Bill McLaren. Bill held the microphone for fifty years and became the voice of rugby. His commentary was a reflection of the man himself, passionate, loyal, unbiased and above all a gentleman. His passing away is met with much sadness, but his voice still rings out in our minds.
Born in Hawick in 1923, Bills commentary career began far from any rugby pitch. While in hospital recovering from tuberculosis he would commentate on table tennis matches for hospital radio. His big break came in 1953 when his voice was heard on radio for the Scotland game with Wales. A few years later Bill moved to television, rugby had found its voice.
Bill gave more to rugby than his voice. In his private life he remained a physical education teacher in his home town. There he coached future stars of Scottish rugby Jim Renwick, Colin Dean and Tony Stanger. He was passionate about his rugby and very active with his local hometown club.
Bill retired in 2002, and his dedicated work as a commentator was honoured with OBE, CBE and a MBE, he is also the only non international rugby player to be inducted to the Rugby Hall of Fame, a reflection his influence on rugby and the respect he generated from the game. Such was his professionalism he would often spend days at training with teams before big games. He was a furious researcher, and is known to have offered players Hewick mints before interviewing them.
Bill McLaren was one of those commentators born for the role, there’s not many of them and he is joined by Murray Walker, Harry Carpenter and John Motson. Each one is an institution to their chosen sports. Today’s commentators are all statistics and facts, often missing out on the passion of a game. These kings of commentary have coined all the phrases making life difficult for today’s want a be voice legends. What they need to remember is Bill was like an invited friend sitting in the living room.
As Gavin Hastings said Bill was a "very proud and passionate Scot" although he remained unbiased in his words, in 1990 Bill saw his beloved Scotland beat England for the Grand Slam, he chose his words but no doubt he went home smiling that day.
The Great Bill McLaren 1923 - 2010
