USYRU Sportsmanship Award

“Awarded to the member who, through the integrity, sacrifice, and graciousness of true sportsmanship,
has fostered the sport of yacht racing.”

Since 1988, this award has been presented by the Vice Commodore Fleet on the recommendation of the previous winners. As can be seen below, it is not an annual award.

The History of the USYRU Sportsmanship Trophy at PCYC

Don Cooper and John Weakley

In 1987, then Rear Commodore Mike Pellegrin reported to the Board of Directors that the United States Yacht Racing Union (now US Sailing) was prepared to give each of its member clubs a trophy to recognize “Sportsmanship”. To paraphrase the conversation that took place at the Board, Mike asked if the club was interested (Answer: Yes), and how would the winners be decided (Answer: By the Rear Commodore – in the same manner as the decision was made for the Cousins Trophy for bringing the most Honour to the club).

That fall, Mike awarded the trophy to John Weakley, and the next year he presented the award to Don Cooper.

In 1989, Don Cooper had become Rear Commodore and was therefore responsible for selecting the next recipient of the award. He approached John with some concerns and suggestions on how the award should be handled in the future. They readily agreed on a number of items: It was to be for Sportsmanship, not “Long Time or Outstanding Service”; It was not to become a “Popularity Contest”, but was to be “Awarded to the member who, through the integrity, sacrifice, and graciousness of true sportsmanship, has fostered the sport of yacht racing”. From these discussions, the following “protocol” was developed:

1. A Committee consisting of all of the previous winners – who were still members of the club – would decide on the next recipient. This addressed several concerns: it precluded the selection of the Rear Commodore’s “Best Friend”, prevented the award from becoming a popularity contest, and provided for an expanding Committee to determine future recipients.
2. Members of the Board of Directors (or other elected officials) would not be eligible, either while they were in office, nor for the work that they had done while in office. The rational for this was that “they had been asked to do a job, had agreed to do the job, and therefore should not be ‘rewarded’ for having done a good job”. It also avoided the potential problem that would occur if it was presented to the Commodore – how could you not present it to the next Commodore.
3. Any member of the Committee could nominate a candidate, either directly, or as the result of a suggestion from someone not on the Committee.
4. The decision of the Committee must be unanimous, although a member could abstain. There have been several ‘nominations’ that have not been accepted, but no single member of the Committee has ever held up the selection of an individual. In one case, many years ago, when a member of the committee realized that they were the only one opposed to a nomination, they abstained. To maintain this tradition, in the fall of 2007, the Committee had the Board of Directors officially change the Deed of Gift to read: “in the event that there is only one vote opposed to a nomination, that vote shall be recorded as an abstention.”
5. It was not to be an annual award. There was to be no pressure on the Committee to find a winner each year. If someone has a suggestion, fine, bring it forward. If there were no suggestions, also fine; maybe next year. It has been the practice to not make an issue of the fact that the trophy was not going to be presented in any particular year. Any reference to the trophy is removed from the “Awards Night Program”, the trophy is not on display, and no announcement is made – the less said, the better. Nothing is to be gained by announcing that “We have not found a worthy sportsman in the club this year.”
6. It would be the second last award presented at Awards Night (immediately before the Cousins Trophy) and the name of the winner would be kept a secret until the presentation was made (as with the Cousins Trophy). With one exception, it has always been presented at Awards Night. In 1994, Duncan McNeill was to be the recipient. Since Duncan was not part of the “racing scene” at the club, he knew nothing about any of the trophies, and had never been to Awards Night; so several weeks in advance, John called him and invited him “to dinner at the club”, failing to mention that the date was Awards Night. On the Saturday afternoon, Duncan called to say that he was delayed in Houston, and could not make it back in time, so an alternate date was set. On the agreed upon evening, when Duncan arrived at the club, John introduced him to the past recipients of the award (who were all in attendance) without explaining why they were all there. After a nice meal in the Dining Room, John suggested that they “retire to the Board Room for coffee and desert”. There, the trophy, keeper and some other mementos were laid out, but it wasn’t until John explained the history of the trophy that Duncan realized what the “occasion” was all about. Up until that point, Duncan thought that John had simply invited him to dinner with some of his friends, and had not realized that the original date was Awards Night. For Duncan, the whole evening was a surprise.

Since the original terms for deciding the winner had been decided by the Board of Directors, Don and John felt that this new “protocol” should receive “Board Blessing”. At the last meeting of the Board of Directors before the Awards Night in 1989, there was a discussion, during the Rear Commodore’s Report, about who had won which trophy – in those days most if not all of the Board were active racers, and many of them were curious as to who had won such trophies as the Founders’ Cup, or the Farrow Cup. Don announced that he had selected a winner for the Cousins Trophy (while still keeping it a secret), and that he and John (who was now Immediate Past Commodore) had come up with a new process for deciding the winner of the USYRU Sportsmanship Trophy. The Board readily agreed with the proposal, with one exception: Since the By Laws laid out the overall authority of the Rear Commodore, it was agreed that the wording be changed to: “The winner to be selected by the Rear Commodore on the recommendation of the previous winners”. (The proposed wording said simply that the previous winners would select the winner). With that decision by the Board of Directors, the “six” rules became the Deed of Gift.

There have been several “conventions” that have developed concerning the trophy:

1. At the suggestion of Kim Weaver, the trophy is presented by the previous winner. Sometimes the Rear Commodore has announced the winner, and sometimes the presenter has done that, but since Kim won the trophy, it has always been presented by the previous winner, unless they could not be present.
2. The reasons why the winner was selected, are not announced, although they may be obvious to many of those present. Although a large number of the recipients have also been involved with Race Committee at the club, only once has it been awarded for this reason.

The “Deed of Gift” has served remarkably well over the past two decades. The trophy has been presented for a wide variety of reasons, and there has been no suggestion that “politics” was involved in selecting a winner. Even though winning the trophy creates a bond between the recipients, it is a remarkably diverse group. The fact that it is not an annual award, has perhaps contributed the most to the prestige of the trophy. When there is a winner, especially after a hiatus, it is a special occasion.

John Weakley has discussed the trophy with individuals at other clubs that have the award (including several in the US). In many cases they wish that they had chosen the same system. Their experience has been what Don Cooper sought to avoid: it has become “a friend of the Commodore award”, or a “long service award”, and in some cases has fallen into disuse because of controversy. What has surprised John the most, is that at very few clubs he has visited, does the trophy have the stature that it does at PCYC.