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As we said, Iain knew when to stop: too many athletes and coaches would be ‘lost’ if they left the sport.   Indeed there are courses for the ‘de-training’ of athletes when they retire and the same could be true of coaches.   Iain is proof that there is a good life to be had after athletics.   But what he did  in the sport and for the sport has not been forgotten and below some of the people who worked for him and with him look back at Iain as a coach as well as a friend.

Val Smith winning the WAAA Junior 100m in 1973

I first joined Maryhill Ladies Athletic Club as as twelve year old in 1972. Coached by Ian Robertson (Rab), the next year I gained success in winning most domestic titles for my age group, culminating in the British Junior 100 metres title at Kirby in 1973.

Training was always enjoyable and varied – club sessions at Scotstoun on Monday and Wednesday nights, all day sessions at Bellahouston on a Sunday, starting with weight training, then a track session, finishing with hill runs-both uphill for strength and stamina and downhill for leg speed and acceleration.   Winter training included Friday nights in the gym at Westbourne, with circuit training and gym work, followed by hill runs on the pavements outside!   The club regularly had a day out to Prestwick, where I remember running along the beach dragging a tyre behind my back for resistance training, and also running up hill dunes.   Co-ordination drills, hopping, bounding up sets of stairs were also common in training, along with running with weighted jackets.

Training was meticulously planned by Iain well in advance, and we all kept training diaries which were regularly discussed.

Iain was highly intelligent and extremely knowledgeable about the latest training techniques, and was very innovative for his time.

I remember competing at Cosford in the British Indoor Championships 60 metres in 1975, where I was using a one-handed start, pioneered by my namesake, the Olympic 100 metre Champion, Valery Borzov. I won my heat, and there was a rumour afterwards that I may be disqualified, as the officials were not sure if this start was legal, as they had not seen it used before in this country.   Luckily I was allowed to progress, and I won a silver medal!   Eventually the one-handed start became quite popular, before the current IAAF ruling of a down start with both hands in contact with the track!

It was not long before Iain was coaching a very talented squad of athletes.  He turned up at training one night wearing a red hooded sweatshirt with the words ‘Rab’s Rockets’ printed on the back, so from then on, the squad was known as Rab’s Rockets!

His commitment and contribution to his athletes was second to none, and he was always well respected by his peers. He encouraged the best from his athletes, and was an extremely dynamic and motivational coach.   It was an absolute privilege to be coached by him.

Angela Bridgeman Baxter

 I first joined Rab’s training group when I was about 13  years old. I came to Glasgow AC when Western AC joined with the women who trained with Maryhill and we all started training at Scotstoun. Up until that point athletics was a fun hobby for me and I didn’t know another level existed really. I am not sure how it happened but I ended up in Rab’s group and soon realized that this was serious business and that he was a very knowledgeable coach. We did drills and technique runs and he explained how to do them and more importantly why. He kept detailed records and had a yearly periodized plan and he was very interested in the whole person. He was meticulous and organized. He had us monitor all of our vitals like sleep/food we ate and daily pulse rate while recommending vitamins for us to take.  I coached for several years and this knowledge and approach served me well.

     Val Smith and others were the older athletes in the group were all successful and I soon found out why. We trained very hard. Rab had a no nonsense approach at the club although we did have fun.  He would also meet us on other days once we reached the level where we needed to train more which came with more sacrifice of his time. There was no elitism in that anyone who came to the group was welcomed. Most did not stay long as the hard training weeded people out. I believe he came from a soccer background which a lot of the coaches did. He would always come with a sheet of notepaper with the session on it and there was many butterflies in the stomach as we waited to hear what we would be running that night. He rarely told us ahead of time what we would be doing. Then as we tired he would urge us to “get the finger out”(laughs) His dedication to the sport and his athletes was amazing. When we would go to meetings he would mostly be found in the press box announcing! He travelled to Brisbane in 1982 to support the Scottish team and myself and Sandra Whittaker who were competing. He arranged for us to run around Celtic park before a big game so we could get used to big crowds before going to Brisbane! He thought of it all. I probably did not have the intense competitive drive that matched his expertise and coaching and I was somewhat injury prone which limited my progression.

