Tributes flow for former Observer and Sunday Times writer who covered some of sport’s greatest events
Hugh McIlvanney, one of the most respected voices in British sports journalism, has died aged 84.
McIlvanney, who was the Observer’s chief sports correspondent for 30 years until 1993, covered some of the most significant sporting events of the 20th century, including the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974 and England’s World Cup win in 1966.
He retired after 60 years in the profession in 2016, after spending 23 years with the Sunday Times.
Tributes poured in for the award-winning Scot, who was described as “one of the true greats of sportswriting, “a giant of journalism” and “the literary equivalent of Stein and Shankley”.
McIlvanney, who was best known for his coverage of boxing and football, was awarded an OBE in 1996 and named the Sports Journalists’ Association’s writer of the year six times.
The Observer’s editor, Paul Webster, said the paper was “saddened by his death and proud of his legacy”. The Sunday Times’s chief sports writer, David Walsh, described him as an “inspiring colleague” and a “great companion”.
The Football Writers’ Association said McIlvanney “left behind a legacy of prize-winning sportswriting and a reputation as one of the true greats”.
In a tribute on the FWA’s Facebook page the former Mail on Sunday sportswriter Patrick Collins, also the president of the Sports Journalists Association, said: “When his countless admirers speak of Hugh’s writing, they recall the rolling phrases, the astute insights, the dramatic sense of occasion. But those who worked with him — and especially the heroic subs who placed paragraph marks on his copy — will tell of the tireless perfectionist, the man whose Sunday would be spoiled by a misplaced comma or a wayward colon.”
McIlvanney also worked for the Kilmarnock Standard, the Scotsman and the Daily Express. Collins, recalling some of McIlvanney’s heroes and fine writing, added: “It was [George] Best whom he described as having ‘feet as sensitive as a pickpocket’s hands’. It was Best who gave him some of his most revealing interviews. And it was Best of whom he wrote: ‘He appeared to regard gravity as an impertinent con-trick, unworthy of being taken seriously, gracefully riding tackles that looked capable of derailing a locomotive.’”