Gregory Ronald Tesser (born 11 May 1946) is an English sports broadcaster and writer. He was educated at Byron House, The Hall School, and one of Britain's most ancient Public Schools, The

King's School, Gloucester The King's School is a co-educational private day school in Gloucester, in the county of Gloucestershire, in South West England. It traces its heritage to a monastic school founded in the 11th century in the cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral. I ...

. In 1964 he became the publicity manager of

Georgie Fame Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell; 26 June 1943) is an English R&B and jazz musician. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still performing, often working with contemporaries such as Alan Price, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the only B ...

and

The Yardbirds The Yardbirds are an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1963. The band started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton (1963–1965), Jeff Beck (1965–1966) and Jimmy Page (1966–1968), all of whom ...

. In 1965 he launched ''The Amateur Footballer'' magazine, which he closed down at the beginning of 1970-71. During his time as editor/publisher he exposed the hypocrisy of 'shamateurism' in English football, which resulted in a mini-documentary in 1969 during Ian Wooldridge's Sports Arena show on ITV. In the same year, Tesser became a leading football agent for the likes of

Peter Osgood Peter Leslie Osgood (20 February 1947 – 1 March 2006) was an English footballer who was active during the 1960s and 1970s. He is best remembered for representing Chelsea and Southampton as a forward at club level, winning the FA Cup with eac ...

, Charlie Cooke and

Rodney Marsh Rodney William Marsh (born 11 October 1944) is an English former footballer and football coach; he later worked as a broadcaster. A forward, he won nine caps for England between 1971 and 1973, scoring one international goal. Brought up in the ...

. During the 1990s Tesser worked on BBC TV's definitive documentary on the history of football - ''Kicking and Screaming'' - and was interviewed for the book of the same name, written by Rogan Taylor and Andrew Ward, allied to the series and published in 1995. His article for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' in 1995 on more regionalisation in non-League football helped change the way the leagues were structured. In 1998 he began a series of celebrity interviews for both ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'' and '' GQ'', beginning with Tony Blair and later to include Prince Philip, on their passion for sport. He currently writes on rugby union for '' Country Life'' magazine, with previews of, amongst others, the annual 6 Nations tournament, having also been a features writer for the Rugby Times. In 2011, the year of the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

, he not only wrote a preview of the tournament for ''Country Life'', but also penned a piece for ''

The Jewish Chronicle ''The Jewish Chronicle'' (''The JC'') is a London-based Jewish weekly newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world. Its editor () is Daniel Schwammenthal. The newspaper is published every Fri ...

'' on the many Jewish players that have lit up the game since before the First World War.The Springbok Minyan lead starry eyed cast of oval ball heroes
''The Jewish Chronicle''. His book ''Chelsea FC In The Swinging 60s: Football's First Rock 'N' Roll Club'' was published in August 2013 by The History Press. It chronicles his life as PR Man for Georgie Fame & The Yardbirds and his years as agent and business partner of The King of Stamford Bridge himself, Peter Osgood.

References

External links

*http://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-features/61199/when-footballers-first-ruled-world {{DEFAULTSORT:Tesser, Gregory 1946 births Living people People from Highgate English sports journalists People educated at Byron House School People educated at The Hall School, Hampstead