I have read the bios of some of the other Scottish coaches on this site and I think Iain  walks alongside all of the great ones- Frank Dick, John Anderson and others. He was more than a “just a coach” he was a mentor and good friend. I basically grew up under his influence. I learned many lessons from him that have helped me be successful in my life.

Angela is academic advisor for men’s and women’s cross country and men’s and women’s track and field

Brigham Young University Utah

Sandra Whittaker was a quite superb athlete whose running, especially in the 1983 world championships in Helsinki, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1986 Commonwealth Games, was right up there with the best in the wold.   She has this to say about Iain.

When I joined Glasgow Athletic Club I was fortunate enough to be placed in the sprints training group which Iain Robertson coached.

Within the first year Iain had quickly recognised my potential and approached my parents to ask if they could bring me to training more than once a week as he said he felt he could really make something of me.  After discussion, my parents committed to taking me out to Scotstoun 3 times a week and Bellahouston 1 day a week.  This was the start of great things to come.

Iain was the most committed coach I had the pleasure of training with.  He put everything into every single person who was in our training group regardless of ability.

His training methods, I feel, were well advanced of the time and many other coaches from other clubs followed his training schedules with their athletes.

Our training programmes were very challenging, but with Iain’s support and encouragement we got through them, sometimes on our knees by the end of a session.  Iain also travelled the country and beyond to competitions abroad, paying his own way, to make sure he provided the support I needed, one of these being the Olympic Games where I needed all the support I could get.  Always a man to go above and beyond. It was here that I broke the Scottish Record and ran 22.98 seconds which stood for 34 years until 2 years ago. He was the proudest coach at that time.

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Alastair Shaw adds to what he says in the profile: “Although quick with the quips, and not always suffering fools gladly, Iain had a great moral sense and an understanding that coaches don’t just work on physical improvements with athletes but, wittingly or unwittingly, also set a role model for them. In that regard you might want to speak to Leslie Roy. Partly for stories from the many club trips down south when Ian was club Team Manager and she still an active athlete, and partly as I suspect she may have learnt quite a bit from him about how to go about team management.”

Lynne MacDougall

Lynne MacDougall has this to add:

“Three things I remember vividly about Rab: One was his passion and dedication to the club. He was at every UK league match. He would distribute a small piece of paper with the time of your event to each girl in the bus before the match started. This would be followed by a motivational speech to entreat you to perform your best. The bus was silent as we all listened intently. I am sure that most of us did get PBs in these matches!

The second was his approach to his training group. At the time I was in the club he had a really talented group, including Sandra Whittaker, Yvonne Anderson and Angela Bridgeman. They all worked very hard on that Scotstoun track which was just ash at the time, but also seemed to have a lot of fun.

The third was his sense of fun and humour. He was very serious and professional in his approach to coaching but also loved to kid on the athletes and of course we enjoyed the banter as well. “

 Iain’s picture of Sandra and Angela in Brisbane, 1982

Back to the profile

There are so many pictures of the distance runners that it will take several pages to show them all.   We start with a wonderful runner, a Garscube Harrier who was based in England and ran for Birchfield Harriers and the Army:   Sergeant RR Sutherland.

PETER ADDISON

JOHN PATERSON

ROBERT R SUTHERLAND

1930 ICCU Cross Country Race: Evanston beats Sutherland to the line

PETER  J  ALLWELL

Lanark, 1939:  Archie Craig, Emmett Farrell, Allwell, Archie Dow and Willie Sutherland

Allwell, Farrell and Dow

GM CARSTAIRS

Carstairs in 1938

ALEX DOW

1937 Scottish ICCU Team

This [age has mainly milers – of course since so many of  the runners featured ran a wide range of distances, it does not include all the mile champions.   For instance Duncan McPhee and WR Seagrove are featured on the half milers page.     There are more to come here too.

