My parents (and my siblings) lived in England for several years of my childhood. One year around 1970 we went to Stoke Mandeville hospital with a wheelchair-using (polio victim I think) colleague/friend of my father to watch the games. I was young, I remember very little of it. Stoke Mandeville hospital was a center for spinal and similar problems and a leader in getting disabled people to be positive and active (remember, this was half a century ago!), believing in the power of exercise and activity as a means of recuperation and mental recovery.
The games were small, people running around, shooting arrows, etc. in the large grass field around the hospital.
But I believe those Stoke Mandeville games are the direct ancestor of the modern Paralympic movement.
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