caption country fullname death_date death_place birth_place discipline birth_date nickname article_title hometown name
ted blake in 1988 united kingdom terence michael blake 06 march 1998 brentwood , essex london tra 19 october 1921 ted blake ted blake
 brentwood , essex ted blake
ted blake

ted blake -lrb- 19 october 1921 -- 6 march 1998 -rrb- was an early british trampoline pioneer .
following the development of modern trampolines in the usa by george nissen , ted blake was a major contributor to their nascence in the united kingdom and in developing international competition for trampolining .
in his early years ted went to the latymer school in london and on leaving there held a variety of jobs before joining the army in 1939 .
during war years he trained as a physical training instructor , transferring from the essex regiment to the army physical training corps in 1941 and rose to the rank of company sergeant major instructor -lrb- csmi -rrb- by the time of his discharge in 1946 .
for most of his army life ted was based at the essex regiment 's depot at brentwood .
having left the army , ted spent the next 3 years attending courses to become a teacher .
starting out at the loxford school in ilford , essex in 1949 he soon introduced a single second-hand nissen trampoline .
whilst at the loxford school , ted developed a trampoline squad of sufficient skill that they were invited to do a demonstration at the festival of britain in 1951 .
ted remained at loxford school until 1956 when he left to establish the uk operation of nissen .
ted subsequently became managing director for the nissen uk business based at their factory in hutton industrial estate , brentwood , essex .
together with kurt baechler of switzerland , ted was credited with the introduction of trampolining to europe .
being passionate about trampolining he was not only involved in their commercial development but heavily involved in developing the competitive trampolining framework we see today .
it is likely that ted was heavily involved in the uk national championships which are credited , in 1958 , with being the first televised national championships .
in 1964 ted organised the first world championships -lrb- financed by george nissen -rrb- which were held in the royal albert hall , london .
that same year , following these first world championships , he attended an inaugural meeting of prominent trampolinists in frankfurt to discuss the formation of an international trampoline federation .
this was launched as the -lrb- fit -rrb- in twickenham in 1965 and ted became its first vice-president , a position he held until 1967 .
so influential was ted at the time that three of the first four world championships were organised by him and held in london - at this time they took place every year .
having delivered at the senior level , ted continued to be heavily involved in promoting competition , and in 1973 working with bob bollinger and george nissen created the world age group competition , which now runs alongside the world championships every two years .
ted appeared , however , to not always be comfortable with authority and in 1972 was scathing about the fit he had originally developed , questioning why it was so bureaucratic and gymnastics oriented in an international publication of that time .
one of few britons so honoured , in 1976 he was recognised by the united states trampoline & tumbling association for his major influence on developing modern trampolining by being added to their hall of fame .
ted left nissen in mid-1980 having spent many years staving off the pressure from nissen 's then-owners to cease manufacturing trampolines because of fears of litigation .
they had previously ceased manufacture in usa many years before for this very reason .
ted continued to give talks and lectures , however and soon became a leading light in the uk leisure management industry .
