David Coleman, OBE (born 26 April 1926, Alderley Edge
, Cheshire
) is a former
British
sports commentator and TV
presenter. In 2000, he was awarded the
Olympic Order, the highest honour of the
Olympic movement.
Early life
Born of
Irish
heritage (his immediate family hailed from County Cork
), Coleman was originally a keen amateur
runner. He attended a grammar school in Cheshire. In 1949,
he won the Manchester Mile, the only non-international runner to do
so. However, injury caused him to give up competitive running. He
ran 440 yards for Staffordshire and was later the president of the
Wolverhampton
& Bilston Athletics Club.
He did part of National Service in
Kenya
.
He worked as a reporter for the
Stockport Express, and during military
service worked for the
British Army Newspaper Unit. He
was also BAT Man to Corporal Walter Jaundrill of Prescot,
Lancashire.
He joined Kemsley Newspapers after demobilisation
and at twenty two became editor of the Cheshire County Express in Cheshire. In
1952, he didn't attend the Olympic trials because of hamstring
injuries. Instead he phoned the BBC to see if they would like any
help with athletics coverage. The BBC, without any audition, asked
him to cover Roger Bannister at
Bradford City Police Sports. In 1953,
he did freelance radio work in Manchester.
BBC
In 1954
Coleman moved to Birmingham
and joined the BBC as a news
assistant and sports editor. His first television appearance
was on
Sportsview,
coincidentally on the day that
Roger
Bannister broke the
four-minute
mile. In November 1955, he was appointed Sports Editor for the
BBC's Midlands Region.
Grandstand
In October 1958, the BBC's Head of Sport
Peter Dimmock recruited Coleman to be the
presenter of the new Saturday afternoon sports programme
Grandstand. He continued
as the regular presenter until 1968. He also presented the BBC's
Sports Review of
the Year from 1961, and
Sportsnight with Coleman (1968-1972), as
well as other special sporting events such as the
Grand National. He even covered the return of
The Beatles from the United States and
the 1959 General Election for the BBC from the
Press Association headquarters.
As well as a presenter, Coleman was also a sports commentator. He
presented and/or commentated on 11
Olympic
Games from
Rome 1960 to
Sydney 2000, as well as eight
Commonwealth Games and several
World Cup, including the finals
of
1974 and
1978.
Football
He was the BBC's senior football commentator for several years from
1971; he commentated on the
FA Cup final from
1972 to 1976 inclusive, although missed the 1977 game because he
was in a legal dispute with the BBC, allowing
John Motson to make his FA Cup final debut.
Coleman returned for the 1978 final before Motson took over the
following year. Coleman continued to work at football matches as a
secondary commentator until 1981.
Athletics
In 1968, at the
Mexico Olympics
Coleman was recorded at 200 words per minute while commentating on
David Hemery's win in the 400 m
Hurdles. After the finish he could only identify the first two and
famously exclaimed:
Who cares who's third? The bronze
medal winner turned out to be another Briton,
John Sherwood. Out of respect for
Sherwood, most subsequent showings of the race have dubbed the line
out. He also had to commentate on a Greek athlete called
Papagiorgiopoulos and a Madagascan athlete called
Jean-Louis Ravelomanatsoa in
adjacent lanes in the 100m.
Coleman's inability to 'read' a race remained entirely unsullied by
experience to the end of his long commentating career. The
phenomenon was clearly spotted by satirists of the '80s and '90s,
who portrayed him as constantly surprised by mundane happenings at
athletic events.
Clive James wrote that
the difference between commentating and 'colemantating' is that a
commentator says something you may wish to remember; a colemantator
says something you try to forget.
In 1972,
he broadcast for several hours during the siege
at the Munich
Olympics as well as the memorial service days
later.
Coleman concentrated on athletics commentary from 1984. He also
hosted the sports quiz show
A
Question Of Sport for 18 years from 1979-1997, striking up
a strong rapport with captains such as
Emlyn Hughes,
Ian
Botham,
Willie Carson and
Bill Beaumont.
Recognition
In the 1992 New Year's Honours List, he was awarded the
OBE for services to
broadcasting. He was also given the Judges' Award For Sport in the
1996
Royal Television
Society Awards.
Retirement
Coleman retired from broadcasting after the
2000 Summer Olympics, the moment
BBC Sport became a separate division of
the BBC.
In December 2000, he was presented with the
Olympic Order by then-IOC
president Juan
Antonio Samaranch in recognition of his services to the Olympic
ideals.
In his autobiography, rival ITV commentator
Brian Moore paints Coleman as an
unpleasant character, who looked down on him and the whole ITV
team.
He retired without fanfare or recognition by the BBC, despite
working for the corporation for over 40 years.
Folklore
He is affectionately known for his on-air gaffes.
He is so adept at
spouting clichés, mispronouncing names,
and generally making senseless comments, that the satirical
Private
Eye
magazine named its sports bloopers column
Colemanballs - a word
conceived by Coleman himself - in his honour.
Coleman was mentioned in the
Trailer sketch of the
Monty Python's Flying
Circus episode
Archaeology
Today where the voice-over by
Eric
Idle states at the end of the sketch showing Coleman with
... And for those of you who don't like television
there's David Coleman. And of course there'll be
sport. But now for something completely different -
sport.
Personal life
He is married to Barbara and they have six children. His daughter
Anne was a British Ladies Show Jumping champion.
Quotes
- In the 1974 FA Cup Final, he
said that Newcastle's defence had been undressed by
Liverpool.
- Linford Christie has a
habit of pulling it out when it matters the most.
- During the closing stages of the 800m final at the 1976 Olympics, as the ultimate winner
of the race made his winning move, he said "Alberto Juantorena - there goes the Cuban
opening up his legs and showing his class."
See also
References
- Clive James,
Glued to the Box (London, 1983)
- Chris Roberts, Heavy Words Lightly
Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme, Thorndike Press,2006 (ISBN
0-7862-8517-6)
External links
News items
Video clips
Wikis
Quiz
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