My father John Bale, who has died aged 83, was a pioneer in the study of geography and sport. From the 1970s, he published many articles and books.
In Sport and Place (1982), he explored the reasons why place had become the main means of identifying, and identifying with, sports teams. He showed the extent to which sport affects and is affected by the physical environment in features such as pitches and stadiums.
John’s work increasingly questioned sport’s ability to be a force for good. Imagined Olympians (2002) showed how Belgian colonists exploited the local Rwandan “jumping” tradition by turning it into a competitive sport. Running Cultures (2004) explored athletics as transgression, escape and resistance. In Anti-Sport Sentiments in Literature (2007), he revelled in accounts of slowness and losers, to interrogate the idea of competition as a noble pursuit.
John was born in Cardiff, the elder son of Richard, a fitter at Cardiff’s docks, and Alice (nee Laidlaw), a dressmaker, and educated at Howardian high school, where he was, by his own account, a reluctant pupil. Nonetheless, a teacher, Frank Baber, ignited a love of geography.
After performing better than expected in his A-levels, John went first to teacher training college. Later, he took a BSc in economics on the University of London’s external programme, followed by an MPhil in geography, on the subject of industrial estates, at the London School of Economics.
Running was his passion, and by 16 he had become a dedicated athlete. He worked in Cardiff’s Tremorfa steelworks to pay to hire a van so he and his running mates could drive to Rome to watch the 1960 Olympics. He met Ruth Fellerman at a party at the Court School of Dancing in Harrow, north-west London, in 1961 and they married five years later.
After working for several years as a teacher at Townfield secondary modern, Hayes (1960-67), and the Nobel grammar school, Stevenage (1967-72), John moved into teaching in higher education – first, from 1972, as a lecturer in education at Avery Hill (now the University of Greenwich) and then, from 1979, as a lecturer in geographical education at Keele University. His career and intellectual development flourished there. He became professor of sports geography in 1998, and later held visiting professorships at Aarhus University in Denmark and the University of Queensland in Australia. He retired from Keele in 2005.
Following a diagnosis of dementia, John published an eloquent memoir called A Life in Sport (2013).
Ruth survives him, as do his sons, Roderick and I.
