His citation read:
In 1850 Dr William Penny Brookes formed the Wenlock Olympian Society to hold annual Olympian Games to “promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of Wenlock, and especially of the working classes.”
Brookes spent his life successfully campaigning to have physical education put onto the curriculum of schools in this country, partly to improve the physical condition of recruits to the armed forces.
In 1889 Baron de Coubertin, organiser of the International Congress on Physical Education, was in England seeking information on sports education practised in schools. Brookes wrote to the young Frenchman and invited him to come and see his Olympian Games the following year. Following their meeting in Much Wenlock Coubertin went on to found the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and wrote:
“If the Olympic Games that Modern Greece has not yet been able to revive still survives today, it is due, not to a Greek, but to Dr William Penny Brookes.”
Sadly, William Penny Brookes died four months before the first modern Olympic Games in Athens 1896.
This trophy was given in honour of Norman Wood, WOS President, in recognition of his life-long contribution to sport and especially in restarting the annual Wenlock Olympian Games in 1977 following their lapse a few years earlier. The trophy is awarded by the Society annually to the person who has contributed the most to that year’s Wenlock Olympian Games.
The 2023 Norman Wood Trophy has been awarded to RAF Cosford’s Chief Technician Stuart (Stu) Benson. This is in recognition of the help and support Stu has given the Society in preparing for and running the annual summer Games. Stu led a team of volunteer apprentices in setting up and assisting with the various sporting events which take place in July. This help has also included the loan of equipment which, together, have cemented the continuing success of the Games. The Society also welcomes the links Stu has forged with RAF Cosford and hopes these will continue.