Willie Robertson

Inaugural ICCU International, Hamilton Park.   Robertson arrowed.

JOHN McGOUGH

Scottish Mile Champion 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1910

John McGough

McGough, Stockholm, 1907

McGough (1) with the 1912 Olympic Team

McGough beats McNicol, 1907

HT JAMIESON

SAAA Mile Champion 1908, 1909

The Edinburgh University team of 1908 – just look at the names.

DOUGLAS McNICOL

Scottish Mile Champion 1911, 1912

Douglas McNicol

TOM RIDDELL

SAAA Mile Champion 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935

THE GEORGE FOX CLASSIC

15th October

Jim comments on the races: What a day- races were moved up 2 hours which meant we had to scramble to get across the mountains in time to race.   Reason – big storm in the pacific which blew in while our kids were racing – great xc weather – winds gusting to 50mph, rain and mud – we lost 2 tents.

Like many runners of whatever generation, Hugh had his heroes – in this case he and I agree that Herb Elliott was top of the list.   Any list, any time, Herb was The Man.   His coach Percy Cerutty was/is a legendary figure.   The picture below needs no caption.  Herb watches as Perce works on the bar.

All coaches have their wee sayings to motivate their athletes: don’t know how some of today’s athletes would take this challenge!

Percy conducts a ‘warm up’ wrestling match!

Coach and athlete enjoying each other’s company.

Lennart Strand with Herb Elliott and Percy Cerutty.

A remarkable photograph: the six athletes pictured set 50 world records and won 19 Olympic medals between them.

Standing:   Paavo Nurmi, 16 world records and 9 Olympic medals; Hannes Kolehmainen 6 and 5; Ron Clarke 19 and 1; Marcel Hansenne 1 and 1; Laurie Lehtinen 2 and 2; Robert Pariente (journalist).

In front: Robert Bodin – Jazy’s coach, Michel Jazy 6 and 1.

Although Scotland’s records do not go as far back as the Tailtean Games in Ireland, yet what we have prove the love of athletics among the Picts, Scots and the gregarious Celts.   From the chief downwards, athletics was the joy of the Gael, indeed the chief was often the most accomplished.   At his door lay the ‘clachneart’, literally the stone of strength or the putting stone and on the arrival of a guest he was asked as a compliment to throw it.   The chief’s followers, and those of his guests engaged in all manly sports, and as the honour of the clan was at stake, it is surmised that in the strenuous contests more heads than records were broken.   The Fraser chiefs were noted athletes, and the father of the late Lord Lovat – an excellent sportsman – was an expert stone and hammer thrower.

In a manuscript lately come to light entitled: ‘Ane breve cronicle of the Erles of Ross’, an account is given of how an earldom was gained by prowess in wrestling.   At the coronation of Edward I there was among those attached to his court in London a famous French wrestler from Normandy who was considered invincible.   But during the gay doings, he was challenged by Farquhar Ross from the North of Scotland, a vassal to the Scottish king Alexander II, and to the amazement and delight of the Scottish king, his wife and a sister of Edward , and the Scottish guests, Farquhar overthrew and signally vanquished the unbeaten champion.   So delighted was King Alexander over his countryman’s ‘notabill vassalage’, as he called it,  that he conferred the Earldom of Ross upon him.   To celebrate his victory and to carry out a vow that he had made, Farquhar erected an abbey, now no longer in existence, but its successor in Kincardine, Ross-shire is still used as the Parish Church.

At the great royal hunts which took place at Braemar and which often lasted for a fortnight, many chiefs with their followers took part.   Malcolm II started at one of these ‘hunts’ the first recorded ‘Games’ by offering as a prize a sword and a purse of gold to the first man to reach, in a race, the summit of Craig Choinneach.   Two McGregor brothers were favourites, but a third and younger brother, who was late in starting won after a terrific struggle.

