MODERN day football fans are thoroughly entertained by the comprehensive television exposure of our national sport.
All the top matches are shown live on the box, with millions of armchair observers and public house customers enjoying the coverage.
There are also extensive highlights programmes, with every goal from the Premier League and the Football League being screened. The action can even be viewed on the internet and on mobile phones.
But back when I was a kid in the 1970’s, there was extremely limited TV access to football. The only live games were the FA Cup Final, the England versus Scotland annual fixture, the European Cup Final, matches from the World Cup Finals and an end of season England Schoolboy international.
BBC1 had an hour long Match Of The Day highlights programme on a Saturday night. This would show selected segments from two League games only. Commentary was mainly provided by Barry Davies and John Motson.
My favourite team QPR often featured – especially if a scheduled televised game elsewhere had been postponed at the last minute. Therefore the cameras would then hurriedly pop around the corner to Loftus Road from the BBC TV studios in White City.
London area viewers could watch ITV’s The Big Match for an hour on a Sunday afternoon as well. Presented by Brian Moore, this offered extended highlights from a League game in London plus brief excerpts from two fixtures elsewhere in the country (predominantly the Midlands, North-West, Yorkshire, East Anglia and North-East regions).
Alongside the wonderful Moore, match commentators included Keith Macklin, Gerald Sinstadt, Hugh Johns, Roger Tames and Gerry Harrison.
In addition, both Match Of The Day and The Big Match broadcast FA Cup highlights from the Third Round onwards.
Furthermore, there were very brief snippets of a League match every Saturday evening on the BBC2 News programme. This two minute report came via a grainy newsreel camera.
The coverage of midweek games was extremely restricted too with only one fixture being shown each Wednesday night in an hour long programme. It would be a match from the League Cup, an FA Cup replay or from one of the European club competitions – either on BBC1’s Sportsnight With Coleman (presented by David Coleman) or ITV’s Midweek Sports Special.
The only other highlights programmes were the Saturday lunchtime previews – Football Focus on BBC1 and ITV’s On The Ball.
Due to this limited coverage, some of the greatest games from the 1970’s were not aired on television. Indeed, many fantastic goals from that era did not get recorded for posterity.
MY ESCAPE FROM A HOTEL FIRE
I LITERALLY got on like a house on fire when I completed visits to all the Scottish League grounds.
It was back in October 1982. I deliberately left Glasgow Rangers as the last club to go to as their Ibrox Stadium had just been rebuilt in majestic fashion.
I was an impoverished 19 year old university student back then with a tight financial budget. But I decided to do my final Scottish stadium in style by travelling up the night before and staying in a city centre hotel.
My room was up on the second floor and I went to bed early. Suddenly at two o’clock in the morning, I was woken by the thunderous sound of smashing glass from down below.
I jumped out of bed and rushed to the window to see what was going on. To my utter amazement, the hotel was on fire and there were flames cascading from the floors beneath me. Three fire engines were trying to fan the blaze with their gushing hoses.
I grabbed my football grounds scrapbook and ran out of my room, down the stairs and out through the front door.
The embarrassed chief fireman said to me in his strong Glaswegian accent: “Och son! We thought we had cleared everyone oot of the building. I didnae realise you were still inside there the noo.”
So I spent the rest of the night shivering on the pavement with a blanket wrapped around me until the fire had been extinguished.
I then headed off to Ibrox stinking of smoke and saw Glasgow Rangers beat Hibernian 3-2. I was interviewed on BBC1 Scotland that day by the legendary commentator Archie Macpherson and he couldn’t believe I had escaped from a major fire before going to the match!
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to @TonyIncenzo*
