COLEMANBALLS

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Nowhere was his dedication and knowledge better illustrated than at the teleprinter as the football results came in. In 1984, he won the Television and Radio Industries Club award as Sports Presenter of the Year and, in 1992, he was awarded an OBE. He finally retired from broadcasting in 2000. Tributes

Some examples of the verbal gaffes made by David Coleman, include: "He is one of the great unknown champions because very little is known about him."

humorous one-liners, quotations, proverbs, Murphy's Laws & more

He became the BBC's senior football commentator in 1971, covering five FA Cup finals, before handing over to John Motson in 1979. In 1968, he handed his Grandstand seat to Frank Bough, moving on to a midweek show, Sportsnight With Coleman. Don’t tell those coming in the final result of that fantastic match but let’s have another look at Italy’s winning goal. WORTHY SUCCESSOR Fantoni, Barry; Larry (1990). Private Eye's Colemanballs: No. 5. Private Eye Productions. ISBN 978-0-552-13751-5.

Fantoni, Barry; Larry (2008). Private Eye's Colemanballs: No. 14. Private Eye Productions. ISBN 978-1-901784-49-7. Coleman's vast sporting knowledge made him the ideal host for Question of Sport, which became British television's longest-running quiz show. Bill Beaumont, Coleman & Ian Botham on a Question of SportSir Bobby Charlton, World Cup winner: "The players trusted David to be absolutely correct on certain things on the football field, he was a charming man. I couldn't tell you anyone else who was better." Fantoni, Barry; Larry (1992). Private Eye's Colemanballs: No. 6. Private Eye Productions. ISBN 978-0-552-13996-0. Rivals were never comfortable with Coleman. In the mid-1960s when ITV hired the popular, amiable Eamonn Andrews to launch its Saturday afternoon World of Sport magazine programme to take on the BBC's Grandstand, Coleman dismissively told Andrews: "I'll blow you out of the water!" To all intents, that was, mercilessly, what he did.

Fantoni, Barry; Larry (1994). Private Eye's Colemanballs: No. 7. Private Eye Productions. ISBN 978-0-552-14279-3. Undeservedly or not, it is the lot of the British sports commentator to suffer the barbs and carping of his or her public. Some of them, and Coleman was certainly one, are as much a part of the national picture as the sportsmen whose acts of valour they describe. Private Eye's Colemanballs is the distillation of that. That the sports blooper column should be named after him has never remotely undermined Coleman's position as the undisputed founding father of modern British sports broadcasting, the commentator who moved the hearts other commentators cannot reach.

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In these days of dedicated sports channels, it is difficult to appreciate the importance of Grandstand, which led the way in showcasing a wide variety of sporting action each week. On the set of Grandstand in 1978 Lord Sebastian Coe, two-time Olympic 1500m champion: "He was just incomparably the best. It wasn't just that he carefully choreographed intro pieces, but he could always capture the moment." Jonathan Edwards, Olympic gold medal triple jumper: "David was one of that rare breed who had the ability to say just a word and you knew who he was, like Sean Connery in acting and Bill McLaren in rugby." He was offered the job, with his first screen appearance coming on Sportsview on 6 May 1954. Coleman interviewed golfer Roberto de Vicenzo external-link as the production team tried to find Roger Bannister, who had broken the four-minute mile earlier in the day.