Kingston College’s graduating class of 1978 will honour former 400m star Ian Stapleton at the group’s annual Nostalgia, Retro After Champs get-together at Port Henderson Beach, ‘Back Road’, St Catherine, on Saturday, March 23.

The five-day ISSA Boys’ and Girls’ Athletic Championship, better known as ‘Champs’, that has attracted hundreds of visitors to Jamaica, is expected to generate a crowd of over 25,000 on its final day of competition at the National Stadium on Saturday.

Spearheaded by Old Boys Everald Cranston, a United Kingdom-based disc jockey who also served in the British Army, and Reverend Paul Blake, formerly of secular band Blood Fire Posse, the event which will begin at 9:00 pm, seeks to also recognise three other members of the 1978 graduating class, and one from the 1979 graduating class. They are Stanley Johnson, Simon Suckie, Dennis Campbell, and Deon Edwards.

Stapleton shocked the then 1979 Boys Athletic Championship, his last, with a mega upset win in the 400m Class One over howling favourite Bertland Cameron, who went on to become one of Jamaica’s foremost athletes.

Stapleton, also in 1979, represented Jamaica in the Pan American Games held in Puerto Rico as a member of Jamaica’s silver medal winning 4x400m relay team. He went on to wear the Jamaican colours at the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow, then USSR, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the 400m. He also ran in the heat of the 4×400 metres relay team that year. He has a personal best of 45.91 seconds over the 400m set in 1983.

Stapleton is now visually impaired.

Proceeds from the event will go towards the group’s ‘No Man Left Behind’ project.

Nostalgia, which started in 2017, will feature a mix of vintage music mainly by KC old boys, selectors Bobo El Numero Uno, Bello Da Love Doc, and Gairy Sweetness.

Among the special guest artistes will be Lone Ranger, and Robert French.

Rev Blake, now head of Paul Blake Ministries, said the event is for a good cause.

Reverend Paul Blake

“Nostalgia is a retro party that got started in 2017 when some KC brothers got together to celebrate. They then realised that one among them who played Manning Cup football was very ill. So they decided to take an offering to help him. That night they collected $67,000. The following year they doubled it. Then came COVID soon after, so this is the first year it’s being staged again, and it’s going to be better than ever, what with the honouring of Ian Stapleton and the recognition of others,” he said.

Among those who have endorsed Nostalgia 2024 are former KC Manning Cup football star and cricketer, Douglas “Dougie” Bell, former KC track star Wainsworth “Rocking Head” Small, Dr Carl Bartley and his twin brother Paul “Skullman” Bartley, former table tennis great Colin McNeish, retired track star Noel Headlam, and former Calabar man Dave “Broadie” Stewart.