The country lost one of its top sportsmen on February 28, with the death of Edgar Espinal.
Espinal who played both hockey and football for Trinidad died peacefully on February 28. He was a diminutive and cunning centre- forward in both sport, terrorising defence with his dribbling skills and ability to head the ball. He is also credited as being the player to introduce the overhead flick kick.
Following is the eulogy delivered by his daughter Eileen Richmond on March 6.
As the eldest child, I have been asked to say a few words on the memories we have of our father’s life.
To us and our extended family and close friends he was “Dada.”
Dada was born in Venezuela, the last of six children—two girls and four boys. He first came to Trinidad when he was about 14/15 to live with his eldest sister, Josephina De Lima and went to the Venezuelan School to learn English (a language he never mastered and his Spanglish pronunciations we can never forget) then he attended St Mary’s College and of course played football for them in the early forties.
In 1944 after he married Elsa Govia. They returned to Caracas and he began his club football career by joining Deportivo Venezuela Club and soon gained the reputation for being a goal scorer.
Late in 1945, they returned to live in Trinidad. Chico (as he was called) joined the Casuals team and after one season made the first eleven and gained the reputation of being a pint-sized goal getter who notched as many goals with his head as he did with his feet.
By 1947 he had won his way into the Trinidad Amateur Football Association and so represented Trinidad in football.
A sportsman at heart, he continued playing football with Casuals and later on joined Shamrock. He also played hockey for Casuals and represented Trinidad as well.
As children, a great many of our afternoons were spent in the Grand Stand in the Queen’s Park Savannah proudly cheering him on as well as our many uncles who also played football for Casuals and Shamrock.
According to B. R. Jones, the Evening News Sports Editor in 1949 in an article entitled: “They call him Edgar the Corrector”—I quote “this pocket sized edition of a great front liner plays with a red pencil behind his ear and whenever a full back or goalkeeper errs, Edgar makes a mark the way a teacher does when he disapproves of the careless work of a student.”
This behaviour also earned him other nicknames such as “loafer” and “opportunist.”
I have been told that “Dada” was the one who introduced the overhead flick kick.
In his later years, his interest turned to tennis, which he played with as much fervour and passion. I can remember him on many occasions winning the Tranquility Tennis Club Hamper tournaments.
Ever since he stopped playing tennis, a big part of his life was still going to Tranquillity every afternoon to look on at tennis, meet with his friends and play cards and have a few Stags.
A very important part of “Dada’s” life was his involvement with Y. De Lima and Company Ltd. This was the only company for which he worked and he moved from being a messenger up the ladder to becoming a director.
He retired at the age of 77, having worked with the company for well over 50 years.
During his tenure, he learned watch repairing, pawnbroking (as a matter of fact he was the licensed pawnbroker for very many years).
He qualified as a jeweler, and was responsible for setting up the factory, and along the way qualified as a gemologist specialising in diamonds. He was somewhat of a perfectionist and so he spent several months at intervals in Germany learning to operate all the many machines in the factory.
Mummy and ‘Dada’ had only three children, I say only because that was certainly not the norm in the Govia family, we worked out the average to be 5+.
But at any given time, anyone visiting our home would have thought that there were very many more than three. Dada had a habit of “adopting/borrowing” his nieces and nephews and so there were always several children around. Our home was like Grand Central Station. Everyone was welcome and they knew that.
Since ‘Dada’ spent most of his life in Trinidad, he considered the Govia’s his family and not just in-law’s. Over the years he has related several stories of his adventures with one or several of the Govia boys.
Of course don’t forget several of them were also his team mates both on the Casuals and Shamrock teams.
‘Dada’ had holiday homes first at Mayaro and later down the islands. All of us together with several cousins, etc. spent many fun filled weekends, playing cards, cricket and padda tennis, catching crabs and of course we remember the regular Saturday night “ba ba ques.”
On these weekends, we were all introduced to the culture of opera and classical music at 5 am, no matter what hour we had gone to bed the night before. Pavaroti and the three Tenors were his favourite.
When mom died in 1988, we really were very concerned as to what would become of ‘Dada,’ but he surprised us all and did very well on his own. He was still working at that time, he still had his holiday home down-the-islands and of course his tennis.
While he was always a fighter and a very independent person, shortly after he finally retired, he seemed to have lost interest in most things.
It was very difficult seeing him this way and he certainly put all of us to the test in trying to motivate him. The one event he really looked forward to, other than going to Tranquility every afternoon was going to Maracas on the weekend and enjoying shark and bake along with his Stag. Eventually, when it became necessary for us to stop him from driving, his determination came to the fore and on three occasions when we were late in collecting him, he actually walked to Tranquillity which took about 2 3/4 hours.
It became necessary for us to admit him to a retirement home in an attempt to keep him out of harm’s way and his determination continued but I must say he never lost his sense of humour and always had an answer for everything. During his short stay there, the caregivers had their hands full but in the midst of giving trouble he had started teaching them to speak Spanish and had endeared himself to them.
‘Dada’ had a very good innings, generally he performed well and lived a very full life. We will definitely miss him but he has now joined his Elsa as he has been wanting to for some time.
Looking after ‘Dada’ during the past year has been a great challenge for Ed, Debbie and myself but we certainly had each other’s full support and we were so delighted that Molly and Simon had the opportunity to be here with him during the last month.
I praise and thank God that we are all believers and we were able to help ‘Dada’ prepare himself to meet his Heavenly Father by ensuring that he received all the final sacraments. But dealing with death and accepting it requires strong faith, for which we have to pray constantly. It is the only source of true peace.