David Coleman: 1926-2013

“Whether presenting, commentating or offering analysis, he set the standard for all today’s sports broadcasters. Our thoughts are with his family and many friends.”

Barbara Slater, BBC Director of Sport, said: “David Coleman was a giant in the sports broadcasting world, an iconic and hugely respected figure.

“In a BBC career that spanned over 40 years, he set the standard that so many others have tried to emulate.

“His was one of broadcasting’s most authoritative and identifiable voices that graced so many pinnacle sporting moments.

“From his famous football and athletic commentaries to his presentation of events and programmes such as the Olympics, the World Cup, Question Of Sport and Grandstand, he was quite simply the master of his craft.

“David had many friends at BBC Sport and was admired by audiences in their millions. We send sincere condolences to his family.”

A trained news journalist by trade, Coleman began work as a reporter on the Stockport Express and wrote for an army newspaper during his national service, part of which was carried out in Kenya.

When injuries ruled him out of trials for the 1952 British Olympic team, he wrote to a BBC editor to suggest that he covered athletics in the Saturday evening sports programme.

He started presenting Grandstand from its debut in 1958, continuing in the role for a decade before returning in the 1970s.

Alongside calling many of sport’s greatest moments during his time on the programme, he also famously interviewed the Beatles on the show in 1964.

Wearing a sheepskin coat and silk cravat for the broadcast, he reported that dozens of girls in the 10,000 crowd waiting for the band were treated for cuts, bruises and “plain hysteria”.

Coleman fronted the midweek Sportsnight programme, a show that was named after him for a short time, and began to co-host the BBC Sports Review of the Year in 1961, a role he ended in 1983.

In 1971 he became the BBC’s senior football commentator, covering five FA Cup finals before handing over to John Motson in 1979.

After continuing with football for two more years, Coleman focused his attention on athletics for the remainder of his career with the BBC, covering all the big events for the corporation right up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

As the voice of sport on BBC TV spanning half a century, from the 1972 Munich Olympic siege to Linford Christie’s memorable dash for gold in Barcelona 20 years later, Coleman will ultimately be remembered as a broadcaster of enduring excellence.

His final on-air contribution was his commentary on the men’s marathon, a low key end to his 45-year career with the corporation.

Coleman insisted he wanted to retire without any fanfare or eulog, a decision that received the BBC some criticism at the time for failing to mark his retirement on-air.

In 2000, Coleman became the first broadcaster to receive the Olympic Order award, in recognition of his contribution to the Olympic movement.

His incredible contribution to sports broadcasting was finally celebrated by the BBC with a special tribute programme in 2011, marking his 85th birthday.

Despite being widely respected and admired for his authoritative broadcasting style, Coleman also found himself the subject of a regular column in satirical magazine Private Eye with its ‘Colemanballs’ section documenting commentators’ gaffes to this day.

One of the gaffes Coleman was best known for came at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968.

After being recorded speaking 200 words per minute while commentating on Britain’s David Hemery’s win in the 400m hurdles, he could only identify the first two and famously exclaimed: “Who cares who’s third?”

The bronze medal winner turned out to be another British athlete John Sherwood.

Following his retirement, Coleman withdrew from public life and famously always refused to do any interviews, but he ended his silence when asked to mark the BBC’s final Grand National broadcast in 2012.

Recovering from pneumonia at the time, the same condition that caused him to stand down from presenting BBC TV’s first National in 1960, Coleman gave his last interview to the Racing Post’s Lee Mottershead.

Speaking about the challenges of hosting Britain’s most famous horse race, Coleman said: “It was one of the best broadcasts of the year but it was a great test of a broadcaster’s ability, a real test of almost every facet of the job.

“You were all over the place doing everything – compering, interviewing, the whole lot.

“So much of it was off the cuff as well. We made a really special effort, though. For the Grand National you had to.”

Despite ill health, Coleman lost none of his ability to deliver an authoritative, forthright opinion when commenting on the BBC’s loss of Grand National rights to Channel 4 in 2012.

“I think if I was still a stalwart of the corporation this wouldn’t be the last BBC National,” said Coleman.

“Of course I’m sad that this is going to be the last one, but I think it’s the BBC’s fault.

“I think they’ve just given it up. I don’t think Channel 4 have had to fight to get it. It’s a bloody disgrace.”

A wide-ranging number of tributes have been paid to Coleman for his long-standing contribution to sports broadcasting and for helping to shape the way we all watch sport on television.

BBC athletics commentator Brendan Foster, who worked alongside Coleman regularly following his retirement from long-distance events, said he was the “greatest sports broadcaster that ever lived”.

Foster told the BBC Sport website: “David enriched so many lives and that was down to his brilliant commentary and presentation at all the major sporting events of the world.

“In my view, everybody had a David Coleman quote they could use. It could have been about Pele, Charlton, Toshack or Keegan, or just ‘one-nil’.

“It was a privilege to know him, to have him commentating on races during my career, to work with him and to call him a friend.”

Fellow commentator Steve Cram, who worked with Coleman for a brief period at the end of his career, told the BBC: “He had a reputation within broadcasting for being tough and demanding, but I always found him an incredibly generous bloke.

“Yes, he had high standards but I think that came from his athletics background. Broadcasting, like athletics, is in a sense about performance and he wanted to produce the best he could.

“He used to always tell me that I should endeavour to work with the best to get the best results.”

Former BBC sports presenter Steve Rider, who worked with Coleman at four summer Olympics, said: “He was just the best in the business as a presenter or commentator.

“I’d never say he was an oasis of calm, but he was an inspiration and laid the foundation for everything BBC Sport broadcasting was about in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.”

Steve Ovett, whose many middle-distance battles with arch rival Sebastian Coe were commentated on by Coleman during the BBC commentator’s prime behind the microphone, praised his ability to spice up any event.

“He had a unique gift of saying the right thing at the right time. I think that is the difference between a commentator and someone who enhances what you are seeing.

“That is the difference between an average commentator and someone as good as David.”

Lord Coe, the two-time Olympic 1500m champion, said Coleman was the best there has ever been:

“He brought cutting-edge journalism and gave some of the top administrators in sport a right going over, being brave in the way he did it.”

Veteran sports commentator Barry Davies, the only man who has covered more Olympic Games than Coleman, told the BBC News Channel: “He was the master who set the standard for sports broadcasting on television”.

“He had such authority in his voice which could bring even the most mundane event to life. And at the big events he was superb.

“I feel privileged to have known him, worked with him and occasionally stood in for him when he was in his prime.”

With his no-nonsense manner, total command of his brief and a prodigious memory, coupled with his infectious and unfailing enthusiasm, Coleman came to define the BBC as the world-class brand in sports broadcasting, setting a standard that all would try to emulate but few could match.

Hailed as the greatest sports commentator of all time and a true broadcasting pioneer who shaped the industry for generations to come, Coleman leaves a wife, Barbara, with whom he had six children, Anne, Dean, David, Mandy, Michael and Samantha.

What are your memories of David Coleman? Send us your comments below: