Arthur Montford (25 May 1929 – 26 November 2014) was a

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchisee for Central Belt, Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation ...

sports journalist, best known for his 32-year tenure as the presenter of

's '' Scotsport''. Although he was most associated with football, he covered a number of other sports for ITV, notably

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

Early life

Montford was raised in

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of ...

and was a lifelong supporter of local football club Greenock Morton.

Journalism

Montford worked as both a print journalist and radio broadcaster before joining

in August 1957 as a continuity announcer. He was then chosen to present STV's new sports programme, '' Scotsport'' (originally ''Sports Desk''), where he remained as anchorman for 32 years. In all, he hosted over 2,000 editions of the programme. During his time on ''Scotsport'', Montford became famous for his trademark checkered pattern sports jackets, and some classic lines of football commentary, including ''What a Stramash!'' and ''Disaster for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

!'' He also presented the Scottish version of '' World of Sport'' which was broadcast under the ''Scotsport'' banner. During the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by ...

, a technical fault with the feed from Argentina prevented ITV from broadcasting Hugh Johns' commentary on the Scotland-Peru game, so Montford's commentary, originally only intended for Scottish viewers, was used on the entire network (the same fault affected the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

in reverse, with Scottish viewers having to listen to

David Coleman David Robert Coleman OBE (26 April 1926 – 21 December 2013) was a British sports commentator and television presenter who worked for the BBC for 46 years. He covered eleven Summer Olympic Games from 1960 to 2000 and six FIFA World Cups from ...

instead of

Archie MacPherson Archibald "Archie" Macpherson (born 1937) is a Scottish football commentator and author. He has been commentating on Scottish football, via both radio and television, for over four decades. Early life Macpherson was born and raised in th ...

). Montford's last ''Scotsport'' programme was live coverage of the 1989 Scottish Cup Final. After retiring from television, Montford continued to comment on Scottish football, both in the national press and in the matchday programme at

Morton Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film ''Horton ...

. In 1990, he narrated the film documentary ''Scotland: The World Cup Story''. In late 2010, Montford served as an occasional commentator on the Greenock Morton webcast. In May 2010, Montford received the SPFA Special Merit award for his services to football broadcasting and journalism alongside fellow broadcaster Archie Macpherson.

Other positions

He served as a director of Greenock Morton for several years under the chairmanship of his close friend Douglas Rae. After stepping down as a director, Montford continued his affiliation with the club as an Honorary Vice-President. In 1974, Montford was elected as

Rector of the University of Glasgow The (Lord) Rector of the University of Glasgow is one of the most senior posts within the institution, elected every three years by students. The theoretical role of the rector is to represent students to the senior management of the university ...

, the first sports journalist to receive the honour. He remained in the position until 1977. Montford wrote a column for Scottish golf magazine, '' Bunkered''. His recollections of some of golf's greatest players, moments, and tournaments were popular with the magazine's readers and he was the title's longest-serving regular contributor. He died on 26 November 2014 aged 85. His funeral was held in Bearsden on 3 December.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montford, Arthur 1929 births 2014 deaths Scottish association football commentators Scottish sportswriters Scottish television journalists Golf writers and broadcasters Greenock Morton F.C. non-playing staff Journalists from Glasgow People from Inverclyde Rectors of the University of Glasgow