Stan Addicott was born in Mountain Ash. He attended the local grammar school before graduating from Bangor and Loughborough universities and teaching in secondary schools for five years in Essex and Merthyr Tydfil.
Stan served as Director of Sport and Physical Recreation at Swansea University from 1980 to 2003 having joined the University staff in 1971. Over a distinguished career spanning four decades he helped transform the landscape of sport at the University and elevate its national profile.
Under his leadership the University saw the development of key facilities including a newly constructed indoor Sports Centre, the Wales National Pool and the Sports Village in partnership with local authority and national sporting bodies.
Stan was a passionate advocate for enjoyable sport within the University community supporting student athletes and recreational participants. He played a pivotal role in nurturing rugby union seeing many players selected for national teams and the rugby club reaching nine UAU/BUSA finals at Twickenham including two championship victories.
His sports scholarship initiative (1985) saw the University support and develop a number of talented student and alumni sportsmen and women along the way to international competition and success at Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth games. Stan was a member of the Bannister Working Group (1995) which established the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) in higher education.
He was instrumental too, in helping to establish the annual Varsity Day in the 1990s that has grown into one of the largest student sporting events in the UK. It remains a great attraction, bringing together students, staff, alumni and the general public for a feast of sporting activity.
Stan was involved in wider aspects of sports education organising and delivering courses in physical education for PGCE students in the University’s education department. He was also appointed external examiner at the universities of Bristol and South Wales. Alongside this a Sports Science degree course was founded in 1997 that has now developed into a thriving academic subject. Showing a commitment to lifelong learning Stan himself completed two part time masters degrees at the universities of Liverpool and Leicester.
He was much involved in the coaching of rugby football including a lengthy and successful stint with Swansea RFC (1975-1983) – who he now serves as president - and with representative teams including Wales B and as assistant coach to the Wales national team (1988-1990). He is a past captain of Langland Bay Golf Club.
Stan’s book – A Century of Sport at Swansea University 1920-2020 – documents a hundred years of student and alumni sporting achievement and was a widely welcomed contribution to the University’s centenary celebrations.