Former Reggae Boy player and assistant head coach Kenneth ‘Bop’ Campbell, later turned sound selector Alonzo Hawk, passed away on Friday night (July 18). He was 74.

Campbell became a local footballing icon, having won the DaCosta Cup and all-island Olivier Shield with Vere Technical High School in 1967, 1968 and 1969 before returning to coach his alma mater to the title in 1976 and 1980.

Campbell was a talented youngster while playing the daCosta Cup; he also represented Vere at Boys’ and Girls’ Champs and was an opening batsman on Vere’s Headley championship-winning teams of the ’60s.

Campbell, also known as “One Left” or “Bopsie”, won his first Jamaica National League title with Santos FC in 1969 as a schoolboy but was sparingly used.

However, when Santos won the newly-named Jamaica Premier League for the first four years from 1973 to 1977, Campbell was a bona fide star of the team and represented Jamaica’s senior team as a 17-year-old in 1967 against Haiti.

Campbell was Jamaica’s assistant coach to Carl Brown when Jamaica won the 1990 Caribbean Cup. He also coached at Santos, St Catherine High, Duhaney Park, Black Lion and Waterhouse to name a few.

He also won the cricket Headley Cup with Vere and represented Jamaica as a top batsman and left arm spinner from Kensington before ditching cricket for his first love football.

Campbell was the ultimate athlete as he represented Vere Technical at Boys Champs and matched strides with the likes of Don Quarrie.

He then ventured into music as a selector and was known as Alonzo Hawk and really made his mark at the famous Klassique party on Lissant Road.

In January 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was arrested and charged with breaching the Disaster Risk Management Act for playing music at a party in Olympic Gardens on December 16, 2020.

Recently he was a staple at the Soul Food sessions on Tuesday nights, wowing patrons with vintage old hits.