The 67-year-old is about to retire from his job as a senior lecturer at the Otago Polytechnic Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, where he has taught many a budding sports star how to make a career out of sport.
He lectures mainly on sport business and administration, and has been there 21 years.
"I played rugby for years and I’ve done a bit of this and a bit of that.
"I’m not particularly good at sport. But I’ve always liked it.
"I’m more about making it happen for other athletes."
Many may be surprised to learn he started out as a mathematics teacher at Logan Park High School.
It was there that his interest in the school’s rugby team — among other sports teams — came to the fore, and he also had a long association with the Alhambra-Union Rugby Football Club.
He said one of his best career moves came when he left teaching temporarily to work at AMP Insurance.
"That’s where I got a bit of business nous.
"It helped me get my job as the first Otago secondary schools sports director, organising local sports events and any South Island or national events that came in to the city.
"It was like running a business."
He went on to work at the polytechnic’s Sports Institute, and at the same time he managed the New Zealand University Games, ran the NZ Masters Games for the last nine times in Dunedin, organised the annual South Island Junior Rugby Tournament for under-15 teams, and ran the annual Girls Rugby Festival in Oamaru.
He also did countless sporting draws, posted results, and somehow found time to write a popular book about the past 150 years of rugby in North Dunedin.
For this, he is recognised across the region as an unsung sporting hero.
Mr Simons said much of his job at Otago Polytechnic was about getting students out of lecture theatres and into placements where they learned how to organise and run sporting events with practical experience.
"They deal with all levels — kids before they go to school, with jump-rope stuff, right through to the elderly where they go into rest-homes.
"The object is to help students find their passion, and once they find it, they learn — it’s a piece of cake."
He said retirement would be about living a slightly quieter, less energetic life which included spending more time with family, doing odd jobs around the house, and travelling to France for the Rugby World Cup.
"That’ll get me through to 2024, then I’ll worry about the rest after that."
