John Downie

BILL McMURTRIE August 18 2006

Rugby writer and sports editor, The Glasgow Herald;
born February 18, 1920,
died August 9, 2006

John Cargill Downie was rugby correspondent of The Glasgow Herald from 1946 until 1966. He was also sports editor from 1963 to 1966, and as a freelance, he wrote on football and golf, as well as rugby, for a variety of newspapers.
Wherever he went he commanded the respect of those on whom he reported. He died last week in Newtonmore. He was 86.
For more than 20 years, too, John had an intermittent career as a radio broadcaster, mainly commentating on rugby. Latterly, in retirement, he turned his pen to poetry. But it was for his honest and clear rugby reports and comments that he will be most remembered.
His career as The Herald\'s rugby correspondent covered an era when the Scottish Rugby Union barred sports reporters – indeed, all journalists – from participating in that sport. Membership of rugby clubs was denied to the likes of them. But even those within the SRU\'s hierarchy could not but respect John\'s views on the sport, whether in print or privately.
John was born in Glasgow. He and his younger brother, Harry, were the offspring of the union of Scotland\'s south-west and north-east. Their father, John, was from Wigtownshire, and their mother, Anna (nee Davidson), from Aberdeenshire. Both were from farming families, and their sons were steeped in Scots dialects and Scottish lore from an early age.
John was educated at Hillhead High School and enjoyed sports, especially rugby and boxing. Shortly before his 18th birthday, he began a career in journalism when he joined the now long-defunct Glasgow News Agency, but he soon moved on to The Herald, where he worked until 1985, though with two breaks in service.
First, he served in the Royal Engineers from 1940 until 1946. For part of his war-time service, John trained for mountain warfare in Glenfeshie and the mountains and moorland close to his boyhood summer home in Newtonmore.
On his return to The Herald after army service, he soon built up the reputation as a writer who could explain and comment on rugby in easily readable terms. He was a born communicator. Those younger than John on the sports desk learned much from him.
In those days, no Scottish newspaper had a full-time rugby writer. John\'s weekday job in The Herald office in Buchanan Street was as a senior sports sub-editor and then assistant sports editor. In 1963 he took over as sports editor.
John enlisted the renowned TV commentator Bill McLaren, who became a close friend, to contribute regularly to The Herald with rugby reports and a weekly comment column.
In November 1966, John left The Herald but continued to contribute as a freelance. In that new role, he had to be adaptable. One day he could be in Europe reporting football; a couple of days later he could be tramping a sodden Scottish golf course to report on a women\'s county championship final. His memories of one such golf event were revived when he wrote a poem, Lament for the Floo\'r o Dunbarton. In four verses he summarised how the ladies contesting a Dunbartonshire final in the late 1970s were so sodden by torrential rain that they had to adopt the kilted males\' dress code for the post-match prize-giving. He was assured so by one of the finalists.
John was captain of Newtonmore Golf Club 1994-1995. He also had two years as chairman of the village branch of the Royal British Legion Scotland and one year as chairman of the Badenoch Probus Club.
He was, firstly, married to Mary, but that union was dissolved. On October 16, 1978, he married Catherine Shearer Woodrow MBE, known to all as Kate, and for more than 20 years they lived in his beloved Newtonmore.
John wrote two books. One was The First 100 Years of Golf at Newtonmore (1993); the other was the compilation of 34 poems, Just an Old-Fashioned Rhymer (2002). John sent a copy of the poems to, among others, his former Herald colleague, George MacDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman novels, whose letter of thanks advised that book had an honoured place between Donne and Dryden. But probably the poem he enjoyed most in writing was The Glashans, a 16-verse celebration of boyhood hikes deep into the Badenoch hills for fishing. It was read out in full at his funeral service.
John is survived by his second wife, Kate, and his two children from his first marriage, Iain and Liz, as well as two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

This article was posted on 18-Aug-2006, 22:26 by Hugh Barrow.