SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR usually promises more than it delivers: it is pre-Christmas Sunday night comfort TV rather than a comprehensive review of the sporting year. There is one aspect of the show, however, which is both resonant and important. This year marks the twentieth award of the UNSUNG HERO trophy, “celebrating the best volunteers in sport whose work is making a real difference every day”.
The first winner, from Newport, was rewarded for “his unstinting work with grassroots football in Wales”. Among those who have followed in his footsteps have been Oswestry’s, who organised Special Olympics for thousands of people with learning difficulties; , who set up three boxing clubs in Dorset; from Leicestershire, who for nearly 60 years taught special needs children to swim; and , who transformed East Grinstead rugby club in his short time as head coach there. Ratana’s 2020 award was tragically posthumous: he had been shot by a suspect a few months before, and at the time of writing remains the last police officer in this country to be killed in the line of duty.
