hug under him while going down. He assured me that the touch-down was perfectly safe. He had already enlisted two celebrities so far who would be sponsored by the public donating money towards the jump with proceeds going to Sport Aid. The hitch was the exorbitant cost of ensuring the celebrity for the jump, and the event could therefore not be included.
Donning Our T-Shirts
We received our Run the World Sport Aid T-shirts in time for our jogging through the streets of South London. Jogging was meant to engage the whole office so as to make publicity for Sport Aid. Our regular journey took us on a three-mile run several times a week crossing Waterloo Bridge through Westminster and St. James, turning right into Aldwych, then Fleet Street to as far as as Radio London in Marylebone Street or stopping at another radio or TV station for Chris Long or somebody else to be interviewed; then back to the Embankment along the Thames, crossing Waterloo Bridge once more and returning to the office. Apart from Chris Long, the faithful included Mary Kay, a young journalist from Minneapolis, Bernadette, Elfy, and the young and quite lively Tamsin. Many others joined in from time to time. My 11-year-old son Nadim became a regular runner for the short time he came with my wife to London, jogging during our lunch break in his own Sport Aid T-shirt “Run the World”. He stood eye to eye with Omar Khalifa, who happened to be in our office to discuss the details of the pre-run for which he had just been selected. Motivated by it all, Nadim wrote the Sport Aid story for his school in Geneva. On one of our jogs the “R.A.T. raiders” were photographed and the same evening our picture was in the Evening Standard. All pre-arranged of course!
Just days before the pre-run was about to begin the atmosphere in the office had become more hectic, frantic and electrifying than ever before. There were lots of TV camera men around with interviews going on in every corner. Sometimes sheer panic set in. Just days before the runner would land in Madrid, I got a call that Spain had not received the propylene gas from New York. Propylene apparently gives off a nicer flame than propane. We had learned about that too! Suddenly we had to follow up this detail with Germany and New York. The gas had indeed been shipped but was most likely held up at customs. I thought we were crazy to transport highly flammable gas on a plane. And little did we foresee that Khaddaffi would be arriving in Spain on a state visit precisely at the same time…. Chris Long vividly describes the atmosphere of these hectic days: As we got within two weeks of the big day, everything shifted up another gear. Day and night the office churned out its message. It had become a truly global operation and we were dealing with every country in the world. The buzz from the office was incredible. It was my little beehive-this densely packed group of hexagonal, square and prismatic cells all divided by maps, names of organisers and to-do lists. My little worker bees would shout out every time we secured a new race city and the buzz would intensify and followed by applause and high-fives. We all believed that we could, and would change the world.
Khalifa Sets Off
On May 16th, Khalifa started off on his journey to the United Nations, when he lit a torch at the El Moweilih relief camp in the Sudan. The Observer had a photo on the front page, the lone athlete running with the torch, casting a long shadow over the desert sands. Dramatic stuff but it worked:
“Flame of hope outpaces the shadow of famine
Omar Khalifa, Sudan’s star athlete, sets out across the desert on his Sport Aid run to New York
Meanwhile Bernadette and Hélène were far away from these hectic and emotional closing days in London. They joined Omar on the plane to some of the European capitals where he would run with the torch. On his way to European capitals, Omar was received by Helmut Kohl in Bonn, Francois Mitterand in Paris, Georgios Papandreou in Athens, the Pope in Rome, even Warsaw and Budapest. At Buckingham Palace Charles and Diana shook hands with Bob Geldof and Chris Long with our own Bob Walwer in tow. Omar entered the gates of Buckingham Palace and was introduced to Charles and Diana. But prime minister Margaret Thatcher was not in London, but on a working visit to Dublin. Press officer Nick Carter flew over on the plane with Omar to `’chase up Thatcher”. She met with the runner at the airport and reportedly had asked: Where is Mr. Long?” Chris remembers: It was crazy and surreal that the prime minister knew who I was and I couldn’t help feeling quite pleased about it.
Telephones were ringing constantly. In the end, Chris Long recalls, “there were more than 130 of us in all and almost everyone was on the phone. Every one of them a volunteer. Everyone in Run the World t-shirts. We were now managing 89 national organising committees around the clock. The noise, the vibe and the atmosphere were energising”.
People were hugging each other for no reason at all or perhaps only to relieve tension. Of course, there was great sentimentality in the air as we knew that in a few days most of us would never see one another again. There was still time for last parties. Martin Robinson invited us all for a party at his flat with a group of actors and actresses. I was dancing with a girl who got seriously dizzy, I wondered why. Another night the whole office was invited to a famous London disco to promote Sport Aid. The disco was equipped with a lot of psychedelic swirling lights that made your head turn. In the afternoon I already had been asked in the office by Lucie who was our receptionist, a sweet, dark-haired girl, if I could dance with her that evening. And that was after I had told her story of the dizzy girl at Martin’s party! Although I was flattered to be “booked” that far in advance, I was apprehensive –of course I gracefully accepted - as I am a very clumsy dancer, and I was certainly not looking forward to having another girl faint in my arms! The disco was very glamorous and posh. I still see the image of the ceiling above the dance floor starting to descend upon us very slowly with all its lights seemingly swirling even faster. I was looking in vain for Lucie to see if she was OK. That spectacular ending announced that the disco was about to close.
