An avid sports man all his life, Arthur Allsopp began his sporting career as a state cricketer for NSW and Victoria before the lure of the softball diamond claimed him. In 1950, Allsopp earned his Victorian umpires badge and then four years later his Australian umpire’s badge. 

Elected President of the Victorian Umpires Association in 1950, Allsopp umpired 18 consecutive Australian Open Championships between 1950 and 1963. He went on to officiate at both the Australian/South African Test Series in Melbourne in 1960 and again at the first World Championship in 1965. 

In 1961, Allsopp helped establish the Waverley Softball Association, and witnessed that Association grow into one of the largest, and most successful, in Australia. Known as a man who devoted all his energies to assisting others, Allsopp was both a coach and mentor to junior and senior players in Melbourne through the 1950s and 1960s, before later concentrating exclusively on juniors. It is said Allsopp, who was still actively coaching into his early 80s, had coached most of the Victorian players to make an Australian team since the 1960s, as a result of his involvement with junior players in the Melbourne and Waverley Softball Associations during that time. 

At the beginning of the 1990s, the Australian Softball Federation (ASF, later Softball Australia) decided it was fitting that Allsopp be permanently linked with an under-age championship. In 1991, the Australian U16 Boys’ Championship was initiated, with NSW winning the inaugural Arthur Allsopp Shield. 

In November the same year he was the first male in history to be inducted into the ASF – Hall of Fame. Allsopp passed away in 1993, but will always be remembered as a gentleman who never sought any personal recognition for the time and effort he gave to junior softball in Australia. 

In 2011 the U16 Boys’ Championships transitioned to an U17 Boys’ Championship until 2020 when it reverted back to the U16's Boys Championships.  Despite the changes to this age group, this Championship has remained the Arthur Allsopp Shield.