THERE is a pleasing thump as the names drop. Dougie Donnelly can tell a story, which is perhaps just as well as he has just written an autobiography, but his screenplay has the most enthralling cast.
He can talk about caddying for Colin Montgomerie at Augusta, receiving advice from the holy fitba trinity of Ferguson, Smith and Stein, having to conduct an interview with legendary drummer Ginger Baker, when a Trappist monk would be more chatty, and nattering near the 18th green with Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Arnie Palmer.
There is also the remembrance of Elton John gently taking over DJ duties in an encounter in a Radio Clyde studio. He also recounts tentative job offers from Rangers and the Scottish Football Association.
There is no bombast in any of this, no vainglory. There is, instead, a sense of gratitude and more than a little surprise.
‘I had a bit of talent, I worked hard, certainly, I spoke to a lot of people. People kept using me. Maybe I was cheap,’ says Donnelly. It is a scouting report from the spectacularly erroneous MGM school where Fred Astaire was assessed thus: ‘Can’t act. Can’t sing, Slightly bald, Can dance a little.’
Donnelly has certainly seemed to waltz through his broadcasting career since the day more than 50 years ago when he stepped in for a sick DJ when he was a law student at Strathclyde University. He has since covered seven Olympic Games, three Commonwealth Games three World Cups, 33 consecutive Scottish Cup finals and more golf tournaments than one could shake a stick, or even a club, at. Oh, he has also interviewed three of the Beatles.
Dougie Donnelly has released an autobiography reflecting on his 50-year career in sport
The veteran broadcaster has been a permanent fixture on our TV screens over the years
His personal story is thus intriguing. But he stands, too, as an experienced and acute observer of how the TV industry was and how it now is. At 71, he can remember when he was chastised for saying ‘Woosie’ rather than Ian to Mr Woosnam after a post-round interview on the BBC. He now observes the modern pundit escaping censure for more egregious language.
As he observes of current pundits: ‘One former Scottish international player committed four grammatical mistakes in eight words. He said: “Yous know, I seen him, he done great”.’
This is said with a guffaw but Donnelly is no mean-spirited viewer of the modern TV world. He knows change, he accepts change, he has also been a victim of change. Now commentating on the Asian Tour, Donnelly came to that gig after being considered surplus to requirements in a similar job on the European Tour.
He was once a mainstay of BBC network and BBC Scotland. But his last Scottish Cup final presentation was 14 years ago. The BBC is a distant if fond memory.
One senses there have been turbulent waters but Donnelly maintains a steady course. Indeed, he looks back at it all with a quiet sense of wonder.
‘Would a young Dougie Donnelly now get the chances I got? No, for a variety of reasons. TV sport looks and sounds very different to when I started. That is inevitable. It evolves. I remember being angry when Scotland played and drew with the Faroe Isles under Berti Vogts in 2002. I used words like appalling, embarrassing, disgraceful during the broadcast. That was very unusual then. It is not now. Indeed, it is encouraged.’
He worked with greats such as Bill McLaren and Peter Alliss. ‘Peter was a great Chic Murray fan and we bonded over that,’ he says as an aside. But he uses both characters to illustrate the modern trend of overly dramatic commentary and partisan punditry.
‘I will listen all day to the likes of Graeme Souness, Ally McCoist and Roy Keane but as for many of the rest, keep it for the pub. But I accept that this is a generational thing. It is now all about hits, likes and controversy. And that’s fine, if that is what the audience wants.’
Donnelly counts Scottish golfing great Sam Torrance as one of his closest friends
He has no resentment towards the BBC. ‘I did work for them for 33 years. I owe them an enormous amount,’ he says. But he is not blind to the issues facing the corporation.
‘They still do good stuff but I can see them doing less and less. Major sports are largely going elsewhere. Individual sports are going with individual broadcasters. The water cooler moments where we all saw the great moments on the same channel have gone.’
The protected television status of sport has also largely evaporated. Donnelly was on an advisory committee set up to decide what sporting events must be shown on terrestrial television under the auspices of the Broadcasting Act of 1996. Group A covers events that must have full live coverage. It includes the Olympics, World Cup, Scottish Cup final, the Derby and Wimbledon.
