Olympian Hoilett laid to rest

When 1964 Olympian Rupert Hoilett was laid to rest last Saturday after a funeral service at The University Chapel at Mona. The occasion mixed sadness at his passing with a sense of gratitude for his life and work.

Among those present were Olympic athletes, Hoilett’s brothers and sisters of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and his former schoolmates at Kingston College, as well as friends from the wider community.

Among them was Neville Oxford, who starred for Kingston College in football at the same time as Hoilett was amassing three Class One 440-yard record wins in 1963, 1964 and 1965.

“You can’t be happy at a funeral, but it was not really a funeral, it was a thanksgiving,” the former Jamaica striker said.

The service revealed far more of Hoilett’s philanthropy than most attendees were aware of.

“We didn’t know Rupie had helped so many people, not only on track and field but all over,” Oxford added.

REMEMBRANCE

Hoilett made the 1964 Olympics team as an 18-year-old schoolboy and teammate Vilma Charlton remembered that he hardly spoke during their trip to Tokyo for those Games.

“He was very quiet but, when he opened his mouth to talk, you had to listen”, Charlton recalled.

In Tokyo, Hoilett reached the quarter-final round. After the Games, he clocked 47.1 seconds for 400m, which made him the fourth-fastest Under-20 athlete in the world.

He and Charlton won scholarships to universities 24 miles apart in California, the University of Southern California (USC) and Pepperdine University, respectively, and, in keeping with the close ties shared by members of the 1964 team, remained in touch.

He lent a hand when Charlton, then a physical education lecturer at the Institute of Education, UWI, Mona, teamed up with UWI research fellow Rachel Irving to write Jamaica Gold, a study that delved into Jamaican sprint prowess in 2010.

“I linked up with him personally when Rachel and I did the study, he was the one who drove us to the Maroons in the Cockpit Country,” she said.

During the service, another of Hoilett’s 1964 Olympic teammates paid tribute to his friend’s contributions on the track. Lindy Headley, who ran on Jamaica’s fourth-place 4x100m team in Tokyo, credited Hoilett’s performances for supporting the view that Jamaica could produce champions at home.

Also present were Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association President Garth Gayle and noted artiste Kabaka Pyramid, who gave a musical tribute.

Hoilett ran for Jamaica at 17 at the 1963 Pan American Games, and later at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston. Beset by injuries at USC, he successfully read for a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance.

Hoilett died on October 6 at the University Hospital of the West Indies, Mona because of a heart-related ailment. He was 77.