How Motty became one of our national treasures
Clad in his sheepskin coat, John Motson has become one of TV's sporting legends. He met up with chief sports writer Martin Swain.
"And I'll have to check this . . . but I've got a feeling that must be the first time that a man and a sheepskin coat have attracted a crowd of more than 200 to Molineux on a Friday in November before eight o'clock and while Wolves have been in the Championship . . ."
Or so the appearance of John Motson might have been introduced if the man himself had been given the task.
But these days 'Motty' is as much likely to be at the centre of attention rather than describing it proving once more that if you hang around long enough in the public's affections you eventually become a national treasure.
Motson, the doyen of the engaging but useless statistic and the voice behind so many landmark moments in English football, finds himself quite a draw these days as fans queue up to hear his tales from the commentary box.
It is entirely understandable. Motty was the voice when that Platt goal went in.
And that Ricky Villa solo. And Beckham's free-kick. And that Owen hat-trick for the 5-1 in Munich.
Pleat's crazy-eyed run on to the pitch when Luton stayed up. Zidane's head butt. And on and on.
You name it, Motty described it, along with some famous gaffes too. "Koller shares a hairstyle with Jaap Stam. Of course, they have no hair," he once told a chuckling nation.
Along the way came books and card games and DVDs and voice overs . . . and all of it from what to this day he still considers one outrageous moment of great fortune.
Hereford, February 5, 1972 and an FA Cup tie that captured the forthcoming booming era for football on TV.
If you weren't around, the non-League side KO'd top-flight Newcastle from the FA Cup with Motson's great pal Ricky George scoring the winner but, even more memorably, Ronnie Radford stopping the nation in its tracks with an equalising goal struck out of Edgar Street's thick mud from a zillion yards. To this day, the goal defies logic.
You can tell your kids to work hard and do the right things and listen and learn and never give up. But sometimes it's all about being in the right place at the right time. Motty was there – and the moment made him.
"There were so many co-incidences about that day but most of all, it was just my extraordinary stroke of luck," he said.
"I was very much a junior on the BBC at the time. I had compiled a few scripts and read a few scorelines . . . but the big names at Match of the Day that day were at Liverpool or Leeds and the best I could hope for was a couple of minutes at the end of the programme.
"It was presumed Newcastle would win rather routinely, 2-0 or such like and that would be it.
"But of course, we had this amazing game and that incredible goal and here we are, 41 years later almost, still talking about it."
Motty is 67 now but his enthusiasm and energy for the game is enduring and infectious.
Although retired from live TV commentary, he is still a 5 Live regular and sought-after analyst.
"You've always got to go with the times – I'm certainly not one of those folk who think everything was better back then," he said. "Yes, we might have our concerns about how much players are paid and the cost of tickets for the fans . . . but the game today gives us all so much doesn't it?
"The pitches, the facilities, the safety and comfort. I am always reminded of that when I come to Molineux because, although I can recall commentating on the great Dougan-Richards era, I remember being here in the early 1980s when Molineux was falling down.
"I was up in the crow's nest of this stand, which must have been condemned.
"I had come to research Wolves' opposition for an FA Cup tie that was coming up and Graham Turner was alongside me because he used to prefer the view up there.
"There was water dripping down my back, the place was falling apart and I just thought how sad it all was. To come back a few years later and see all this . . . wonderful."
Nevertheless, retirement from the prime seat in football broadcasting brings its regrets and yes, he says, of course he would have loved to have been in Stockholm last week charged with the task of describing that Zlatan Ibrahimovic goal.
"Absolutely – that's a commentator's dream," he said. "In fact, I watched it and rang a pal on the Daily Mail and said 'that's got to be the best international goal ever.'
"They rang back and asked me for my top 10 . . . and I put it above Maradona's.
"Mind you, my choice had barely gone to print when I had my first call of someone taking me to task for not including Bergkamp's (v Argentina, at the 1998 World Cup). It's impossible really, isn't it?"
Motson was off then to entertain the diners at Penn Cricket Club's sporting dinner, complete with that iconic sheepskin.
Actually, it's not the one which famously struggled to keep out the Tyneside blizzard in another memorable Motty moment but a replica. But Motty without the sheepskin just isn't Motty.
As he trots off, the Molineux attendant asks me: "How long has he be doing it? I'm 42 . . . and he seems to have been commentating on games all my life."
He has son; he has.
Motty's classics:
The World Cup is a truly international event.
Whether that was a penalty or not, the referee thought otherwise.
And I suppose they (Spurs) are nearer to being out of the FA Cup now than any other time since the first half of this season, when they werent ever in it anyway.
The unexpected is always likely to happen...
Nearly all the Brazilian supporters are wearing yellow shirts its a fabulous kaleidoscope of colour!
Bruce has got the taste of Wembley in his nostrils.
...so different from the scenes in 1872, at the cup final none of us can remember.
For those of you watching in black and white, Spurs are in the yellow strip.
There is still nothing on the proverbial scoreboard.
It looks like a one-man show here though there are two men involved.
And Seaman, just like a falling oak, manages to change direction.
Its Arsenal 0, Everton 1, and the longer it stays like that the more youve got to fancy Everton to win.
The atmosphere here is literally electric
The match has become quite unpredictable, but it still looks as though Arsenal will win the cup
Brazil theyre so good its like they are running around the pitch playing with themselves.
Its a football stadium in the truest sense of the word.
England could have been 1-0 down on two occasions now.
I know that Gareth Barry has been told by Howard Wilkinson to take a long hard look at these with his left foot.
Ive lost count of how many chances Helsingborg have had. Its at least five.
