How England might have won the 2014 World Cup if they had listened to Stephen Hawking
The brilliant British scientist, who died on Wednesday aged 76, was once on the Oxford rowing team and appeared at the 2012 London Paralympics
Stephen Hawking, Britain’s most famous modern-day scientist who died on Wednesday at the age of 76, is famous for his theories on black holes, with his book A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, selling 10 million copies and staying at the top of The Sunday Times’ bestselling list for a record 237 weeks.
However, Hawking, when not destroying myths about black holes, occasionally delved into sport and, famously in 2014, devised a mathematical method for England to win the World Cup for the first time since 1966. The English team clearly refused to listen to his advice as they crashed out in the group stage of the World Cup in Brazil. Here are Hawking’s three most well-known sporting links during his lifetime.
He was on the Oxford rowing team
According to biographer Kristine Larsen, Hawking was the coxswain for the Oxford men’s rowing team – one of the most famous traditional teams in world sport – before he was stricken by the neurological disease that left him in a wheelchair for most of his life and unable to speak except through a machine.
Coxes don’t actually row but use voice to regulate the steering and stroke rate of their teammates and, therefore, are usually of light weight and small frame.
