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For decades, the languid tones of James Alexander Gordon brought joy or sadness into the homes of Premier League fans - depending on which side of the pitch you favored. The legendary reader of the BBC's classified scores passed away today, succumbing to the cancer that forced him off the air last year.
Across England today there is a great outpouring of emotion for a man known as JAG who came to become the "voice of my childhood" for many rabid football fanatics. And while the name likely doesn't mean very much to American fans, he was a national institution in England and is representative of a generation of voices across the globe that brought people together in a way we are unlikely to experience again in our smartphone-enabled world.
James Alexander Gordon: A tribute. http://t.co/4ZoANIFBTF What are your memories of JAG? Hear more after 10 on http://t.co/UQMSd5CH9b
— BBC Radio 5 live (@bbc5live) August 18, 2014
Although Gordon's subtle use of inflection as he ran through the day's results will never have the replay value of an iconic play-by-play call like Russ Hodge's call of "The Shot Around The World" or Al Michaels' "Do You Believe In Miracles," (or for a homer like me, Johnny Most's scotch and cigarrettes-infused growl calling John Havlicek's NBA Eastern Conference Championship clinching steal), there is still something oddly compelling about hearing him distill a day of heroics and tradgedy into a short 30-40 seconds. So, here's your chance for a moment of zen, listening to JAG describe his first time reading the "classifieds" and the innovative approach that made him a legend and a brief sample of his work. R.I.P.
