James Alexander Gordon, one of the BBC’s most familiar voices over the last four decades, is bowing out from reading the classified football results on Radio 5 live after having his larynx removed.
The 77-year-old has tantalised, delighted and disappointed millions of listeners on Radio 2 and then Radio 5 Live on the iconic ‘Sports Report’ for 40 years, but his voice is no longer strong enough to broadcast after recent surgery to treat throat cancer.
Popularly known by his initials as Jag, Gordon joined the BBC in 1972 and went on to become one of the most recognisable voices on radio.
He joined the corporation as an announcer and newsreader after a career in music publishing, before taking on the role that made his famous – reading the classfied football results every Saturday on BBC Radio – from 1973 onwards.
Edinburgh-born Gordon, whose delivery often made it possible for fans to predict the fortune of their team simply from the inflection, has often admitted he knows little about football other than the results.
Just last year he said he had no plans whatsoever to step down from his role. “I keep telling the BBC they will have to carry me out on a stretcher. I’ll die with the microphone in my hand,” he said in an interview.
But the BBC confirmed on Wednesday (July 24) that although his surgery was successful, “sadly his voice is now not strong enough to broadcast”.
Gordon told the BBC: “It’s with great sorrow that I have to give up the most exciting part of my career, the classified football results. They have been my life.”
“I was terrified at first, but I put my heart and soul into it and have loved it ever since.
“The most important thing, though, has been making it exciting for the listener.
“I want to thank my producer of some 30 years, Audrey Adams, whose love of sport and determination to get it right has made all the difference.
“How proud I am that I have served the very best of BBC radio sport, albeit in a small way with the classifieds, and I know that the great team will continue to present the best in radio sport coverage.”
Richard Burgess, head of BBC Radio Sport, said: “This is desperately sad news for everyone at BBC Sport and we know our sadness will be shared by many millions of listeners.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that Saturdays at 5pm will never be the same again without the warm, melodious sound of James’s voice just after the Sports Report theme on BBC Radio 5 Live.
“A voice which is, of course, recognised around the globe through the BBC World Service and a voice which embodies authority, clarity and charm.
“For so many of us, James has been a mainstay in our lives – a reassuring and reliable presence every week. He is a broadcasting legend.”
Mark Pougatch, presenter of 5 Live Sport, said: “Even people who don’t really even like football knew who James was, even if they didn’t realise it.
“Such was James’s unique style of reading the classifieds, his wonderful inflections and stresses, that even non-believers of the sport knew the result after the home team’s score.
“Nobody else will be able to say ‘Wolverhampton Wanderers’ with quite such mellifluous tones.
“But enough of this ‘James’. To those of us lucky enough to work at BBC Radio Sport, he is Jag. And Jag is an institution, a legend and a gentleman all rolled into one.”
Gordon, who contracted polio as a child and had to wear leg supports until his late teens, officially retired from the BBC many years ago but has continued as a freelancer.
His television counterpart Tim Gudgin, who read the classified results on Final Score, retired in 2011 after 40 years with the corporation, in which he read racing, rugby union and cricket results on Grandstand, before taking over from the late Len Martin as the reader of the football results in 1995.
Gordon’s replacement on 5 live is due to be announced shortly ahead of the new football season which starts in early August.