Hugs and Goodbyes
For weeks afterwards I kept seeing images of the sentimental goodbye party in the office two days before the race. The atmosphere had been electrifying, full of human radioactivity, sentimentality, and perhaps even a bit of sensuality and playful jealousy. It had been just like the end of a play. Geldof was sick with a severe cold but vowed to go to New York and be back in time to run the race in London. But in the end he stayed back in London for the race.
Many talked about their hopes and plans after Sport Aid. Nick Carter, press officer, who was always around and about with a big mouth, who was now very quiet as the end was near; Nadia wanted to set up an agency for volunteers to bring business closer to non-profit organisations. I told her about a letter I had written to Per Gyllenhammar, the CEO of Volvo, making the point about the “converging interests of multinationals and voluntary organisations”.
Debbie and Lucie, who as reception girls saw and heard a lot, promised to share gossip for the play I intended to write about Sport Aid. Lulu, the blond “English school girl” offered to write it with me and wanted to be cast for the main role. Bob Walwer just back from shaking hands with Charles and Di, was in a happy mood. Overhearing our plan for a play he advised that it should end - like here in the office - just before it happens so it leaves the audience in suspense. Then there was Chris Long strolling around, immersed with his own thoughts, about to realise his brainchild; Tamsin of the press department, a small girl with a very big mouth, member of the infamous RAT joggers, a very charming and funny girl surrounded by a couple of admirers; spirited volunteers like Jacqui Shaw, Maggie Mason; Zoey who always had solutions for the impossible; and not to forget Martin Robinson of great party fame.
The Largest Sports Event in History at that Time
.JPG)
.JPG)
Boudewijn Mohr
12 December 2021
Thanks, Boudewijn, for that fascinating report, It brings back a lot of memories, like Harry Belafonte addressing the crowd at the UN together with Jim Grant, and two Air France Concords flying over the UN and "waving" a salute. I think it still is the largest sport event ever.
ReplyDeleteThank you dear Horst. Very sweet memories you bring here. And you have many more to share. Hope you come to Bourgogne and we share some more. Always welcome in Bourgogne where we live now.
ReplyDeleteAre you in Canada or US now.
With best wishes
Boudewijn
Thank you dear Horst. We have many memories to share.
ReplyDeleteAlways welcome in Bourgogne where we live. Are you in Canada or New York ?
Best wishes
Boudewijn
Thanks Mohr Boudewijn for the fascinating account of the preparation and carrying out of the Sport Aid/Run For Africa event back in 1986. It brings back a lot of memories for me personally as a young UNICEF Asst PSC Officer in India and of my own little contribution to the global event. The India Country Office had secured the cooperation of one of India's ex-Olympian distance runner Ranjit Bhatia to be the runner for the daily pre-event runs. I and a freelance video cameraman we hired videoed the daily runs and the final Run for Africa events using the professional video broadcast quality equipment that I had procured and set up for the then UNICEF Regional Office for South Central Asia (ROSCA) in New Delhi. Our coverages were sent to the then only national TV network, Doordarshan, for its daily news broadcast. UNICEF India also secured the cooperation of a well know Bollywood singer, late Kishore Kumar who joined the global Sport Aid concert as it was relayed across the globe via satellite link. Doordarshan provided the uplink. I think that all this was done on a voluntary basis and free of cost. I wasn't involved in the logistic and organizing committee.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many other retirees can recall their own roles in the global Sport Aid and Run For Africa event in other countries. It will be good to share some of their stories too.
Best regards
Peter Chen
Thank you Peter. That's fascinating, the India story. I was not aware of this. Would be great to share the concert and some photos. I suppose David Haxton was still Rep in Delhi then. Any way to contact the India office? Superb that India madse this contribution to Africa
ReplyDeleteBest regards
Boudewijn Mohr
Beaune, France
@ Boudewijn. Yes, David Haxton was the Representative for India and also the Regional Director at the time of Sport Aid. Alas, all those who were involved with the India Sport Aid contribution have retired. The PR and logistics were managed by the then Information/Communication Section under Razia Ismail. The Section used to keep daily newspaper cuttings of interests to UNICEF and children. I transferred out of India in 1990 so I don't know what has happened to the archives that the Section used to have. I doubt any of the current UNICEF India Office Staff will even know about the event. I can try to reach out to Razia and send her your post and interest. I'm not sure if she is a member of the XUNICEFer group or she would have seen your post. Will e-mail you separately.
ReplyDeleteCheers and best regards
Peter