THERE is an almost boyish smile as he lines up a farewellhandshake. 'If I'd known retiring was going to make me thispopular,' observes Bob Crampsey, 'I'd have done it years ago.' Hejokes he is the only surviving link from the days when pigeons wereused to carry reports back to newspaper offices, and, indubitably,former Brain of Britain Crampsey has proved the most durable ofsports broadcasters and writers. At the age of 70 his output remainsprolific; his distinctive Glasgow south side accent is as much indemand as it has ever been; while when sports editors want anarticle written with the full weight of historical perspective, itis to Crampsey they turn.
Today, though, in the home he and wife Veronica share within half-a-mile of Hampden Park, Crampsey will be contemplating a quieterlife. Well, that's the theory. After 44 years this former historyteacher and headmaster is hanging up the headphones, but onlyinsomuch that he will no longer be a week-to-week regular on BBCScotland's Saturday afternoon Sportsound programme. As long as thememory remains intact, the work will continue to flow his way.
What changes Bob must have witnessed over the years, and yet, ifthere is an understandable nostalgia for the 1950s and 1960s, whenhe cut his teeth in the fledgling black and white world oftelevision sports broadcasting, it says much for his outlook on lifethat he has been able to accept, and adapt to, the rapidly changingmedia world. Where, as a young man, he once worked for the oldGlasgow Evening News alongside a veteran sports reporter calledSandy Adamson who was the last survivor of the carrier pigeon era,Crampsey has latterly sat in press boxes beside laptop-carryingwriters sending their match reports electronically via mobilephones.
Despite not being fazed by modern methods, Crampsey is inagreement that he has witnessed the steady erosion of Scotland'sstanding in world football.
'Up until about 1957, when I started in broadcasting, you couldhave made some claim for Scotland being the football capital of theworld and it wouldn't have been ludicrous,' he points out. 'Glasgowhad four grounds which could take more than 60,000 people each.
'The 1960s were exceptional for Scottish football, with thefamous Real Madrid versus Eintracht Frankfurt match, theinternational matches against England, and Celtic winning theEuropean Cup in 1967.'
Since then, despite Rangers winning the European Cup Winners-Cupin 1972 and Aberdeen emulating that feat 11 years later, it istempting to describe Scotland's attempts on the football pitch asall downhill. Having seen the best - the Dundee side of the early1960s which he describes as the most 'classical' he has ever watchedin Scotland, and Celtic, the most 'exhilarating' - what on earth haskept Crampsey in television and radio studios, not to mentionprimitive and frequently freezing press boxes, for almost 45 years?
It is not as if the former headmaster, who retired from StAmbrose School in Coatbridge in 1986, lacks other interests. As wellas his 1965 Brain of Britain title, he was a semi-finalist inMastermind eight years later, choosing as his specialist subject theAmerican Civil War. Crampsey is also a longstanding associate of theRoyal College of Music, and is currently completing a history ofRoyal Troon golf club.
'I love the game, I really do,' he responds to the originalquestion. 'Even if you see a lot of bad matches, it takes only onegood one to rekindle your enthusiasm.'
Brought up in a family of Queen's Park supporters - inevitably hewrote the centenary history - the seven-year-old Crampsey somehowpersuaded his mother to allow him to attend, alone, the 1938Scottish Cup Final replay between East Fife and Kilmarnock atHampden, won 4-2 by the Fifers.
The youngster's first home was even closer to the nationalstadium (200 yards) than his present one, but even so, surely it wasan extraordinary risk to allow a seven-year-old to go alone to amatch attracting an 82,000 attendance?
'The crowds were remarkably well-behaved in those days,' Crampseyrecalls. 'I was adopted by a crowd of miners from Coaltown ofWemyss, and since that day I have had a soft spot for East Fife.'
After an earlier rejection by the BBC, Crampsey began hisbroadcasting career with Scottish TV in 1957, when he was asked tocommentate on an ice hockey game. He and another legend of black andwhite broadcasting, Arthur Montford, went through many a heart-stopping moment together.
