Kevin Corrigan

BA Economics, 1976

I have many memories from my too-quickly-passed years at Warwick.

I played in the 1st X1 football team, was Athletics Union Chairman and was many times 'tired and emotional' in the AU bar celebrating wins (draws and losses as well).

I was also part of the team that broke the indoor 5-a-side football World Record in 1975. 65 gruelling hours of staying awake and playing. I recall being visited by members of the Coventry City Football Club, as we had a relationship with them, and being interviewed by the late, great TV commentator, Jimmy Hill. We also had a great night when three of us collared another football great, Joe Mercer, for our table at the annual dinner the University hosted with Coventry City. I think the others on the table were Al Reardon, Bob B (goalkeeper) and Martin. I remember Al being an incredibly hard, tough-tackling centre back.

One other non-academic memory was my triumphant 1975 (or maybe 1976) win in the annual University Pancake Race. Student humour hasn't changed - the course was littered with the signs to 'toss here'. I won a medal and a copy of the Jimmy Young Cook Book. I still have the medal and the cookbook.

And in the beginning? My first music night at the university, travelling in from Russell Terrace, in Leamington Spa, was a fantastic evening with the fab 1960s group, The Tremeloes. As a student from Dagenham, seeing a Dagenham based band was a bonus. The University always had a great roster of bands. Shaking Stevens and the Sunsets were also a great live band.

Writing this, sitting in my apartment in sunny Abu Dhabi, it all seems a world away and the intervening years have gone by in a blur - marriage, kids, grandkids, thousands of football matches played and watched, not to mention having to work for a living. I am grateful for the University for giving me a great start in life and a bag full of happy memories. I have now spent a life time in the world of education and lucky to be still working, the last decade or so, in the Gulf as an education consultant.

Good luck to everyone in these difficult times. Happy to catch up with anyone from those halcyon days.