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How Hong Kong Sports Institute was inspired by Harvard University and an army camp

The huge Sha Tin complex, initially called the Jubilee Sports Centre and now known as the Hong Kong Sports Institute, opened in 1982

‘It provides splendid facilities for training Hongkong’s sportsmen and sportswomen of the future,’ Post sports reporter wrote

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David Griffiths, CEO of the Jubilee Sports Centre, at the construction site, in 1978. Photo: SCMP

Published: 3:15pm, 23 Oct 2020Updated: 4:20pm, 24 Oct 2020

The headline “$50 million sports centre to be built at Shatin,” ran in the South China Morning Poston April 2, 1977. “The centre will occupy 41 acres of reclaimed land on the waterfront next to the new racecourse and will be completed within three years,” the story continued.

“The development, about the size of the Happy Valley racecourse, is being jointly financed by the Jockey Club and the Government. The Jockey Club has already spent $25 million on reclaiming the land for it.”

On June 18, the Post reported that the new complex had a name: the Jubilee Sports Centre.

After touring similar establishments overseas , chief executive David Griffiths, a former Commonwealth Games athlete, told the paper on July 30, 1978: “I now know exactly what I want the centre to look like.”

A runner brings the sacred flame into the newly opened Jubilee Sports Centre to start the Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled, in 1982. Photo: SCMP

His vision? “A mixture of the famous American university, Harvard, Millfield Public School in England, and an army camp.”