University of Warwick

I remember my Dad getting Nick Dodd and I tickets to see a Basketball match at the sports centre at the University of Warwick in late 1973 in which one of the teams was named after the famous sporting legend, the Wilson Tigers. How fame lived on and on. As an aside, I am sure none of us old boys would do it but I do get tired of hearing it referred to in the media as Warwick University. There is no such thing, no university in Warwick at all. It gets on my wick I suppose since my Dad worked there for over 10 years.

It was so named as it put two fingers up to Coventry City Council. Although the idea of Coventry needing its own technically based university was proposed by the then bishop of Coventry during or just before WW2, when in about 1960 plans were being drawn up, Coventry thought "we've got the Butts, Henley, the Lanch, Hereward, Tile Hill (maybe), etc. - we don't need a university as well". So they wouldn't give any land; Warwick stepped in and made a generous offer of land. I believe it was at the time just outside the Coventry boundary, and came under Warwick. Reminds me of Decca Records rejecting the Beatles, saying "guitar groups are on the way out" and "The Beatles have no future in show business".

When I first began working at the University of Warwick I was told to refer to it by that name, never Warwick University. Unfortunately the BBC used to have a habit of saying it was in Warwick, and sometimes still does, which often led to problems with visiting speakers getting to Warwick railway station and having to get a taxi the rest of the way or a driver being sent to collect them.

Locally it's know as Warwick Uni, or just the Uni. The full title sounds pompous, like people who try to uplift Leamington by calling it Royal Leamington Spa. A colleague once slapped somebody down with "Royal...? A foundry town with sink estates?" And all because Queen Victoria once went there in 18 something. I remember as kids when a VW Beetle pulled up, and a big bearded bespectacled bloke with a posh voice asked us "Ay saye, I need to go to Warwick. Is this the raight road?" We politely explained that he would have to drive up the A45 to the police station, do a U turn, head back, and when he asked how far we told him it was about ten or twelve miles. "Craykaye", he went on, "aive got a lecture at ten". When I said, "Oh you mean the university, then it's just up the road, turn left, half a mile", he looked at us in disbelief.

I think I can throw some light on this, having been involved with the local basketball scene for many years. Granwood Basketball Club used to play their home games at the University of Warwick sports hall in the 70s, in the National League. They later became Team Fiat when they moved to Coventry Sports Centre, and later became Birmingham Bullets playing at the NIA. The team they will have been playing on that day were in fact Wilson Panthers. They were in the National League for many years and were based in Doncaster. They were so named because of their sponsor, Wilson Tyres.

University of Warwick. Takes me back a bit, didn`t actually build the place, but I had a hand in it as a site surveyor working for two contractors Truscon and Gleeson. It was the mention of the Sports Centre which was one of my contracts - never did see the a basket ball game, the climbing wall was a novelty in its time. Seeing as it`s "have a laugh" night I`ll throw in this cautionary tale (true) Our contracts manager was a German (ex trapeze artist, interned during the war, sent to the Isle of Man, let out to work on repairing war damage in Liverpool) Anyway he remonstrated with the Terrazo floor layers (a firm from Liverpool) in the entrance to the Sports Centre for tardy progess. The foreman laid down his tools and gave his reply to Kurt. "I spent 5 years shooting Germans during the war - seems I didn`t shoot enough of them". I also worked on the Computer Centre, The Theatre, The Chapel and the low long white Forticrete building alongside it and also a Social Building which the last time I looked seemed to have disappeared. Building anything at the University is or was a licence to lose money. There was a builders strike going at the time and we weren`t helped by our men being brought out by a gang of Student Bricklayers who were studying there. and that Women`s Lib Australian woman was in her pomp there at the time, good job all our employees were men or the women would have been out as well. Oh and the Queen visited it was said she had come on a white tile shoot - they kept on flying off all over the place.

No. The University of Warwick wasn't named to 'stick two fingers up' at Coventry. Not to mention other lies: half the land was donated by Coventry, the other half by Warwickshire and it was the co-operation between the two authorities that lead to its creation. (Prior to the current location, I believe Coombe Abbey was considered.) I believe people like Rootes may have also donated to help start it up. The name was suggested - by the then Bishop of Coventry - to reflect the donation of land and because Coventry would receive the economic benefits of the University.

Roger, you must have known my Dad, Charles Ballantyne who was the Electrical Superintendent during that time. His office was in the old farmhouse up by the first phase.

Sorry Bags I don`t think I got as high as that in hob nobbing with the higher echelon, although I was present in the Vice Chancellor`s office at the top end of the site, just off the Kenilworth Road at Gibbet Hill. when I was "privileged" to witness the opening of tenders for a new contract - I remember crawling out of the room "in shame"; my company had come last, by a long way. The Electrical "Clerk of Works" who I saw fairly frequently at site meetings was I seem to remember Charlie Poulson.