20 Facts About Percy Cerutty

Percy Wells Cerutty was an Australian athletics coach in the 1950s and 1960s.

Percy Cerutty was born in Prahran, a suburb of Melbourne, in 1895, the seventh child of Harry Richard Cerutty, accountant, and his wife Emily, nee Nielsen, both Victorians.

Percy Cerutty was four years old when his mother left her alcoholic husband to raise her six surviving children alone.

In 1939, at the age of 43 Percy Cerutty was faced with a formative challenge in his life; a nervous breakdown that necessitated taking leave from work at the Postmaster-General's Department and which prompted a reassessment of his life.

Percy Cerutty introduced this approach to the athletes he trained at his Portsea headquarters.

Athletes training under Percy Cerutty said "You came here with the object of running more quickly, and achievement in running, but really it was an education in life" and "You got a whole philosophy of life and attitudes".

Percy Cerutty's philosophies were considered very strict in his time, and inevitably led to rivalries between Cerutty and other coaches who used different approaches to training.

Percy Cerutty maintained a rivalry with fellow-coach Franz Stampfl whose Interval Training techniques were disliked by Percy Cerutty.

However, Percy Cerutty believed that what he was doing created the most physically and mentally tough athletes.

Between 1959 and 1967, Percy Cerutty published six books on his training philosophies.

Percy Cerutty has been described by Neal Bascomb as eating a "vegetarian root-based diet" Percy Cerutty was not a vegetarian in his personal life and in 1959 commented that "a proportion of meat and fish and poultry is included in the diet, liver being a must".

Percy Cerutty coached John Landy, Don Macmillan and Les Perry at Helsinki for the 1952 Olympic Games, but in 1953 announced that "All my enthusiasm for the amateur cause has had its day," and registered as a professional trainer with the Victorian Athletic League.

At one point during his career, Elliott and Percy Cerutty got in an argument.

Sure enough they raced and Percy Cerutty was clearly beaten on time; he was racing the top miler in the world who didn't even have to try to win the race between the two of them.

However, when Percy Cerutty crossed the line, he told Elliott that he had won because he had put in more effort than Elliott.

Percy Cerutty helped cyclist Russell Mockridge and boxer Jimmy Carruthers during their sporting careers.

Percy Cerutty gave up coaching athletes in 1969 and continued to live at his beloved Portsea home - CERES.

Percy Cerutty was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1972 Birthday Honours for services to sport and physical fitness, and described as "Australia's most enigmatic, pioneering and controversial athletics coach".

Posthumously Percy Cerutty was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame for his athletics coaching on 5 December 1989.

Percy Cerutty died of motor neurone disease on 14 August 1975 at his home in Portsea and is buried at Sorrento cemetery.