Hugh McIlvanney OBE | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hugh Montgomery McIlvanney (1934-02-02)2 February 1934 Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland |
| Died | 24 January 2019(2019-01-24) (aged 84) London, England |
| Occupation | Sports journalist |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | William McIlvanney (brother) |
Hugh McIlvanneyOBE (2 February 1934 – 24 January 2019) was a Scottishsports journalist who had long stints with the British Sunday newspapersThe Observer (30 years until 1993) and then 23 years withThe Sunday Times (1993–2016). After nearly six decades in the profession, he retired in March 2016 at the age of 82.
McIlvanney was born on 2 February 1934 inKilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, to William and Helen McIlvanney (née Montgomery).[2] He had one sister and two brothers, including thenovelist andcrime fiction writerWilliam McIlvanney.[3][2]
He was educated at Hillhead Primary school thenJames Hamilton Academy.[4] He transferred across toKilmarnock Academy for a session when his brotherWilliam started there.[3]
McIlvanney left school to work as a reporter atThe Kilmarnock Standard.[3][5] He moved on to theScottish Daily Express. In his mid-twenties, while he was working atThe Scotsman, he was persuaded to write about sport. He joinedThe Observer in 1962 as an assistant sports editor and worked at the paper until 1993,[6] interrupted when he took a news and features role in 1972–73 with theDaily Express, before joiningThe Sunday Times in 1993.[7][8] His column on the back page ofThe Sunday Times sports section ran until 2016.[9][10]
His writing has been described as striving for perfection – with much attention paid to the detail.[2][4] Any expression of joy for the writing he submitted was deferred until he had seen what had actually been printed.[11] He was not shy in offering his analysis of sports stars.[12] In 1974, immediately afterThe Rumble in the Jungle, he made an approach toMuhammad Ali and was granted a two-hour interview.[13] In September 1980 he reported from Los Angeles on the professional fight whereJohnny Owen was defeated and knocked unconscious.[14]
InThe Football Men, he examined the life and careers of three great modern Scottish football managers –Matt Busby,Jock Stein andBill Shankly for theBBC television programmeArena. This used BBC archive footage, and aired in 1997 as a three-part series.[15][16][9]
He retired at the age of 82, having said that the physical demands of the job had become too taxing.[17]
In the1996 Birthday Honours, McIlvanney was made anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Sports Journalism.[18] He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award 2004 by theScottish Press Awards.[19] He is the only sports writer to be voted Journalist of the Year at theBritish Press Awards.[20] In 2005, he was included in thePress Gazette Hall of Fame.[8] He was named British sports writer of the year seven times.[21]
In 2007, theVariety Club of Great Britain and theLondon Press Club presented him with the Edgar Wallace Award for Fine Writing.[22] In December 2008 he was voted into theInternational Boxing Hall of Fame,[23] and he was inducted in 2009.[24] In 2009 he was bestowed with an honorary degree from Leicester'sDe Montfort University[25] In 2011 he was inducted into theScottish Football Hall of Fame, located at theScottish Football Museum.[5] In October 2017, theNational Football Museum inducted him into theEnglish Football Hall of Fame – the first football writer to be honoured in this way.[26] In 2017, at theBritish Sports Book Awards he was named for an Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing.[27]
He married three times and had one son, Conn, and a daughter, Elizabeth.[4] His first two marriages ended in divorce; his third marriage, to Caroline Joy North, lasted from 2014 until his death, on 24 January 2019, at his home inRichmond, London.[1][2] Paying tribute to McIlvanney,The Press and Journal described him as "a giant with a genius for transforming sport into literature" and said his voice was "akin to Humphrey Bogart's inThe Big Sleep; a gravelly drawl of dry-as-Nevada humour interspersed with a man's-gotta-do cynicism."[28] On 25 January 2019 McIlvanney was featured on the BBC Radio 4 programmeLast Word.[29]
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