For every one of us, regardless of age, and even regardless of what team a person supports, there’s a voice that we all will have known, even if we didn’t know the name behind those dulcet tones.
As the football classified were read out in that familiar tone, we can all identify with the voice of James Alexander Gordon, the man who literally was the classified results, bringing a smile or a tear to fans depending on how that day’s results had gone, listening in as we were on our way back from wherever we may have been playing.
Born in Edinburgh, during his youth he was paralysed with polio and he spent a large part of his childhood in hospital. He worked in music publishing before joining the BBC in 1972, becoming an announcer and news reader until the early 1990s. In 1974, he followed in the footsteps of John Webster, reading the classified football results, first on Radio 2 and later on Five Live.
Popularly known as ‘Jag’, he used his intonation, when pronouncing the names of the clubs, to indicate whether a match had ended in a home win, away win or draw.
So, in recognition of a man whose voice we will all know – whether we’re 18 or 80 – we offer our condolences to the family and friends of James Alexander Gordon who died today aged 78.
Rest in peace.
The Author
