William Atack

Today, the sound of a whistle in sport is ubiquitous. There's not a Saturday morning goes by on rugby and soccer fields and netball courts around New Zealand without the insistent ''peep'' punctuating the action.But it wasn't always like that _ 126 years ago, in 1884 in Christchurch, 27-year-old sports journalist William Atack did something that changed the face, or at least the sound, of sport forever.Previously, referees had used their voice to control games. Arthur Swan, official historian for the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, says:''When both sides were appealing, the voice had to be exercised loudly and Atack found it exhausting. Thinking it over one day while refereeing a rugby game, his fingers strayed into a waistcoat pocket where they encountered a dog whistle. The inspiration occurred to him that it would be a fine thing to use a whistle to stop the game. The next time he refereed, he called the teams together and they agreed to play to the whistle. It was a great success and was adopted all over the country