Lincoln University Associate Professor in Farm Management Peter Nuthall has been reunited with a trophy he won 36 years ago, discovered when the University's "silverware" was being polished up ready for the institution's 125 th jubilee celebrations at Labour Weekend.
The cup is for the Old Students Race which was always a highlight of the annual campus Sportsday, a feature of life at Lincoln from the earliest times through to the 1970s.
Peter graduated Bachelor of Agricultural Science from Lincoln in 1963, then went on to complete a Masters degree with First Class Honours in Farm Management and later a PhD.
In his student days he was a keen athlete and member of the campus Athletic Club. He was Lincoln's high jump champion in 1960 and achieved a national fourth placing at the New Zealand universities tournament that year.
The first award of the cup for the Old Students Race was in 1913 and altogether there are 52 names inscribed on it. The names include many outstanding contributors to agricultural science in New Zealand such as plant scientists JW Calder and CE Iversen, animal physiologist JW McLean, conservationist LW McCaskill and Rhodes Scholar and farm management specialist HE Garrett.
One nationally recognised name on the cup that stands out perhaps above all is that of Charles Upham, who joined the army from Lincoln at the outbreak of the Second World War and went on to become the only combatant soldier ever to win two Victoria Crosses, the highest award for gallantry.
Upham held two diplomas from Lincoln, having studied there over 1928-30 and again in 1939. The circumstances of him winning the Old Students Race and the Cup in 1939 were recorded not long before his death in 1994. Although enlisted at Burnham Military Camp he retained an interest in Lincoln activities and when Sportsday came around he "borrowed" a bike from the army camp, cycled the 10 miles to Lincoln at full speed, ran in the Old Students Race, won it, then immediately cycled back to Burnham hoping his absence wouldn't be noticed!
Just over two months later he was sailing for war service overseas.
The Old Students Race Cup is one of over 25 historic trophies and medals on display at Lincoln to mark the 125 th anniversary of the University's foundation in 1878.
For further information contact
Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury
Tel: (03) 3252811 ext 8549.
Email: Ian Collins