November 2012


Issue Home >>

Citation

No creature more dominates Chinese folklore and mythology than does the dragon. It symbolizes power, virtue, honour, industry and excellence. And no other man has for longer or to a greater degree dominated the sporting and socio-cultural landscape in Trinidad and Tobago than Alloy Regimus Lequay. One might say he is an evergreen dragon.

At age 20, he had already founded the Oxford Club San Fernando. At 30, he was General Secretary to the Trinidad and Tobago Table Tennis Association; at 40, President of the Rahamut Cricket Cups Competition; at 50, Chief Delegate of the Trinidad and Tobago Table Tennis Team to China; at 70, on the West Indies Cricket Board of Control; at 80, Chief Executive Officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board and now on the verge of 90, we are here to celebrate him with our University’s highest honour. What about at age 60, you might inquire? Well, at 60 he was simply ‘holding strain.’

The Dragon’s perspective is always broad and with a large and all-encompassing world view. It was easy for him, therefore, to look towards ancient Greece and put sport at the epicentre of his existence and as a means to a successful and productive life. What is more, he had an innate understanding of the value of sport as a vehicle for social transformation. But this was not enough. His skills as an organizer and motivator, which he so successfully deployed in sport, quite naturally launched him into national politics. He was elected Member of Parliament for South Naparima in the general elections of 1966, was later twice nominated to serve as Senator of our Republic and then chaired the evanescent but idealistic National Alliance for Reconstruction.

Alloy Lequay has published his life’s work in an autobiography entitled ‘Winning Against The Tide’ and his tales of struggle and conquest in three other volumes leave a rich legacy for future dragons. His work has been officially recognized with numerous awards, including the Chaconia Medal Gold, the Millennium Award for Sport Administration as well as the Stollmeyer Medal for Sport Administration for which he was its first recipient.

Chancellor, I invite you to invoke the authority vested in you by the Council and the Senate of The University of the West Indies and confer upon this dragon, Alloy Regimus Lequay, the degree of Doctors of Laws, honoris causa.