Taylor makes final pass

Former Football administrator and national footballer Sylvester “Scobie” Taylor was laid to rest last Saturday afternoon at the Kingstown Cemetery, following a service at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Kingstown.{{more}}

However, the Executive of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation did not see it respectful that one of the national teams be outfitted and represented at the funeral. Additionally, the senior women’s team was at the same time of the service engaged in a practice session.

Taylor, a former St. Vincent and the Grenadines Football Association President and Manager of the famed St. Vincent and the Grenadines Football team of 1979, died Saturday, February 20, at 79.

History indicates that Taylor may be the youngest to have represented this country at football, having done so at the age of 14, against a team from the British Navy of the HMS Snipe in 1944.

Taylor went on to notch more caps for St. Vincent and the Grenadines in football and cricket.

Also on the administrative side, Taylor was point man of Notre Dame Club during the 1960s, and held posts on the Windward Islands Football Association (WIFA).

Additionally, Taylor initiated the formation of a team that emerged form the 1983 Inter Secondary Schools Football Competition. That team went on to successfully tour Grenada that same year.

It was his vision that players of that team, the likes of Fitz Bramble, Elton Johnson, Randy Patrick, Garfield Walker and John Melville became senior national players thereafter.

One ex St. Vincent and the Grenadines football international, Raultie Lowe, remembered Taylor for his “strictness” and insistence on high standards of deportment, especially when on overseas assignments.

Lowe, who made his national debut in 1972, recalled that it was under Taylor’s presidency in 1979 that he got his first experience of a live-in football camp.

St. Clair Leacock, who was part of Taylor’s Executive in 1979, did not take kindly to the current Executive of the SVGFF treatment by way of representation of members of present national teams without uniform at last Saturday’s funeral.

Leacock thought that Taylor had done enough for more respect to be shown by those in charge of Football at the national level.

Leacock, who replaced Taylor as President in 1980, told SEARCHLIGHT that Taylor’s input into the administration of football has made this country richer in that respect.

Apart from leaving behind his administrative skills which he has passed on, Taylor has left fond memories of his life’s impression on many. This was evident of the varied cross section of Vincentians who paid their last tribute to him, with their presence at the service and subsequent internment.

A moving eulogy by Michael Findlay interspersed by humour gave some of Taylor’s fruitful sojourn on earth.

Taylor is survived by his wife and six children. (RT)