Legendary broadcaster Gary Newbon on 50 unforgettable years of interviewing sporting greats, the time he almost died with Muhammad Ali and how he ended up on the bench in a European Cup final!
- Gary Newbon enjoyed a legendary broadcasting career for more than 50 years
- The 78-year-old is releasing a book detailing numerous tales from his life
- It’s a three-team title race… Toney could lead Arsenal to glory: It’s All Kicking Off
He is the man with the microphone who ended up on the bench in a European Cup final.
He nearly died while interviewing Muhammad Ali, persuaded Sebastian Coe to run to a TV studio straight after winning Olympic gold and made Chris Eubank fall off a chaise longue.
He introduced Jimmy Greaves to a career in television, brought the post-match flash interviews to football and set Gary Neville on a course for punditry. Some might say Gary Newbon has a lot to answer for.
He also captured one of sport’s most enduring quotes when he shoved his mic under the nose of Sir Alex Ferguson in the euphoric afterglow of Manchester United’s Champions League triumph in Barcelona.
‘Football, bloody hell,’ said Ferguson after traipsing with Newbon down a long tunnel to the designated interview zone.
Gary Newbon enjoyed a legendary broadcasting career which spanned for more than 50 years
He regularly worked closely with the hugely charismatic and iconic manager Brian Clough
‘The longest tunnel I’ve ever seen,’ Newbon explains. ‘There’s a chapel half way down it. Ferguson was always fantastic to me. He had been preparing for defeat against Bayern Munich and then gets the two late goals and for a few seconds is in a state of shock.
‘I look at him and his eyes have gone and I ask for his reaction and he goes, “Football, bloody hell”.
‘Then he recovers, and realises what he’s saying and says, “You never give in”. When he made the documentary with his son Jason they cut out the “Football, bloody hell”.’
Newbon knew better. The phrase is adapted as the title of his memoir, Newbon, Bloody Hell, a book crammed with these tales and many more from a broadcasting career of more than 50 years and more than 10,000 shows.
‘My family are sick of hearing them so I thought I should put them in print,’ says the 78-year-old, by way of explanation over tea and biscuits at his kitchen table in Solihull.
The journey through countless nights trackside, pitchside or ringside started at Westward TV in 1968. Among his first assignments: a feature on a 14-year-old called Trevor Francis, the talk of Plymouth schools football and wanted by the biggest clubs. ‘I was shaking, he was shaking, it must’ve been terrible,’ recalls Newbon.
Francis joined Birmingham and Newbon followed him to the Midlands with a move to ATV. The region was a footballing force at the time, with Derby County and Nottingham Forest winning titles and Brian Clough captivating TV audiences with his charisma.
‘Clough was a genius,’ Newbon says. ‘Packed social clubs in the Midlands fell silent when he came on screen. You never knew what he was going to say but he would always say something outrageous.
‘He was so sharp. I turned up once to do the Star Soccer highlights show from the ground and I’d lost my voice. He said, “Two-and-a-half million people in the Midlands will be delighted”.
‘The only others close to him were Ron Atkinson and Tommy Docherty. This year, just before Trevor died I was writing about his Birmingham debut at 16. His first home game was a 1-1 draw against Oxford and Ron was marking him so I called Ron who told me Trevor never got a kick. Then I called Trevor, who, in that innocent way of his said, “I scored the goal”.’
Newbon was Cloughie’s designated minder on the infamous night he flippantly branded Jan Tomaszewski a ‘clown’ as the Poland goalkeeper made a series of brilliant saves to send England out of the World Cup in 1973.
‘I didn’t do a very good job,’ Newbon admits. ‘I was told to look after him and keep him sober. We crashed a BBC party. He told me not to be so boring and shoved a glass of champagne at me.’
Newbon (bottom right in black top) was even on the bench for the European Cup final in 1982
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When Aston Villa won the European Cup against Bayern Munich in Rotterdam in 1982, it was live on ITV and Newbon’s job was to deliver the instant post-match reaction.
