276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Bring Me the Sports Jacket of Arthur Montford: An Adventure Through Scottish Football

£6£12.00Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

This was an early highlight in a career that would take in half a dozen World Cups, 380 domestic and European games as commentator including 38 Old Firm matches, and some of the most memorable moments in Scottish football – in 1973, he really did say “disaster for Scotland” when goalkeeper Ally Hunter let a shot from Zdenek Nehoda of Czechoslovakia through his hands at Hampden on an unforgettable night when Scotland came from behind to qualify for the 1974 World Cup. He and I never had an argument, though that might have been down to Arthur’s good nature more than mine. The gentleman who had been briefed to be the new Sports Editor at STV was John Wilson and he couldn't believe that I was so bad. He attended Greenock Academy, where he was one of a band of rebels who tried — unsuccessfully — to introduce soccer to the rugby-playing school. The world of Scottish football can be a divisive place at times, but news of the death of Arthur Montford at the age of 85 in November 2014 was met with sadness and tributes from all parts of the game there.

He remained as anchorman for 32 years, hosting more than 2,000 editions of Scotsport, during which time he became famous for his trademark checkered pattern sports jackets, and some classic lines of football commentary, including "What a Stramash!

And as I was leaving, Archie McCulloch who was one of the 'heid yins' in the Theatre Royal at the time along with Rai Purdy and Jim Coulthard and others, he said to me "would you like to work full time here" I said well, I said, "I'm making thirteen pounds and ten shillings at the Evening Times, what's the money?

Montford told the Academy rector, a Mr William Dewar, that he would become a journalist and after national service in the army, he joined the News as an office boy, before making the graduation through the ranks to reporter, working for the News, then the Daily Record before joining the sports desk of the Evening Times. It was a golden era in Scottish football, and Montford was at the heart of it from the late 1950s through the glory days of the 1960s, the 1970s and all the way through to the late 1980s, always finding something positive to say about the game – even in Argentina in 1978. I just went up, did my ad-lib, did my wee bit to camera, did an interview and I thought no more about it. Though again he did not shout about it, his politics in the 70s favoured the SNP, and he helped the late Margo McDonald in her campaign in Govan in 1973. While there he covered numerous sports, but it was football that became his main sport, and he was asked by the BBC’s well-known producer Peter Thomson to do some match reports for radio.These went well, and when BBC sports editor John Wilson joined Scottish Television in 1957, he asked Montford to join him in the new commercial visual age. Sports coverage at the time could be mired by technical faults and of course, the weather, but processing the reels of film in time for broadcast proved the most risky aspect for the presenters. He also presented Radio Clyde’s version of Desert Island Discs (billed as Montford's Meeting Place) where he interviewed many famous people who dropped by for a chat with the STV legend that was an unmissable sample of Clyde's weekend schedule in the 1970s and 1980s as well as writing the Scotsport Annual among other books. Voted in as Rector of Glasgow University in 1974, Montford had a tough act to follow in Jimmy Reid, the Clydeside shipyard union leader whose rectorial address in 1971 is one of the greatest Scottish speeches of all time.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment