Reginald - 'Reg' - Hargreaves Harris (March 1, 1920 - June 22, 1992) was a leading British track racing cyclist in the 1940s and 1950s. He won the world amateur sprint title in 1947, two Olympic silver medals in 1948, and the professional title in 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1954. His ferocious will to win made him a household name in the 1950s, but he also surprised many with a comeback more than 20 years later, winning a British title in 1974 at the age of 54. March 1 is the 60th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (61st in leap years). ... 1920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining. ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Track cycling is a form of bicycle racing usually held on specially-built banked tracks or velodromes (but many events are held at older velodromes where the track banking is relatively shallow). ... A cyclist is a person who engages in cycling whether as a sport or rides a bicycle for recreation or transportation. ... The sprint is a track cycling event involving a one-on-one match race between opponents who, unlike the individual pursuit, start next to each other. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Olympic can refer to: The Olympic Games, an international Multi-sport event Various stadiums in the world are known as Olympic Stadium Olympic Airlines, state run airline for Greece and successor to Olympic Airways The Olympic Peninsula, located in the U.S. state of Washington RMS Olympic, sister ship of... 1948 - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Millennia: 1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ...

Early life

Reginald Hargreaves was born in the tiny hamlet of Birtle, near Bury, Greater Manchester, the son of a musician who died when he was six. His mother subsequently remarried and Reginald took the name of his step-father, a textile worker called Harris. Categories: Stub | Towns in Greater Manchester ... Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in England established in 1974 which covers an area roughly encompassing the conurbation of Manchester. ... A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ...

Reg Harris left school without qualifications and his first job was as an apprentice motor mechanic in Bury. During this period, at the age of 14, he bought his first bicycle, and entered a roller-racing competition organised by the Hercules bicycle manufacturing company. His ability attracted the attention of other cyclists and Harris joined the Cyclists' Touring Club and then its racing offshoot, the Lancashire Road Club. In 1935, he won his first race, a half-mile handicap event held on a grass track in Bury, and also started competing in individual time trials. This racing bicycle is built using lightweight, shaped aluminum tubing and carbon fiber stays and forks. ... CTC, the Cyclists Touring Club, is the United Kingdom and Irelands largest and longest established cycling membership organisation. ... Lancashire (archaically, the County of Lancaster) is a county palatine of England, lying on the Irish Sea. ... 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... An Individual Time Trial (ITT) is a road-based bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: contre la montre - literally against the watch). There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes. ...

Amateur cycling career

Harris moved from the motor mechanics job to a job in a slipper factory, then, in early 1936, found a position in a paper mill that he felt would pay him enough in the winter to allow him to spend the summer training and competing in his chosen sport. During 1936, he competed in and won his first events in a proper velodrome, at Fallowfield in Manchester. 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... International Paper Company:kraft paper mill Georgetown, South Carolina When built, this mill was the largest in the world A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from wood pulp and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier Machine or similar apparatus. ... Bicycle racing on a velodrome A velodrome is a sporting arena purpose-built for track cycling, ie: racing on bicycles. ... Fallowfield is an area of the City of Manchester, England. ... Location within the British Isles. ...

In early 1937, he was confident that he could support himself as an athlete and left the paper mill to focus on the summer cycle racing season, returning to the mill the following winter (and he repeated the process again the following year). He continued to win races and attract attention, and by the summer of 1938 was able to beat the existing British sprint champion. At the end of that season, he joined Manchester Wheelers, and in 1939 won a major race in Coventry, leading to his selection for the world championships in Milan. He travelled to Milan and had familiarised himself with the track when World War II broke out and the British team was hurriedly recalled back to the UK. 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The sprint is a track cycling event involving a one-on-one match race between opponents who, unlike the individual pursuit, start next to each other. ... 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. ... Location within Italy Piazza della Scala Milan (Italian: Milano; Milanese dialect: Milán) is the main city in northern Italy, and is located in the plains of Lombardy, the most populated and developed of Italian regions. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km (over 11 miles) into the air. ...

Harris joined the 10th Hussars in the North Africa Campaign as a tank driver but was wounded and invalided out of the services as medically unfit in 1943. Depite the judgment of the army medics, in 1944, he won the 1000 yards, quarter-mile and five-miles titles in the national cycling championships. He retained the two shorter titles in 1945 and added the half-mile on grass. He was invited to race in Paris in 1945 and again impressed the crowds, and he was expected to do well in the 1946 world championships in Zurich, only to have his chances ruined by an over-enthusiastic pre-race massage. The battle in the North African desert during World War II from 1940-1943. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about the unit of measure known as the yard. ... A mile is any of several units of distance, or, in physics terminology, of length. ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... In popular language grass means a short, green, ground covering or lawn, usually, but not necessarily comprised of a true grass or grasses, called turf. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... General view showing Grossmünster church. ... Massage is the practice of applying pressure or vibration to the soft tissues of the body, including muscles, connective tissue, tendons, ligaments, and joints. ...