'Arthur was unflappable in studio situations,' remembers Crampseywith relief still in his voice. 'For at least the first four or fiveyears everything was done on the hoof; there were no recordingfacilities and if you got it wrong you got it wrong very publicly.'
Unusually, Crampsey moved from television to radio, joining RadioClyde in the 1970s before negotiating a transfer to Radio Scotlandin 1987, a year after his retiral from teaching. Yesterday, in hisfinal regular programme of Sportsound, he was, appropriately back atHampden for the Tennent's Scottish Cup final.
Although an incurable enthusiast, Crampsey nevertheless cannot beoptimistic about the future of football in Scotland.
'I'm a historian by trade,' he says, 'and I don't think anybodycan understand industrial Scotland who doesn't understand the partassociation football played, particularly in the West of Scotland.Football was a product of industrial society, and the question is:can it survive in a post-industrial society? I don't know the answerto that one.'
Crampsey fears for the survival of many clubs, both in senior andjunior football. 'The strength of the Scottish game doesn't dependon how many turn up at Ibrox or Parkhead,' he points out. 'When youget average crowds at Motherwell and Perth of under 4,000, and notmuch more at Dunfermline, you have to be worried.
'I'm very much a small club man - they shouldn't be allowed todictate policy necessarily, but they should be kept in beingwhenever possible.
If, for the sake of argument, you shut Cowdenbeath down tomorrowall that would happen is that 300 more people would be lost to thegame. It happened just down the road at Third Lanark. Between 8,000-10,000 Thirds supporters walked away from the senior game.'
As one of that unusual breed, a west coast broadcaster who doesnot support either Celtic or Rangers, Crampsey's overview after alifetime of observation is that the Old Firm remain a mixedblessing.
'It has given us two clubs which, in theory at least, can competein Europe,' he says. 'They're too big for the country and that's thereal dilemma. Neither Celtic nor Rangers have been quick to graspthe fact that for a league to prosper you have to have competition.You have to keep it credible, and other teams will beat you fromtime to time.
'The result is they say they are out of their league, literally.But the Premiership doesn't appear to want them, and the so-calledAtlantic League is not a favourite of mine - I'm given to referringto it as the Forth and Clyde Canal League. It would only be a seconddivision in Europe and I'm not sure the supporters of both clubswouldn't prefer to stay where they are.'
It says much for the respect accorded to Crampsey that he candeliver this kind of analysis without having the Old Firm, and theirsupporters, demanding his neck.
Today, as he looks forward to following the cricket season withjust as much passion, he can savour a career with a wicket-takingoff-break or two still to come.
crampsey on ...
Hibs . . .
They have rightly received praise this season, but they alsodeserve to be censured for failing to finish second in the league.In my time we won't again see Rangers have such a stumbling run-in.
Ferguson v Stein . . .
I expect Celtic and Rangers managers to do well, so I look atwhat Stein did at Dunfermline and Hibs.
You have to give it to Ferguson because he did it in England andScotland. To win the championship the number of times he has isquite exceptional.
the best Scottish sides . . .
Dundee in the early 1960s were best. Jock Stein's Celtic playedwith great exhilaration, but the Dens Parkers were a classical side.In the 1950s I went every year to the Hibs-Hearts derby. Hibs wereprepared to lose three goals to score four. The Aberdeen side of the1980s was tremendous and, for a while, there was Dundee United.
his favourite players . . .
Stanley Matthews was the best player I ever saw. Gordon Smith wonthree league winners' medals with three different clubs outwith theOld Firm. Others included Alex Hamilton of Dundee, Charlie Gallacherof Celtic, and Willie Hamilton of Hibs. Of the current crop JorgAlbertz, Lubomir Moravcik, Brian Laudrup and Henrik Larsson areexcellent.
himself . . .
The one thing I regret about my inglorious sporting career isthat I didn't play more cricket.
