Veteran Games official rolls up his sleeves | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

Where veteran Canterbury athletics administrator Graham Vivian sits in the Colgate Games control room at the Regional Sports Park in Hastings, he should have a throne.

But he'd probably push it aside, roll up the sleeves and carry on, just the way he has for more than 30 years - mostly in company of wife Jeannette, who died in 2007.

"Don't write too much," he urges, and tries to deflect acclaim to the myriads of others who pile their volunteer hours into the Games, which he and his wife helped start.

Correcting a bit of other published history, he said the game first appeared as a mini-Olympics, about the time of the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.

Originally from Stratford and now 73, he was Canterbury Children's Committee chairman when the push went on to make an annual holiday event of it, and the Colgate Games began in 1978, morphing into separate three-day South and North island events.

As sponsorship deals go it's become an icon in New Zealand sport, but was among the easiest to strike. It started through a committee member and dairy proprietor talking to his Colgate salesman, and the Colgate people offering much more than the committee ever thought they needed.

Unflustered by the three days in Hastings, he'll be off to next week's southern event in Dunedin to complete an annual early-January routine.

Although no longer a regular in the heat of the arena outside, he's not looking for the lounger yet. "I'm long retired, but I'm still okay."