‘I was surprised to be asked to provide Scottish input,’ he says. ‘But the reality was that BBC sports coverage was slipping in terms of events, STV largely were not interested, and Sky was getting stronger. The pertinent question is what did the British people expect to see and what should they see for no subscription?
Donnelly has built up a rapport with sporting icons such as 15-time major winner Tiger Woods
‘You would think everyone would want to get the biggest audience possible. Now, governing bodies will play lip service to that but actually they want the money that comes with exclusive deals. I got so many phone calls from important people saying they did not want their events restricted to the A list.
‘I told them: “I hear what you are saying but there is a wider issue here”. It was fascinating.’
Beyond broadcasting, Donnelly was also chairman of the Scottish Institute of Sport for three years from 2005. He stood down as the institute merged with SportScotland but has had other opportunities to work in the wider world.
He was asked to be head of media at Rangers and was also sounded out as a possible chief executive of the SFA.
‘I never thought about either job too hard. The Rangers approach came in a telephone call in about 2000. It was a sort of, “would you be interested?” question. I was told by someone in the know that Dick Advocaat, the manager then, would have made it a difficult job. But I had no compelling interest. I have spent most of my career protesting that I am a Clyde fan with people asking if I am a Rangers Clyde fan or a Celtic Clyde fan. I wasn’t really tempted.’
And the SFA?
‘It was just a sounding out,’ he says. ‘By why would I put myself in the line of fire to take either of the two hardest jobs in Scottish football?
‘I would have had to have given up everything else and frankly I did not have the skill set for either job. I would like to think I could have identified some problems and addressed them.’
He was made wary by his experience at the Institute of Sport. ‘I was perhaps wide-eyed and somewhat naive in going into that. I thought: “I am going to work with people who love sport and want success”. But life is not like that. I suspect these jobs at Rangers and the SFA would have been the same — a culture of don’t rock the boat, you can’t do this or that. Politics isn’t my thing.’
Donnelly previously caddied for Colin Montgomery at the famous Par 3 contest at Augusta
Broadcasting certainly was and is. ‘It was never my intention. I was going to be a lawyer. It was a good four or five years into my career when I though: “You know, maybe I could stick with this”.’
He did return to Strathclyde University 20 years after dropping out to take the conveyancing exam and thus earn his law degree. But his life has been sport and talking to the people in it.
‘I feel a great sense of privilege. I have never lost that down the years. I was there when both Arnie and Jack holed out for last time at the Open in St Andrews 10 years apart (1995, 2005). I thought: “You lucky boy”. To be there at these moments and speaking to them, I have never lost that sense of wonder.’
He also formed a rapport with Tiger Woods. ‘I asked him on air once if he wanted to go for a pint but he felt the headlines this would create during a tournament would be a bit too much.’ He also caddied for Colin Montgomerie in the Par 3 contest at Augusta and formed a lasting friendship with Sam Torrance.
Professional relationships have led to personal advice. ‘I was doing a bit of public speaking and Mr Stein — he was always Mr Stein to me — was sitting beside me at the top table. I had used some industrial language during the speech and when I sat down Mr Stein said quietly that I should not do that. He told me to stay classy and not be something I wasn’t. I remembered that. Sir Alex has been a friend, too. He once told me to shave off a beard. He said I looked terrible. So I took his advice.’
The most substantial advice, however, came from Walter Smith, the former Rangers and Scotland manager who became a close friend. ‘He was at my daughter’s wedding in 2017 and I mentioned casually to him that I was thinking about retiring. He took me by the shoulders and very firmly told me not to do that. He said that I should continue as long as I could and as long as I enjoyed it.’
Both conditions have been met and Donnelly patrols exotic courses with mic in hand covering the Asia Tour. He later remarks that he might just be heading to the 18th green in terms of his career. Perhaps so, but my money is on him asking for a ruling and then forcing a series of play-off holes.
l Dougie Donnelly: My Life in Sport is published by McNidder and Grace.
