Talk:BBC Sports Personality of the Year/Old
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of one titular award given to a sportsperson who the public adjudge to have achieved the most that year. Since the first ceremony several new awards have been introduced, and as of 2008[update], eight awards are presented; The oldest of these are the Team of the Year and Overseas Personality awards, both of which were introduced in 1960.[1]
![]() | The contents of the Talk:BBC Sports Personality of the Year/Old article were merged into BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award and they now redirect there. For the contribution history and old versions of the merged article please see its history. |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Chris_Hoy%2C_October_2008.jpg/640px-Chris_Hoy%2C_October_2008.jpg)
In 2003, the 50th anniversary of the show was marked by a five part series on BBC One called Simply The Best – Sports Personality. It was presented by Gary Lineker and formed part of a public vote to determine a special Golden Sports Personality of the Year, which was won by Sir Steve Redgrave. That year Steve Rider and Martyn Smith wrote a book that reflected on the 50-year history of the award and programme.[2] In 2006, the event was held outside London for the first time and tickets were made available to the public.
The trophy for the main award is a silver plated four-turret lens camera, and for the other awards smaller imitations of the main trophy are used. All the BBC local regions now have their own independent award ceremonies. These take place before the main ceremony and are used to compile a shortlist for the BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award.