By the time Harris won the world amateur sprint title in Paris in 1947, he was already employed and equipped by bicycle manufacturer Claud Butler and was testing the boundaries of amateurism. The cycling world antipated that Harris would take three titles in the 1948 Summer Olympics (sprint, tandem sprint and kilometre time trial) but three months before the London Games, he fractured two vertebrae in a road accident. After hospitalisation, with a few weeks remaining to the games, training, competing and winning, he fell in a ten-mile race at Fallowfield and fractured his elbow. Completing the rest of his preparation in a plaster cast, he had to be satisfied with two silvers, being beaten by Italian Mario Ghella in the final of the sprint, and partnering Alan Bannister to second place in the tandem sprint (timetable constraints meant Harris's place in the kilometre was taken by another rider). Two weeks later, he claimed a bronze medal in the 1948 world championships sprint in Amsterdam. The sprint is a track cycling event involving a one-on-one match race between opponents who, unlike the individual pursuit, start next to each other. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This racing bicycle is built using lightweight, shaped aluminum tubing and carbon fiber stays and forks. ... Amateurism is the philosophy that elevates things done without self-interest above things done for pay, especially with regard to sports. ... The Games of the XIV Olympiad were held in 1948 in United Kingdom. ... Tandem is a group of similar units arranged one behind the other and working together. ... A fractured bone in a living person is treated by immobilization with a plaster or fiberglass cast, and in some cases surgical nails, screws, plates and wires to supplement a cast. ... A diagram of a thoracic vertebra. ... Elbow redirects here. ... This article is about the building material. ... Amsterdam Location Country The Netherlands Province North Holland Population 739,295 (1 January 2005) Coordinates 4°89E - 52°37N Website www. ...

Professional cycling career

On his return from Amsterdam, Harris turned professional under sponsorship of the Raleigh bicycle company and in 1949 won the world professional sprint championship in Copenhagen - a victory he repeated the following two years in Belgium and Milan. He then won a fourth and final world professional title in Cologne in 1954. He was soon earning GBP 12,000 per annum as one of the nation's most recognisable sportsmen. He won the UK Sports Journalists' Association's accolade of Sportsman of the Year in 1950, and was runner-up in 1949 and 1951. A professional works to receive payment for an activity (as a profession), which usually requires expertise and carries with it socially significant mores and folkways. ... Raleigh is a British bicycle manufacturer based in Nottingham in central England. ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... City nickname: none Location in Denmark Area  - Total  - Water 526 km² xxx km² xx% Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density 502,204 1,116,979 954/km2 [including water] xxx/km2 [land only] Time zone Eastern: UTC+1 Latitude Longitude 55°43 N 12°34 W Copenhagen (Danish: København) is... Map of Germany showing Cologne Cologne (German: Köln [kœln]  listen?) is, in terms of population, the fourth largest city in Germany and largest city of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. ... 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... GBP may be: short for Game Boy Player the ISO currency code for the British Pound Sterling. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ...

He retired in 1957 to devote himself to various business interests, none of which really suited his tastes or abilities. He managed the Fallowfield Stadium, renamed the Harris Stadium in his honour; he was involved in various abortive ventures associated with Raleigh; and he started a 'Reg Harris' bicycle manufacturing business in Macclesfield which lasted three years before folding. He then worked in sales promotion for the 'Gannex' raincoat company, before working for two plastic foam producers. 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Location within the British Isles. ...

In 1971, he returned to racing, winning a bronze medal in the British championships in Birmingham after hardly any preparation. With much more training behind him, he approached the British championships in Leicester in 1974 in more confident mood, and beat Trevor Bull to win the title at the age of 54. In 1975, he returned to Leicester, but was narrowly beaten by Bull in the final and had to settle for the silver medal. He continued to cycle almost to his death. 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... Leicester (pronounced ) is the largest city in the English East Midlands, on the River Soar. ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ...

He was married three times. The first two marriages (in 1944 to Florence Stage, then to Dorothy Hadfield) ended in divorce. He married Jennifer Anne Geary in 1970. He died in Macclesfield of a stroke, survived by his third wife. 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Location within the British Isles. ... A stroke or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly interrupted by occlusion (an ischemic stroke- approximately 90% of strokes), by hemorrhage (a hemorrhagic stroke - less than 10% of strokes) or other causes. ...

A memorial to his achievements can be found in the Manchester Velodrome (the National Cycling Centre).

Honours

• OBE (1958)
• The Harris Stadium in Fallowfield, Manchester was named after him.

Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions, in order of seniority: Knight or Dame Grand Cross... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Fallowfield is an area of the City of Manchester, England. ... Location within the British Isles. ...

Bibliography

• Harris, R. (1976) Two Wheels to the Top: An Autobiography ISBN 0491019572
• Bowden, G. H. (1975) The Story of the Raleigh Cycle ISBN 0491016751

External links

• Mason, T. "Harris, Reginald Hargreaves (1920-1992)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51088, accessed 6 June 2005> (subscription required)