On November 17, 1961, a special meeting of headmasters of the corporate area schools was held to make arrangements for a Challenge Cup between the four leading schools in the Manning Cup competition at that time. Some fifty-four years on, eight schools will be vying for that Challenge Cup known as the Walker Cup.
The meeting which was held at Wolmer’s Boys’ School on Marescaux Road had in attendance, N.S Jackson of Wolmer’s; A.W Powell of Excelsior; Father SJ Feres of St George’s College; Douglas Forrest of Kingston College and Mr Grower and CH Ennever of Jamaica College.
The headmasters felt that it would be a fitting gesture to name the Challenge Cup as the Walker Cup in honour of H.N “Chicken” Walker for his devoted service as the general secretary and treasurer of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association for the previous 11 years.
It was felt that dividing the proceeds from this competition between the top four schools at the time based on their positions in the Manning Cup — champion JC, St George’s, KC and Excelsior — would not benefit substantially any one school.
So the headmasters or principals as they are now known, agreed that the net receipts should go to JC’s Drax Lodge Building Scheme and that in the future years the other participating schools should benefit in turn. The following year, on February 3, 1962, another meeting of the headmasters was held and it was agreed that the Walker Cup competition would continue and rules were then drawn up.
A condition was that proceeds of each competition should benefit in turn (according to need) every school in the Manning Cup competition and that no school should receive a second benefit before all schools had been served.
Then there was unanimous agreement in the naming of the trophy and £50 pound was given to purchase a suitable trophy. This was taken out of the gate receipts of £711.96.
In the first Walker Cup in 1961 between the top four schools, JC and KC drew 1-1 and in the replay, JC won 2-1 and advanced to the final.
In the other match, St Georges and Excelsior battled to a 1-1 draw but the Light Blues emerged victorious 3-1 in extra time. In the final, St Georges defeated JC 3-0.
