Vale Les Murray

[Ford Fairlane]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-31/les-murray-australias-voice-of-football-dies-aged-71/8759810

Les Murray (1945-2017)

• Born in small village on outskirts of Budapest, immigrated to Australia in 1957 as refugee
• Began work as a journalist in 1971, moving to SBS in 1980
• Host of SBS's World Cup coverage since 1986, covering eight World Cups
• Made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2006
• Member of the FIFA Ethics Committee

Australian football icon and SBS commentator Les Murray has died aged 71.

Murray was a trailblazer for the game in Australia, and his voice became synonymous with the round-ball game for Australian fans.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Put these in the other threads but will put them here








Vale Les Murray - can't find him singing for the The Rubber Band videos




Vale Les

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

This story was great where Les went back to Hungary in 2011 to try to find the person and other people and their families who helped smuggle an 11 year old Les and his family out of communist Hungary in 1956 into Austria. The family then spent over a year in Austria in a refugee camp before emigrating to Oz on a Hungarian Refugee Scheme the Oz government ran after the Soviets invaded Hungary.

His old man chose his new surname for him, as Muray is Hungarian for the people of the Mura River which is river they lived close to, that comprises part of the border of Hungary and Croatia and Hungary and Austria. Murray and Murray River was a close enough link. He used it for the first time when at the last minute he became a match caller for channel 10 in the old NSL in its debut year 1977. It took a few years before he officially changed it.

Vale Laszlo Urge.

 

[CharlieKelly]

RIP

 

[PepeSilvia]

I know it's not the right thread but forgive me.
Thanks Les you were a part of my life over a long time.

http://www.theage.com.au/video/vide...hq/the-best-of-les-murray-20170731-4wnvg.html

I seem to remember you saying that you went to Pulteney in your schooling days? If memory serves, Les also went to Pulteney for a time. I imagine you can't be too far apart in age?

 

[Byrons Firen]

I seem to remember you saying that you went to Pulteney in your schooling days? If memory serves, Les also went to Pulteney for a time. I imagine you can't be too far apart in age?

Have done some checking on Les Murray and no mention is made of any SA connection.
Younger than him by not enough. Your memory is correct, I went to PGS. In my 1st yr in the 1st XVIII I watched a young Phil Carman
playing for Kings and I've never seen a schoolboy dominate a game like he did that day. He played CHF and owned the ball.
The standard of the comp. was pretty good then but Phil was something else.

 

[Byrons Firen]

I never met Les Murray but here is a song of sadness that somehow captures my mood on his passing.



To a man we stand
to a man of the world
who brought the 'World Game' into our home.
A man now at one
with his 'Brother n Son'
The late great
Johnny Warren

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Les gets a state funeral from the Gladys and the NSW government just like Johnny Warren did.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/08/01/state-funeral-be-held-sbs-football-legend-les-murray
A state funeral will be held for SBS football legend Les Murray, the NSW government has announced. Murray, dubbed 'Mr Football', died after a long period of illness on Monday.

“On behalf of the people of NSW I extend my deepest sympathies to Les Murray’s family, friends and colleagues,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said. “Thanks in large part to Les’s tireless and passionate advocacy, football is now one of the most popular sports in the country and part of our mainstream sporting consciousness.” There had been calls for a state funeral from Murray’s former colleagues and the federal Labor party.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/08/01/state-funeral-be-held-sbs-football-legend-les-murray

 

[PepeSilvia]

Have done some checking on Les Murray and no mention is made of any SA connection.
Younger than him by not enough. Your memory is correct, I went to PGS. In my 1st yr in the 1st XVIII I watched a young Phil Carman
playing for Kings and I've never seen a schoolboy dominate a game like he did that day. He played CHF and owned the ball.
The standard of the comp. was pretty good then but Phil was something else.

Yeah, I'm not too sure either. Les is listed under the 'Other' category in the 'Notable alumni' section of the school's Wikipedia page, which is the only reason I thought he may too have been one of us.

