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ARTY_FOX

John Motson

By ARTY_FOX, in General Football and Sport

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Facecloth

Facecloth

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40 minutes ago, ARTY_FOX said:

Passed away aged 77. Some grew tired of him but he was the voice of football for me as a kid.

He probably carried in working about 5 years longer than he should have. Last few years of MOTD was just him screaming "Oh" all match and hardly saying anything. Doesn't take away from the legendary commentator he was before that though, and he was certainly the voice of the sport in this country for half a century.

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StanSP

StanSP

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Very sad. Iconic for commentary and football itself. Anyone who's watched or listened to football since the 70s will instantly recognise his voice. 

And the fact so many commentators today had him as an inspiration for why they got into commentary is a great legacy to leave behind. 

 

This weekend's MOTD might be an emotional one... 

 

RIP. 

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Finnegan

Finnegan

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Bill McLaren (and Bleddyn Jones if you're from Leicester), Murray Walker, James Alexander Gordon and now John Motson. 

 

Pretty much all the iconic voices of our childhoods now gone. 

 

Sad day. 

 

Edited by Finnegan
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SouthStandUpperTier

SouthStandUpperTier

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14 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Very sad. Iconic for commentary and football itself. Anyone who's watched or listened to football since the 70s will instantly recognise his voice. 

And the fact so many commentators today had him as an inspiration for why they got into commentary is a great legacy to leave behind. 

 

This weekend's MOTD might be an emotional one... 

 

RIP. 

As a tribute all the MOTD commentators should wear a sheepskin coat, don a massive pair of specs, and bombard the viewers/listeners with non-stop facts and statistics.

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SouthStandUpperTier

SouthStandUpperTier

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27 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

Bill McLaren (and Bleddyn Jones if you're from Leicester), Murray Walker, James Alexander Gordon and now John Motson. 

 

Pretty much all the iconic voices of our childhoods now gone. 

 

Sad day. 

 

Just had to check whether another iconic voice of our childhoods, Ray French, was still with us. Thankfully he is, at 83.

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Alf Bentley

Alf Bentley

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When I started watching MOTD as a schoolboy (1970s), he was my preferred commentator - and I specifically remember hoping that he'd be doing the FA Cup Final (then THE TV football event of the year) as he was "the young one".

I suppose what I was relating to was his schoolboyish enthusiasm - other commentators had a bit more emotional self-control. Because there were certainly better analysts and commentators who were more articulate in the heat of the moment.

 

He came across as a bit of an overgrown schoolboy, about football at least - and I don't mean that as a criticism. There's certainly a place in football for intricate analysis and inspired phrasing, but childish enthusiasm is also a part of it.

I find it sad how many people my age and a lot younger lose that childish enthusiasm for football and for life - and turn into boring old gits (yeah, yeah, I know, I'm the worst of them :D).

 

Cheers, John, valuable work done.

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SouthStandUpperTier

SouthStandUpperTier

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20 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

I'm not sure that he commentated on many (any?) of our big moments/goals. It was always Barry Davies for me. 

The only iconic game of ours he commentated on that I can think of is the Cup game Vs Leatherhead. Davies did the Joe Waters match Vs QPR and the Shrewsbury game with all the keepers.

 

 

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Voll Blau

Voll Blau

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A commentator who always put his role as a journalist first, rather than wanting to make it all about him when he commentated. He cared about research, accuracy and the way football was presented. I think some of that's been lost a bit in the modern era of sports reporting.

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Finnegan

Finnegan

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Just now, Voll Blau said:

A commentator who always put his role as a journalist first, rather than wanting to make it all about him when he commentated. He cared about research, accuracy and the way football was presented. I think some of that's been lost a bit in the modern era of sports reporting.

 

Now everyone just wants their AGUEROOOO or AND IT'S LIVE! 

 

I can't imagine a national outpouring of grief when Martin Tyler retires (or pops it.)

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Voll Blau

Voll Blau

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9 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Now everyone just wants their AGUEROOOO or AND IT'S LIVE! 

 

I can't imagine a national outpouring of grief when Martin Tyler retires (or pops it.)

Yeah, the comparison between those two is even more interesting given they most started out the same way (I think, Motson certainly did) learning their trade on local papers before going on to bigger things. Motson never lost that sense of why he was covering an event or what his role was.

 

I guess that just goes to show the difference between the way the BBC thinks (or at least, used to think) football should be reported on and the way Sky thinks it should be reported on.

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