Neville Myton, Indomitable Distance Man & Cultural Revolutionary, arrived at Excelsior High School from Old Harbour All Age School in 1963 and proceeded to transform a track and field programme that had gone from champions in 1960 to zero points in 1962 at the annual Boys Athletic Championships. He literally transformed the existing athletic culture at the school with his seriousness of purpose, work ethic, and willingness to assist others, while maintaining a jocular and unpretentious demeanour.

These attributes have allowed this great Excelsorian and Jamaican to achieve excellence throughout his career, both on and off the field of play, as well as to influence and direct the careers of several of Jamaica’s athletes over the past 45 years, many of whom have gone on to represent the country with distinction.

His achievements are too numerous to list in such a short space. However we will enumerate some here:

1. Won Class One Half-Mile & One Mile, both in record times two years consecutively, 1964 & 1965. In 1964 he clipped 5 seconds off the ½ mile record. In 1965 he lowered that record to 1:51.6. This led the Star newspaper of April 12, 1965 to ‘dub’ him, the “Indomitable Distance Man”. (The winning time at Boys Champs this year over 800 metres, a shorter distance, was 1:53.32).
2. Became the first schoolboy and only the third Jamaican to break 1:50.00 for the 800 metres while winning the 1964 Jamaica National Championship. This only one year after the 2 minute barrier had been broken for the first time by a schoolboy.
3. Later that year at the Carreras International Track Meet, which doubled as part of the local Olympic Trials he set a World Junior Record (the first one by a Jamaican) for the 800 metres of 1:46.5, which still stands (45 years later) as the Jamaican Junior Record for the distance.
4. 1965 – Ran 48.1 sec for 440 yards on a 330yard dirt track for which the British magazine, World Sport, awarded him a special Certificate of Achievement. The Champs record at the time was 49.1 sec.
5. 1965 – Represented Excelsior at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania Relays in the 4X440 yard Relay and the One Mile, becoming the first Jamaican high school athlete to win an open event at the Penn Relay Carnival, when he won the High School One Mile.
6. 1965 – Represented Excelsior in Sunlight Cup Cricket after returning from Penn Relays, top scoring with 43 against the then vaunted KC bowling attack.
7. Through his dedication to excellence, work ethic, motivational skills, active encouragement, and his ability to attract other top Jamaican athletes of the day as coaches, a resurgence of the athletic programme at the school was realised and within two years Excelsior was challenging the mighty KC juggernaut at ‘Champs’.
8. After graduating from Excelsior, Neville matriculated to Mesa Junior College in Mesa, Arizona where he helped his team win the National Junior College Athletic Association Championships twice.
9. Transferring to San Jose State College (SJSC), where he became teammates of the legendary Tommie Smith and John Carlos, he helped to bring the 1969 NCAA Championship to San Jose. While at SJSC Neville never lost a ½ Mile in a dual meet, anchoring the Sprint Medley Relay Team at the 1969 Fresno Relays to the second fastest time ever, missing the world record by one tenth of a second.
10. Neville represented Jamaica on several occasions, the most noteworthy being:

Two Olympic Games – Tokyo 1964 & Mexico City 1968

• Two Commonwealth Games – Kingston 1966 & Edinburgh 1972
• One Pan American Games – Winnipeg 1967
• One Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games – San Juan 1966

1.  He has been CAC Games 800 metre and 4X400 M Relay Champion. He has also won Bronze in the 4X400 M at the Pan AM Games.
2. Myton graduated from SJSC in 1971 with two degrees – BA in Social Science & BA in Physical Education. Returning to Jamaica in 1971 he taught and coached at Vere Technical, Tivoli Comprehensive and Old Harbour High School. He has also served as Chairman of the Old Harbour High School.
3. As sports master he coached the Tivoli Cricket Team to the Sunlight Cup – symbol of corporate area schoolboy cricket championships and to the Spaulding Cup, the all-island championships both in 1976.
4. He served as fitness coordinator to the 1979 Tivoli Manning Cup Champion Team as well as the 2001 and 2007 Harbour View Football Teams which won Premier League Championship.
5. He has coached, and along with his wife, Paulette, mentored and fostered several of Jamaica’s outstanding athletes, including many Olympians. Noteworthy among these are:

• Colin Bradford
• Veronica Campbell Brown
• Simone Facey
• Shereefa Lloyd
• Shellene Williams
• Patricia Hall

In its issue of April 6, 1965, the Star Newspaper referred to Neville Myton as, “The greatest schoolboy middle distance runner ever and certainly the most dedicated schoolboy athlete of all time”. This description was apt then and is still quite appropriate now. However, since then, Neville has used that same dedication and resoluteness to become the benefactor of several young persons, helping them to achieve their goals and becoming better human beings, allowing them to contribute positively to their families, communities and country. In recognition of his unselfish contribution to his community and nation, particularly in the field of sports, Jamaica in October 2006 awarded this outstanding human being with the Order of Distinction, Officer Class.