David Fordham obituary

OBITUARY: David Anthony Fordham. Born Bingara, NSW, September 13, 1949. Died Brisbane, December 15, 2011.

DAVID Fordham's long and distinguished career as one of Australia's top sports broadcasters can be traced back to him plugging a cassette recorder into the cigarette lighter in his car and calling the 1973 rugby union grand final in Newcastle.

The match at Newcastle's No 2 Sports Ground was between his old club Merewether-Carlton and the Waratahs, led by a future Australian captain, John Hipwell. The Greens (Merewether-Carlton) won.

I was living in the US at the time and, being a former Merewether-Carlton player myself, I was anxious for a recording of the game. As none of the Newcastle radio stations or local television station NBN was providing live coverage, my brother decided to record it himself. His instinct and initiative paved the way for a career in television.

...That was David's first effort as a broadcaster -- on tape, that is. Many a time, he would impersonate the ABC commentator Alan McGilvray in backyard cricket "Tests" at the family home.

Through a friend, the tape ended up with the head of ABC Radio in Newcastle, Tom Roberts. On a subsequent visit to the Newcastle studios by the leading ABC sports commentator Norman "Nugget" May, Roberts played him the tape. May's advice to Roberts: "Create a job for David Fordham."

Having given up on finishing a law degree, David, then working in the insurance industry, became a part-time sports host and commentator for the ABC's Newcastle station, 2NC. He also found time to host a weekend gardening program.

His easy, genial style and quick larrikin wit behind the microphone eventually caught the attention of local NBN television chief George Brown and, in 1977, David began presenting the sport on its prime-time evening bulletin.

Word spread of the young man's talents and four years later he was hired by the Seven Network as its top sports host and commentator in Brisbane. David returned to Sydney in 1985 when he was offered a prime hosting role across a growing sports platform by the Ten Network. George Brown, who had given David his big break at NBN, was then running Ten.

David remained with Ten in Sydney until 1988, when he moved to Brisbane as the network's chief sports anchor. Two years later, he returned to Seven in Brisbane, remaining with the network until 2001 when he announced his semi-retirement from television and launched a sports promotions agency with wife Erica at Hope Island Golf Resort on the Gold Coast. During his final stint with Seven, he commuted to Sydney each weekend to host the network's national sports program Sports World. One of his proudest moments in his final years as a broadcaster was co-hosting (with Chris Bath) the opening program of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

During a three-decade career, he enjoyed the best seats in the house at sports venues around the world. He was a commentator at four Olympic Games, four Commonwealth Games, three rugby World Cups, President's Cup golf, Davis Cup tennis, Wembley rugby league finals, NRL grand finals, State of Origin and rugby league Tests, Kangaroos tours and soccer and basketball internationals.

In 2000, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his services to sport and, in 2009, the Australian Olympic Council acknowledged his significant contribution to the Olympic movement with the Order of Merit Award, its highest honour. At his funeral in Brisbane on December 21, his coffin was draped in the Olympic flag, making him only the fourth non-Olympian in history to be afforded the honour. Olympic swimming legend Dawn Fraser, a close friend of David's, presented the flag to his widow at the end of the service.

David Anthony Fordham, who was born in the northern NSW town of Bingara on September 13, 1949, fell in love with sport from an early age. He often recalled the time his father Clem, an insurance company salesman, took him to the Sydney Cricket Ground as a six-year-old. Although he often broadcast from famous venues such as Cardiff Arms Park, Twickenham and Wembley, the SCG was always his favourite venue. He once said that his mother Rita's intervention at his birth was a most significant move in his development. "Dad was hell-bent on naming me Herbert Ernest after his dear dad," he once wrote. "Mum settled on David Anthony.

"Could you imagine during my television career, 'And now for the latest, let's cross out to the SCG and Herbert Fordham'? Thanks, Mum."

As a youngster, Fordham excelled in rugby league, rugby union and cricket. On leaving Marist Brothers High School at Hamilton, he quickly made his mark at senior sports levels, playing first-grade cricket with Newcastle City aged 15 and first-grade rugby union with Merewether-Carlton aged 17.

As an enterprising opening batsman -- which earned him the nickname "Dasher"' from his Newcastle City captain and mentor Bruce O'Sullivan -- he played in two Newcastle City premiership-winning teams.

In rugby, he played mainly at fullback, his form earning him selection in the NSW Country under-18 team. To his great satisfaction, he played in the curtain-raiser to the Australia-Ireland Test at his beloved SCG in 1967. Before a shoulder injury forced a premature retirement from rugby, he won a second-grade premiership with Merewether-Carlton in 1969. He later coached Kings Old Boys rugby team in the Sydney sub-districts competition.

Getting a sales position with AGC in Sydney in 1969 offered him the opportunity to test his batting skills at a higher level with the Mosman Cricket Club. After a handful of lower-grade appearances, he was soon rubbing shoulders with Test players David Colley and Allan Border and former England all-rounder Barry Knight in Mosman's first XI.

Over the past 12 years, David underwent a bone marrow transplant when diagnosed with leukaemia, a grade-four melanoma, a heart attack that required a quadruple bypass, two bouts of prostate cancer and an ongoing program of radiation and chemotherapy. In the final two months of his life, he shed 16kg, but never once complained. His humour and unselfishness stayed with him to the very end of his 62 years.

Fordham was a celebrated practical joker and many of the 1000 mourners at his farewell had been his victims. One, former Wallabies prop Chris "Buddha" Handy, recalled an occasion when he was previewing a Test match at Dublin's Lansdowne Road when the ground announcer asked: "Could Chris Handy from Australia please call Jenny Craig."

The request had been initiated by a scheming Fordham from the Seven Network studios at Epping, in northwest Sydney.

David is survived by his wife Erica, daughter Sally, son Simon and his wife Nina, two grandchildren Remy and Felix and brothers Bob and John.

John Fordham is David Fordham's brother

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226230752803