ALF Gallie devoted his life to boxing and rugby in Oxford.

He trained and coached hundreds of sportsmen, as well as treating many for injuries, during a career which spanned more than 40 years.

Alf was a physical training and games master with Oxfordshire Education Committee, and visited many schools in the county to work with pupils.

He was also trainer to boxers at Oxford YMCA, helping many to win local and national titles.

His proudest moment was when he was appointed trainer to the British team which competed at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952.

The team included Percy Lewis, the Oxford boxer, who held the ABA featherweight title, and a young, curly-haired light-heavyweight called Henry Cooper.

But locally, Alf was probably best known for his work with Oxford University sportsmen.

He was coach to the University Boxing Club and masseur and physical training instructor to the University Rugby Club.

He was a familiar figure at the Dark Blues’ rugby games in Oxford and elsewhere as ‘spongeman’.

As the teams ran out, he would take his place in his dark blue track suit, a little bag by his side containing a sponge and cold water in a polythene bag, a pair of scissors, a roll of plaster, some cotton wool and a bottle of massage oil.

When any player was injured, he would be on the pitch in seconds to carry out the necessary repairs.

Alf received the British Empire Medal in the 1982 New Year’s Honours list for his services to sport.

When he retired from his two university posts after 40 years two years later, more than 150 old rugby and boxing Blues attended a dinner in his honour at Rhodes House.

Alf died in 1985, aged 80, appropriately perhaps at the University Sports Hall, a few yards from the rugby ground where he had spent much of his sporting life.

He collapsed and died as he prepared to meet players, officials and guests at a reception before the annual Varsity match against Major Stanley’s XV.