John Motson – A Tribute
As soon as I heard the sad news of John Motson's passing this morning, I immediately got to work writing this tribute. He was a footballing legend (a phrase often used but rarely justified, but in this case more than necessary) and broadcast supreme.
When I grew up in the 1990s, sports commentary was simple: athletics was David Coleman, Formula 1 was Murray Walker and snooker was Clive Everton. Football however had more than one commentator. The BBC had John Motson or Barry Davies, ITV had Brian Moore and Sky's cover voice was Martin Tyler.
Davies, Motson's colleague at the BBC, was something of a jack-of-all-trades. As well as football, he also commentated on the boat race and would also feature in the Wimbledon fortnight. It was purely football that was Motson's forte.
"Motty", as he was affectionately known, would have statistics for a nugget of information on everything. His enthusiasm for the game was so apparent and in moments of great excitement his voice became higher pitched. He wouldn't hold back and almost look childish and giddy with excitement. It was really endearing.
Motty was one of the contestants on Fantasy Football League, a football-based comedy show that aired in the mid-1990s. Led by David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, they asked celebrities to create a fantasy football team and the course of the competition was discussed between comedy sketches related to football.
There were several competitors in the competition who were clearly not interested in football or had little knowledge of how the concept worked. I recently found all the old episodes and Motty took the league extremely seriously and when he was a guest on the show it seemed like some of the jokes almost went over his head in the studio semi -hoarse and laddish. Motty's colleague Des Lynam picked up the jokes and slightly ribbed Motty.
Motson's big breakthrough would come in 1972. He was sent to Hereford United against Newcastle United for an FA Cup replay . He wasn't expecting much as the game was originally scheduled to air for five minutes on Match of the Day.
The game became one of the biggest shockers in FA Cup history and it was billed as the main game of the series and Motty proved himself to the powers that be at the BBC.< /p>
Hereford's opening goal of the game by Ronnie Radford that day is played over and over every year and Motty's voice in the background is the soundtrack to the killing of giants. Hereford United fans running down the Edgar Street pitch to celebrate their team's two goals remains an iconic and enduring moment of football in the 1970s.
Motty could (and often would) cover quieter periods of the game with original facts and stats drawn from his vast knowledge. He sat on encyclopedic knowledge and was like and took pleasure in telling viewers that Davies was more than...
As soon as I heard the sad news of John Motson's passing this morning, I immediately got to work writing this tribute. He was a footballing legend (a phrase often used but rarely justified, but in this case more than necessary) and broadcast supreme.
When I grew up in the 1990s, sports commentary was simple: athletics was David Coleman, Formula 1 was Murray Walker and snooker was Clive Everton. Football however had more than one commentator. The BBC had John Motson or Barry Davies, ITV had Brian Moore and Sky's cover voice was Martin Tyler.
Davies, Motson's colleague at the BBC, was something of a jack-of-all-trades. As well as football, he also commentated on the boat race and would also feature in the Wimbledon fortnight. It was purely football that was Motson's forte.
"Motty", as he was affectionately known, would have statistics for a nugget of information on everything. His enthusiasm for the game was so apparent and in moments of great excitement his voice became higher pitched. He wouldn't hold back and almost look childish and giddy with excitement. It was really endearing.
Motty was one of the contestants on Fantasy Football League, a football-based comedy show that aired in the mid-1990s. Led by David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, they asked celebrities to create a fantasy football team and the course of the competition was discussed between comedy sketches related to football.
There were several competitors in the competition who were clearly not interested in football or had little knowledge of how the concept worked. I recently found all the old episodes and Motty took the league extremely seriously and when he was a guest on the show it seemed like some of the jokes almost went over his head in the studio semi -hoarse and laddish. Motty's colleague Des Lynam picked up the jokes and slightly ribbed Motty.
Motson's big breakthrough would come in 1972. He was sent to Hereford United against Newcastle United for an FA Cup replay . He wasn't expecting much as the game was originally scheduled to air for five minutes on Match of the Day.
The game became one of the biggest shockers in FA Cup history and it was billed as the main game of the series and Motty proved himself to the powers that be at the BBC.< /p>
Hereford's opening goal of the game by Ronnie Radford that day is played over and over every year and Motty's voice in the background is the soundtrack to the killing of giants. Hereford United fans running down the Edgar Street pitch to celebrate their team's two goals remains an iconic and enduring moment of football in the 1970s.
Motty could (and often would) cover quieter periods of the game with original facts and stats drawn from his vast knowledge. He sat on encyclopedic knowledge and was like and took pleasure in telling viewers that Davies was more than...
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