It was not however till 1832 that the first organised Braemar Gathering took place.   Queen Victoria was keenly interested in these sports, and in 1889 invited society to Balmoral.   Later the Duke of Fife gave the present Princess Royal Park where the meeting is now held.   The clansmen gather at the spot where the Jacobite standard was unfurled in 1715 – which event is commemorated in ‘The Standard on the Braes o’Mar’ – and march to the sports ground.

Since the year 1314 without a break, except during the Great War, the Ceres Games, founded to celebrate the return of the victorious Fife villagers from the Battle of Bannockburn, have been held annually.   It is remarkable that the name of the Fife agricultural village, Ceres, is that of the Latin goddess, Ceres, the protectress of agriculture and in whose honour great sports were instituted.

Carnwath in Lanarkshire holds annually a meeting of great antiquity.   The Red Hose race is the principal event, and local and popular tradition has it that in the event of the Carnwath estate becoming heir-less, the latest winner of the ‘Hose’ would become proprietor!

Under the shadow of the Duke of Argyll’s stately castle at Inveraray, a gathering of the western clans’ representative pipers, strong men and runners has been held for centuries.   Running was a feature of this meeting, for the chiefs of old encouraged their ‘gille-ruith’, or running footmen, to excel in the Geal-ruith, or running and leaping  games.

Among great athletes in Scotland, the two whose names were, and still are, in the mouths of everyone, were Captain Barclay of Ury and Donald Dinnie.   The former was a great and up-to-date land proprietor in Kincardineshire.   Sprung from an ancient and physically powerful family, he lived during the later part of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth.   Educated at Cambridge, he early joined the army and served as ADC to the GOC of the ill-fated Walcheren Expedition.   He was though of little more than average size, possessed of a great strength, speed and remarkable powers of endurance.   Of the latter his great feat of walking 1000 miles in 1000 hours – that is one mile for every hour, was a record to his stamina.   Others who tried this feat broke down at an early stage, but he continued for a period of 42 days and though he lost much weight was at the finish wonderfully fit.   He was a great runner, walker, wrestler and stone-thrower,  and thus resembled Dinnie, who was born in Aberdeenshire in 1837.   Strange to say, Dinnie’s best performances were done when he was approaching forty years of age, and when fifty eight years old was the recognised all-round champion of New Zealand.   Dinnie was undoubtedly the best athlete of his time, and in addition to being heavy-weight champion, excelled in wrestling, leaping, vaulting, running and dancing.

Over a century ago, the Borders had a remarkable man, Will o’Phaup, so called for his farm in the Ettrick valley.   Like Dinnie in the North his name was a household word.   His tombstone at Ettrick Kirk records that for feats of strength and agility, he was not excelled in the kingdom.

In pre-amateur days Scotland was famous for its distance runners, and many feats of endurance are recorded in books dealing with origins and history of Scottish Highland Gatherings.”

Historical Survey

From Hamish Telfer:

My first recollection of Bill was as a young athlete in the 1960s. Very much his own man with a clear vision, he developed a string of international as well as good club level athletes. He appeared to me at the then tender age of about 15/16, to be quite a daunting individual with an intense look and very much doing his own thing. What was very clear however was the admiration and respect in which Bill was held by both athletes and coaches. His sessions were well run and he simply got on with the job in hand. A no nonsense approach then. He produced good athletes!

After I left to work in England I next encountered Bill when Scottish Athletics decided to put in place a Scottish Coaches Commission. The Commission was elected by the coaches of Scotland and I, along with about eight to nine othes were duly elected. Bill simply stood out in terms of respect and status as the natural Chair of the Commission. Somewhat reluctantly he agreed to chair the meetings but managed to contain the somewhat bizarre and eclectic minds that made up the Commission. It was during this time that I got to know Bill better and as his Vice-chair we developed a good working relationship.

The Commission from the outset had an uphill task. While we achieved some small gains, we all felt that we were frustrated in our efforts to put coaches and coaching at the forefront of the agenda. With some of the commission more volatile than others (!), Bill was a superb Chair, negotiating his way through some very turbulent meetings with the then CEO, David Joy. What I can remember of those meetings was both a heady mix of strong views amongst the members of the commission as well as some hilarious moments as ten or so egos bounced off each other. Bill’s ability to handle this was outstanding and on some occasions where he felt he wished to make a stronger contribution to the discussion, he would ask me to chair to allow him to advocate on behalf of the issue at hand.

