I HAD the poignant experience at the end of last month of attending the funeral service of an Ulster aquatic sport giant Robert Howard at Roselawn Crematorium on a sun-blessed Saturday morning. The place was packed and among the distinguished mourners were Ulster's top international swim official Frank Stevens, water polo's elder statesman Tommy Kirk and Ireland's favourite transplant hero Turlough O'Hagan from Lurgan. The rather sad yet hopeful address was given by Ian Corry, our top local bone doctor and the only man to win the Irish 200m breaststroke title seven years in-a-row, starting in 1973. The one thing missing from a great water-based family occasion was the smell of chlorine. So who was this man, Rob Howard, who effectively brought all strands of our beloved aquatics clan together in peace and harmony?
Well, he started swimming with Leander club back in the 1960s and dominated the backstroke scene for a decade. He never won a junior title, but in 1973 he captured the 100m senior national title and held it against all-comers for the guts of 10 years. He lowered the Irish senior record to one min 00.60 secs in the process, but it was possibly his greatest regret that he never managed to beat the magic minute mark. Howard achieved all those early career triumphs at under the dramatically original coaching of Bobby Madine (Sycerika McMahon's 2012 Olympic coach), but when Madine left for America to hone his skills to world levels, Howard was faced with a predicament. Not for long. Howard moved down the road to Instonians and came under the equally-inspired tuition of Con O'Callaghan. Under the care of O'Callaghan, he won the national 100m butterfly championships in 1976 and represented Ireland as a backstroker at the Montreal Olympics in the same year. Recently, he developed kidney problems but, thanks to the generosity of a close relative, he received a transplant and a new lease of life. It wasn't all sunshine after that though. Howard had some problems and his medics - to his disgust - wouldn't let him do the half of what he wanted to do. It was, in fact, at this year's British Transplant Games in the middle of a convivial dinner that he dropped his savoured Guinness and died - happy among friends and fulfilled in his achievements. Howard was a very active treasurer of the Northern Ireland Transplant Games Association, so if you admire his courage and style, you could not do better than carry a donor card and/or put a few bob in an envelope for Transplant Sport Northern Ireland.