The voice of English sports since 1966, 80-year-old Barry Davies will end his career (at least officially) this summer.
The legendary commentator spent 35 years working for BBC’s Match of the Day, covered 10 World Cups and commented on various sports, from football, tennis, ice hockey, badminton to boat races and athletics. He had a famous rivalry with John Motson, who was BBC’s football specialist and was assigned most of the FA Cup finals, which were considered as the trophy for commentators in England. Davies was prioritized when it came to international and European competitions.
He disagrees there was animosity between the two, though.
“Motty and I were very different people but we got on perfectly well.”
“His life has been football. I’ve had a greater variety. And we had different styles. What we’ve agreed on many times is our longevity.”
That variety includes “The Boat Race”, a famous annual rowing race between the prestigious Oxford University and the Cambridge University that Barry Davies was the voice of for a long time, and most recently includes “The Jump”, a British television series that follows celebrities as they try to master various winter sports. He has been doing that show for four seasons.
He’s proud of that variety and gets agitated when people say he did other sports because he lost the football battle to John Motson.
“The only thing that slightly annoys me is that people think I started doing other sports because I lost out on football.”
“Football is a sport that I love greatly, but it gets too much coverage. It’s good when other sports get their say.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXQwBEv9vg4
Barry Davies witnessed the Heysel tragedy and also Maradona’s “Hand of God” first hand. This is his take on the events that took place in Brussels:
“I went to commentate on what promised to be one of the greatest European Cup finals of all time, and I found myself describing a tragedy.”
“It was a very surreal experience. One of the guys who I shared a flat with came in and thought: “Oh the football’s still on? What’s the matter with Barry tonight? He sounds half asleep, he’s hardly saying anything.” They didn’t know what had happened.”
39 people died and over 600 were injured when Liverpool fans broke a fence and rushed into Juventus fans, who were crashed against a wall that subsequently collapsed under the pressure approximately one hour before kick off.
The 1986 quarter-final match between Argentina and England is one of the most memorable World Cup games in history. It was the day when Maradona scored the infamous hand goal and then followed it up with the “Goal of the century”.
“The line I said at the time was “that was pure football genius”, and the use of the word “pure”, in comparison with his cheating 10 minutes earlier, was significant to me.”
Tennis is another sport which gave him great pleasure and Wimbledon 2018 is where his TV broadcasting career will come to an end, although his famous voice will never be forgotten.
