By Ken Bediako
Mr Zac Bentum of blessed memory, football administrator extraordinaire and former GFA boss once told me you have to blow your own horn at times to avoid people blowing discord.
The former director of Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs who replaced the appellation Mysterious with Ebusua may have a point don’t you think so?
Well I have been invited to this weekend’s SWAG Awards night to receive an award for my past contribution to the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) since its inauguration at the Ambassador Hotel Accra in 1968.
Indeed, I have permission from the Editor to tell my own story why I deserve the award, especially considering the hullabaloo surrounding the selection of the novelty SWAG sports journalist of the year.
Apart from being a founding member of the SWAG at its inauguration at Ambassador Hotel, Accra in 1968, then a junior reporter at the Daily Graphic. I was one of the three people who cemented the idea of an annual SWAG Awards night.
This was at an informal meeting over German beer at the Olympic Village in Munich Germany in 1972.
Mr BB Bismark one-time team manager of the Black Stars arranged the meeting involving my good friend and classmate Eugene Thompson and myself. Indeed, the original idea came from Mr Bismark who later became a SWAG patron, chief of Aburi and Adontehene of Akuapem traditional area.
Bismark urged the two of us to sell the idea to SWAG on our return from the Munich Olympics, which we did and it was accepted. He honoured his promise of buying two trophies for the top goal scorer in the national league and the best defender. Peter Lamptey of Hearts was top goal scorer and Akuetteh Armah of Kumasi Cornerstone was adjudged the best defender for the 1973 season.
The first SWAG awards night was held at the Ambassador Hotel in 1974. It was a real baptism of fire as some of the prominent people in society invited did not turn up. It was a strictly Mr & Mrs affair so there were so many vacant seats we had to look round for invited guests to fill the vacuum. It was a bitter lesson learnt and the subsequent one was an improvement.
Perhaps anticipating a bright future for the awards, the management of Kumasi Brewery then headed by English man A. D. Beesley offered to sponsor the programme. That was in 1976 when I was SWAG vice president to Oheneba Charles and in charge of the awards planning committee.
With Joe Aggrey as secretary, the organisation for awards became almost a full-time job. Kumasi Brewery attached so much importance to the programme that weeks before the event, a top official came down from Kumasi to Accra to finalise arrangements for the event.
The famous top-class international administrator, Mr Esson Benjamin was then KBL manager in charge of SWAG programmes and he was superb.
The SWAG also had fine correlation with the Football Association and the annual SWAG Cup match that preceded the SWAG awards was firmly on the GFA calendar.
The Bukom Nite Club at Continental Hotel was our regular venue with renowned Broadcaster Godwin Avenogbor.
Godwin Avenogbor was the official MC for the awards for decades and he should be mentioned in dispatches.
Mr Ebo Abraham, owner of ‘Sweet Talks Dance Band’ that provided music at SWAG awards night gratis for nearly a decade also should be appreciated.
The Bukom Nite club normally booked 250 people but by special arrangement the friendly manager for banquets managed to fix a few more seats for the sake of SWAG.
We regarded the SWAG night as an occasion to appreciate our patrons in addition to the sports heroes being honoured. Led by chief patron Mr HP Nyemitei, seating arrangements were carefully planned to cater for the teetotallers.
As you can imagine by courtesy of Kumasi Brewery, drinkables were in huge supply and some observers were wondering why free gate fees. The explanation lied in the uniqueness of the event.
It required the dedication and sacrifice of some of us to make the awards stand the test of time.
Indeed, former GJA President Kabral Blay Amihere once told me he took inspiration from the decent organisation of the SWAG awards to institute the GJA awards.
It is pertinent to note that my two giant Exco members Oheneba Charles, the President; and Joe Aggrey, the indefatigable Secretary, have already been honoured by current President Kwabena Yeboah and my award this year should be regarded as a matter of course and I should be given the liberty to blow my own horn.
Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.
