Tributes Paid to Sports Writer John Moynihan

---

Friends and family mourn victim of Imperial Road collision

Friends and family have paid tribute to sports writer John Moynihan, who was tragically killed in a fatal accident on Fulham's Imperial Road on Friday January 13.

John, 79, had a long and distinguished career working for a range of newspapers including the Evening Standard and the Sunday Telegraph and writing a number of books including the highly praised Soccer Syndrome and a history of his beloved Chelsea.

John grew up in Chelsea and lived in the Fulham area for most of his life. His son Leo, who is also a sports reporter, said his father was knocked down while walking home after they had lunch together in La Rueda on nearby Kings Road. He died the following day.

Leo told the Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle: " He was my hero. He was from the old school and was a character among characters. He inspired me to become a reporter. I remember sitting on his knee in the Wembley press box and I was immersed in it from an early age.

"He was a cuddly dad and a wonderful man."

John's former sports editor on the Sunday Telegraph, Trevor Bond said he spent 12 wonderful years working with the man he nicknamed the "Great Bear" and added: " He loved Leo, his son and helped make him into his own image as a sports journalist. I will miss him very much – and his Christmas card every year which always said the same thing: Blue, blue, forever the Bridge."

Henry Winter, another colleague on the Sunday Telegraph said: " Soulful, insightful and eloquent, the game has lost one of its greatest writing talents. Whether through his match reports or his seminal book Soccer Syndrome, Moynihan was always required and illuminating reading because he viewed football as much from the terrace perspective as from the press box.

"John’s book sits prominently on the study shelf of any self-respecting football correspondent, a permanent reminder that the game is about human beings, about emotions and about glory."

Author and sports historian Norman Giller, a fellow members of the Sports Journalists' Association, said: "A shuffling, always-smiling, cuddly bear of a man, John could also be humorous with Waugh-like shafts of wit.

" My sincere sympathy goes to John’s son Leo, a fine journalist in his father’s mode, and to his daughters Candy and Rosie. The Beautiful Game is a little less beautiful without his observations. He was a lovely man, literally a gentleman and a scholar."

 

 

February 3, 2012