 

[PAFC04]

May he rest in peace, was the best sports presenter in Australia by a country mile when it comes to World Game. Will be missed.

I would love to see a statue of him and Johnny Warren together would be apt at a sporting arena somewhere in Australia as the most passionate pioneers of the World Game in Australia.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Just finished watching SBS's Les Murray Tribute Two Weeks in June about the 2006 WC campaign in Germany - an old doco with tributes to Les thrown in and footage of Les added to the original doco. For me Les' passing has been a very sad loss. This year has seen the death of Les and John Clarke, two blokes that had a big influence and impact of my world view as a youth and young adult that lingers to this day.

Les cared so much about the game and people of the game he went out of his way to make sure he correctly pronounced their names, not anglicize them or mispronounce them because they were too hard.

My favourite Les Murray story involves a mate of mine. My mate The Airport Economist was Chief economist of Austrade betwen 1999-2012 and used to like writing articles explaining economic concepts around sports, entertainment eg films/music/the arts, culture, education etc. He wrote a lot about the impact of making the WC and Oz football would have in Asia and how linking football - the Socceroos, Matildas and A League clubs thru business, either Asian businesses coming to Australia or Australian business exporting to Asia and how the FFA moving into the Asian Confederation would facilitate that and sports diplomacy for the Oz government across Asia but especially the ASEAN nations and China. Basically what Port are trying to do in China. Its why Kochie put him on his Sydney advisory team when he first set it up in late 2012.

Tim very early on in his career at Austrade got involved in setting up the Business Club of Australia (BCA) for the Sydney Olympics, where Australian business people could meet overseas business people who were coming to do work in Australia in the lead up to the Sydney Olympics as well as during the Olympics - once again the sort of thing Port is trying to do with its China Power Club. The BCA worked brilliantly, apparently $2bil worth of deals (exports + imports) was done thru this networking opportunities in Sydney. Austrade then decided to run the BCA at the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia with events around Oz. Once again it was a hit and Austrade repeated it at 2004 Olympics in Athens, 2006 Commonwealth games in Melbourne and 2007 Rugby World cup in France.

Sometime after the 2007 Rugby World Cup and before the 2008 Beijing Olympics ex Socceroo Andy Harper started snipping at Austrade for not running BCA events around the Socceroos in particular the 2006 WC in Germany and Asian Cup stuff. It proceed to when Harper in his weekly column in The Australian, might have been in the Weekend Australian, writing this nasty ill informed article that just bagged my mate personally, as well as Austrade in general and wrote some outrageous crap. Harper continued it on his regular radio segment a few days later.

Les picked up the phone and told Harper to back off and that Tim was one of us, ie part of the football family. But Les didn't leave it there. Austrade had got involved with the FFA as they restructured and then moved into the Asian Confederation, linking up with Asian government and business people and Tim played a part in that and Les and Tim worked on a couple of things together. Les then firstly wrote a letter to Harper explaining Tim's role and sent him a copy of several articles he had written about football in Oz and the huge potential of the move into Asia. Les secondly then told Frank Lowy. Tim is a member of the Lowy Institute and has given many talks there over the years. Frank chastised Harper for having written such an ill informed article. Harper then back tracked and apologised leaving several messages on his voicemail and emails and requesting a meeting to apologise in person. A few weeks later they met.

That was Les, protecting those he cared about and those who cared about the game.

Austrade did end up doing stuff with FFA at the 2010 WC in South Africa. Les and Tim MCed an event in South Africa before the opening game against Germany which unfortunately the Socceroos got smashed 0-4. He txted me a picture of them watching when the Socceroos went 0-2 down.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

watched the second half of Les' funeral today. A nice job. Les picked the music. Dire Straits' Sultans of Swing and Nick Cave's Into my Arms was played at the end, with Cave's song accompanied by maybe 200 photo's of Les.

A young Les Murray in his 20's and 30's, looks a lot like Roger Federer. The smile, the jaw line and the bright eyes.