David Coleman

Early life

Born in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, of Irish heritage (his immediate family hailed from County Cork), Coleman was a keen amateur runner. He competed as a schoolboy middle distance runner. In 1949, Coleman won the Manchester Mile as a member of Stockport Harriers, the only non-international runner to do so. He competed in the English National Cross-Country Championships for Manchester Athletic Club in 1952 (116th, 3rd team) and 1953 (118). He ran 440 yards (¼ mile) for Staffordshire. Injury eventually caused him to give up competitive running, and he later became president of the Wolverhampton & Bilston Athletics Club.

Coleman worked as a reporter for the Stockport Express, and during military service in the Royal Corps of Signals he worked for the British Army Newspaper Unit. Part of his time in national service was in Kenya. He joined Kemsley Newspapers after demobilisation and at 22 became editor of the Cheshire County Express. He did not attend the 1952 Olympic trials because of hamstring injuries. Instead he approached the BBC to see if they would like any help with athletics coverage. Although he did not have an audition, the BBC asked him to cover Roger Bannister at Bradford City Police Sports. The following year he began freelance radio work in Manchester.

BBC

In 1954 Coleman moved to Birmingham and joined the BBC as a news assistant and sports editor. His first television appearance was on 'Sportsview, coincidentally on the day that Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile. In November 1955, he was appointed Sports Editor for the BBC's Midlands Region.

Grandstand

In October 1958, the BBC's Head of Sport Peter Dimmock recruited Coleman to be the presenter of the new Saturday afternoon sports programme Grandstand. He continued as the regular presenter until 1968. He also presented the BBC Sports Personality of the Year from 1961, and Sportsnight from 1968 to 1972 as well as other special sporting events such as the Grand National. He even covered the return of The Beatles from the United States and the 1959 General Election for the BBC from the Press Association headquarters.

As well as a presenter, Coleman was also a sports commentator. He presented and/or commentated on 11 Olympic Games from Rome 1960 to Sydney 2000, as well as eight Commonwealth Games. He covered a total of seven World Cups, both as a commentator and a presenter.

Football

Coleman was the BBC's senior football commentator for several years from 1971. he commentated on the World Cup Final in 1974 and 1978, the European Cup Final in 1973 and 1975 and the FA Cup final from 1972 to 1976 inclusive, although he missed the 1977 game because he was in a legal dispute with the BBC, allowing John Motson to make his FA Cup final debut. Coleman returned for the 1978 final before Motson took over the following year. Coleman's last live football commentary was on 26 May 1979 when he described England's 3-1 win over Scotland at Wembley Stadium in the 1978-79 British Home Championship, although he continued to work at football matches as a secondary commentator until October 1981 with his last ever game being a midweek League Cup game between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. Coleman's statements during match commentary could either amuse or annoy football supporters, for example his peremptory reaction to a goal by shouting: "One–nil!" In the 1974 FA Cup Final, he told everyone without any apparent semblance of irony that "Toshack's leg was just not long enough" (Toshack had marginally failed to make contact with a pass across the Newcastle goalmouth and would have scored if he could have deflected the ball towards the open goal); later on, Coleman summarised Newcastle United's performance by saying that they had been "stripped naked" by Liverpool.

Athletics

In 1968, at the Mexico Olympics Coleman was recorded at 200 words per minute while commentating on David Hemery's win in the 400m Hurdles. After the finish he could only identify the first two and famously exclaimed: "Who cares who's third?" The bronze medal winner turned out to be another Briton, John Sherwood. Out of respect for Sherwood, most subsequent showings of the race have dubbed the line out.

Coleman's inability to 'read' a race, as when he completely misinterpreted Dave Wottle's tactics ("And Wottle is out of this race!") in the 800 metres final at the 1972 Olympics, remained entirely unsullied by experience to the end of his long commentating career. The phenomenon was clearly spotted by satirists of the '80s and '90s, who portrayed him as constantly surprised by mundane happenings at athletic events. Clive James wrote that the difference between commentating and 'colemantating' is that a commentator says something you may wish to remember; a colemantator says something you try to forget. However, Coleman's ability to generate excitement through his commentary was widely praised. In 1972, he showed he could also convey sombre dignity when he broadcast for several hours during the siege at the Munich Olympics as well as the memorial service days later. Coleman concentrated on athletics commentary from 1984.

Other

Coleman also hosted sports quiz show A Question Of Sport for 18 years from 1979 to 1997, striking up a strong rapport with captains such as Emlyn Hughes, Ian Botham, Willie Carson and Bill Beaumont. Although he hosted the vast majority of the shows, he was occasionally absent and stand-in hosts were drafted in. Former host David Vine returned to the show in 1989 when Coleman was ill, Bill Beaumont hosted two editions in 1996, while Will Carling temporarily replaced Beaumont as team captain, and Sue Barker hosted two editions later that year.

Recognition

In the 1992 New Year's Honours List, Coleman was awarded the OBE for services to broadcasting. He was also given the Judges' Award For Sport in the 1996 Royal Television Society Awards.

Retirement

Coleman retired from broadcasting after the 2000 Summer Olympics. In December 2000, he was presented with the Olympic Order by then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch in recognition of his services to the Olympic ideals. He retired, requesting no fanfare or recognition by the BBC, despite working for the corporation for over 40 years.

The BBC later broadcast a programme entitled The Quite Remarkable David Coleman to celebrate Coleman's life, which was aired just after his 85th birthday in May 2011.

Death

Coleman died on 21 December 2013, at his home in Berkshire after a short illness.

Personal life

Coleman and his wife Barbara had six children. He married Barbara Manning in 1952 in north-east Cheshire. His daughter Anne (born 1954) was a British ladies' show jumping champion. His son Michael (born 1962) was a Panavia Tornado navigator, who flew in the Gulf War in 1991, and had become a Squadron Leader. They had twin sons in 1955 and a daughters in 1961 and 1969. He lived in Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire.

Folklore

Coleman was affectionately known for his on-air gaffes. He was so adept at spouting clichés and mispronouncing names that the satirical magazine Private Eye named its sports bloopers column Colemanballs – a word conceived by Coleman himself – in his honour.

In the opening segment of the "Archaeology Today" episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Eric Idle announces the upcoming roster of BBC programming and states, "For those of you who don't like television, there's David Coleman."