23 February 2023 , 10:53
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He was a legend, a gentleman and for many of us the Voice of Football.
John Motson inspired a generation with his sheepskin overcoat, his infectious enthusiasm and his ability to capture the mood of the nation.
All of us will have our own recollections of his best commentaries but the one that shot him to fame came in the 1972 FA Cup - when Ronnie Radford’s spectacular strike inspired Hereford’s shock 2-1 win over Newcastle.
The iconic giant-killing would be promoted to the main game on Match of the Day and Motson never looked back, crystallising his place in the nation’s collective consciousness.
Over the subsequent two decades, certainly before the inception of the Premier League and set-top boxes, most of football’s most epoch-making moments would be described by Motson.
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His was a special place in our living rooms at a time when we huddled around our tv screens and didn’t need a subscription fee to find the game we wanted to watch.
Motson - or Motty as he would affectionately come to be known - ended up covering nearly 2,500 televised matches.
Motson enjoyed a standout 50-year career for the BBC covering a vast array of major events (BBC)He was the BBC’s voice on most if not all of the major finals, including the FA Cup, European Championships and, of course, the World Cup. Partly because so many of us couldn’t cope with the adverts on the commercial channel, mostly because he was simply brilliant.
He spawned a generation of outstanding commentators, many of whose tributes you will hear in the coming hours and days. All of whom wanted to become as cherished and respected as him.
Yet Motson as a man was humble, generous and always on hand with a word of advice.
His voice became synonymous with football and touched the hearts of the nation (PA)As a football writer myself, it has always been a source of pride to me that I came through as a cub reporter on the same newspaper as Motson, the Barnet Press in north London.
Such was his longevity, his final game for Match of the Day was only five years ago, Crystal Palace v West Brom. It seemed somewhat ill-fitting for someone so celebrated.
But then Motson by then had reached a point where the calibre of the game no longer defined him. He’d already established a very special place in the country’s heart.