John Lunn

He was a towering influence on the Leeds club having filled almost every key position in the club's organisation – competitor, team manager, statistician, archivist, announcer, judge, to name a few.

Lunn was a very good middle and long distance runner showing huge talent whilst still at Leeds Modern School. In 1959 he won the Yorkshire Youths Cross Country title and repeated the feat a year later. He was a member of Leeds AC which in 1967 merged with Harehills Harriers and Leeds St Marks to form the present Leeds City club.

From Leeds Modern School he won a place in 1960 at Exeter College, Oxford, the alma mater of Olympic Champion Jack Lovelock and first four minute miler Roger Bannister.

Lunn read history and one of his tutors was playwright Alan Bennett who, like Lunn, had been educated at Leeds Modern School before turning down a place at Cambridge in order to read history at Exeter.

At Oxford, Lunn was awarded his Blue on the track (three miles) and at cross country. While he had his successes on the track, he was better as a cross country and road runner, was a member of numerous Leeds City medal winning teams and ran for Yorkshire. His best performance on the road was a 2:19:48 marathon at Huddersfield in 1970. Only one Leeds City athlete has beaten that time although Lunn's mark remains unratified as the course was re-measured and found to be under distance.

After Oxford, Lunn worked briefly for British Nylon but soon decided industry was not for him and settled for a career in teaching after further study at Manchester University. He first taught in Darlington, running at that time for the Middlesbrough and Cleveland club. Returning to Leeds, he taught at Matthew Murray and later at West Leeds High School.

He took a further qualification at Leeds University and claimed the distinction of being the oldest runner ever to compete in the British Universities Cross Country Championship when in his thirties.

Although not a prolific veteran competitor, Lunn continued to run until a heart problem was diagnosed. Since then he took up hammer throwing with enthusiasm. His booming voice, outlandish dress sense, his mode of greeting (bear hug and a kiss), will be sadly missed at athletic venues, not just in Yorkshire but throughout the country.

He invariably supported the current Leeds City teams and took great pleasure in seeing them rise to become the top British club in men's road and cross country running.

Colleagues had mixed reactions to his propensity to giving everyone a nickname but they were invariably funny if often irreverent.

A man of intellect, well read, a writer of talent and wit and possessing an encyclopaedic memory, he had many interests and talents outside athletics.

A keen railway enthusiast, he much enjoyed his volunteer work for the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway. He was a keen genealogist and a connoisseur of real ale. He was also a volunteer for the WRVS, helping with meals on wheels and with office work.

He leaves a wife Dorothy, herself a stalwart athletics official, and son Matthew.