Mental illness in the old is appearing to be far more prevalent in modern society, and it is an incredibly cruel illness, to those who suffer it and those around them. Many British sports fans will be sad to hear that two men who were great voices in their two sports are now in care homes suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, football’s Jimmy Hill now 85 and boxing’s Mickey Duff now 84. Both made great strides to revolutionise their sports and some would say bring them into the modern age. Yet sadly these once sharp minds have been reduced by this horrible illness.
On a more positive note many British sports fans will also remember Jarvis Astaire. He was a man of many talents, he was a boxing manager and promoter, – and worked with Australia’s Johnny Famechon – he was the deputy Chairman of Wembley Stadium, and Chairman of the Greyhound Racing Association; He was even Dustin Hoffman’s manager for a while. For over 30 years he was a major player in British sport. Astaire was instrumental in taking Muhammad Ali to England to defend his world heavyweight title against British legend Henry Cooper in 1966. We were happy to read that just over a week ago he turned 90, and is still in good health, and only recently gave up his regular game of tennis.
Astaire was a very clever man, who at one stage was a director of 20 companies. In the 1960’s he was the man to pioneer closed circuit and pay-per-view television, an innovation that has helped make many sportsmen a great deal of money. He is highly respected for his business acumen in the world of sports, especially in boxing, horse racing, wrestling and introducing driving ranges to Great Britain.
The sports that these three gentlemen were involved in have come a long way thanks to the moves they made back in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. Although the extent of those changes today may not please many traditional fans, their influence should never be forgotten, and hopefully as they fade from the public limelight their work will not be forgotten
Jimmy Hill – Legend. Poor guy.