It wasn’t always plain sailing however. On one occasion I remember getting a telephone call to tell me Bill had taken ill while at an athletics meeting in England and since I lived in the Lakes, I was asked to pop in to the hospital and make sure he was ok ‘since I was nearest’. I remember the anxious conversation with his wife on the phone as it seemed it may have been a suspected heart attack. When I arrived however, Bill was sitting up in bed, had his laptop out, his papers all around him on the bed and had the nurses running around after him. I then got a list of things he wanted me to do for him ‘if I got the time’. Just typical of Bill and this typifies his approach to his athletics.

When the commission eventually folded after a mass walk out of coaches after our repeated requests were blocked, Bill remained in essence in post to wind the affairs of the commission down. It had lasted merely a few years. However in those few years of working closely with Bill, I came to see a man of immense talent and vision; of intensely stubborn conviction mixed with a hugely enquiring mind and above all a warm and generous nature once he got to know you.

Bill is an immense talent who has never been fully recognised either in terms of his commitment and contribution to athletes, but also coaches and coaching. I have been lucky in my own coaching having served in a coaching capacity at GB level in three different sports, and seldom if ever have I come across someone for whom I have awe, admiration and respect and can also count as a good close colleague. It is also seldom that I can say that he is one of the most talented coaches I’ve seen. I hope he reads this and believes it, since I know I’m not alone in this view …. and he owes me a lunch anyway!

Hamish Telfer

From Eric Simpson:

Bill Walker is one of the most respected coaches in the country,a man who over the years has consistently produced quality athletes. A man who only last year was given an award for his services to British sprinting. Like many great coaches Bill does not suffer fools gladly and over the years has crossed swords with politicians and sports administrators who have chosen to make decisions detrimental to the sport he loves,athletics.

When I first started coaching I knew of Bill Walker, I had seen him coach and watched his no nonsense approach. It didn’t matter what level you were at Bill was the boss. I had heard him on various coaching courses and knew of his achievements . I had watched the documentary “No Easy Way” and realised that he was indeed a very special guy. I remember early on in my coaching life crossing swords with Bill at Grangemouth and saying that I had an athlete who was going to beat one of his. He expertly shot me down but continued to support my efforts. As the years went by I used Bill as my sounding board along with John Anderson both who gave of their time and knowledge unstintingly. Over the years Bill and I worked in tandem with him having input with Katie Skorupska and Stephen Payton. When I worked in Edinburgh it was just round the corner from Meadowbank and Bill and I would work together at night over quite a few winters. He was the quiet one, me as usual was the loud one. We had a a few years together in a loose partnership till I moved on work wise. I passed athletes on to Bill and he to me. He has always been a part of my coaching and personal life has he has for quite a few people.

 This may come as a shock to his present squad , but he has actually mellowed, though I would advise that you don’t upset him, but definitely mellowed.. Even today Bill has an absolute wealth of knowledge and expertise that few people tap into. I watched him at the Scottish Schools Day recently and was still amazed by his ability to put over his point to a group of young sprinters who he was working with, none of which I suspected had heard of him or knew his pedigree.

 I consider Bill Walker as one of the great coaches that Scotland has produced his knowledge and commitment to athletes and his sport is second to none. Young coaches, sit with Bill have a talk about your aspirations and allow him to help you and your athletes to future success. He’s not so dour when you get to know him.

From Frank Dick:

Through times when sport, and particularly athletics, has been battered by a tsunami of damaging change it is imperative that coaches remain the bastion of values and of professionalism we need them to be. Bill understands this and not only lives highest values personally while instilling them in those whose lives he influences, his coaching professionalism is persistently exemplary. Without coaches like Bill, Scottish athletics would be extinct. He was a key player in my coaching team through Scotland’s golden period.