UEFA were insisting on no interviews until an hour after the final whistle but Villa boss Tony Barton agreed to let him watch the game from the bench and talk live as soon as it ended.
‘People think I made it up,’ says Newbon. ‘Luckily there’s a picture.’ He was sitting beside Nigel Spink, Villa’s then unknown back-up keeper, when injury struck No 1 Jimmy Rimmer after nine minutes.
‘Spink turned to me and said, “What happens now?” I said, “You’re on”. He said, “I hope my mum’s got the telly on” then ran on and played a blinder.
‘I got my interviews. We even went down the tunnel to film in the dressing room. I thought I’d get into trouble but I didn’t. You got away with things in those days you couldn’t today.’
The value of instant pitch-side reaction was clear, especially for the terrestrial channels. ‘ITV wanted to know three things: how much will it cost, how many viewers will we get and how quickly can you get off air,’ says Newbon.
‘So I started doing the flash interviews. The first was a disaster. I man- handled Bobby Campbell of Chelsea, holding him because he didn’t want to do it. The second, Gordon Strachan, then at Leeds walked straight past me and refused. The third was make or break but I got it right.’
The ATV Sport team also made the inspired call to put Greaves on screen soon after he came out of rehab for alcoholism as Newbon’s sidekick on Star Soccer.
Greaves declined, saying it was too far from his home in Essex but called back a few days later to say his wife Irene had told him to take the job. ‘I had no idea how funny he would be,’ says Newbon. ‘He was nervous at first and there were critics in the Midlands who thought it shouldn’t be a Londoner but I remember the time he cracked it.
‘Birmingham against Blackpool with a disputed penalty and Greavsie came out with, “Alan Ainscow is about to take a deeper dive than Jacques Cousteau”. I starting laughing because I wasn’t expecting it. Then he was off and running.’
Greaves, who died in 2021 at the age of 81, became one of the nation’s top TV personalities.
‘I owe my career on screen to four people,’ says Newbon. ‘Clough, Ferguson, Greaves and Chris Eubank. They had the biggest impact. Eubank would drive me crazy at times but he was box office.’
Their first encounter came in Brighton when Newbon covered one of his early fights for Midweek Sports Special. ‘It was a terrible fight,’ he says. ‘I went at him too aggressively, saying, “You’ll never be a world champion if you fight like that” and he said, “That tells me you know nothing about boxing”.’
By the time Eubank summoned Newbon to his hotel before fighting Ray Close in Belfast to confirm rumours he was leaving his ITV contract for Sky, the pair had become close.
‘I went into his suite and he’s reclining on a chaise longue, and we talked and at the end he asked how many of his fights I’d covered. It was 16, and he said, “What do you remember most?”
Newbon is soaked with champagne as David Seaman looks on after Arsenal win the title in 1991
‘Newbon, Bloody Hell: A Life in Sports Broadcasting’ is out on Thursday November 16
‘I said, “Well, I’m grateful to you Chris because after the last fight I paid you a compliment and you said it meant a lot coming from somebody as knowledgeable and steeped in boxing, so over the course of your 16 fights I’ve gone from knowing f*** all to being an absolute expert”.
‘He laughed so much he fell off his chaise longue and nearly twisted an ankle, the fight was nearly off.’
Years earlier, Newbon had been sent to interview boxing legend Ali outside a Ladbrokes store in the centre of Birmingham when he took a far more serious tumble of his own.
‘They stopped the traffic and I’m interviewing him when a woman lost control of her car, hit the wrong pedal and hit me,’ he says. ‘I was thrown right up in the air. My film crew were so frozen with horror they never filmed it.
‘They thought I was going to die and Peter Lorenzo, a famous journalist who was doing PR for Ladbrokes, didn’t want me to die under the sign and pulled me into the shop.’
Fortunately, he survived to tell the tale. And many more.
Newbon, Bloody Hell: A Life in Sports Broadcasting is published by Biteback and out on November 16
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