NO question was too obscure for Bob Crampsey in his long-running Now You Know column in the Evening Times.
Whether it concerned an inside-forward who played for Queen’s Park in the 1930s, or the line-up in a Scotland-England schools international in 1962, or Pollok’s run in the 1944-45 Scottish Junior Cup, the magnificently knowledgeable Crampsey always came up with the answer.
Between April 1972 and June 2006 he replied to some 20,000 queries. “My expertise, such as it is, very often consists of knowing where to go and who is likely to tell me,” he once insisted. But he was always modest to a fault.
When Bob died in 2008, aged 78, one obituary described him as a “Scottish renaissance man – a teacher and journalist who was the nation’s foremost football historian and a highly regarded, mellifluously voiced broadcaster over six decades”.
He was, among his many other accomplishments, winner of the BBC’S Brain of Britain title in 1965. He was an excellent pianist, too, and the author of several well-regarded books.
He had graduated with an Honours degree in history from Glasgow University and served three years with the RAF before embarking on a teaching career, rising to become head teacher of St Ambrose, Coatbridge.
His broadcasting career had begun alongside Arthur Montford on Scotsport (above) in the 1950s. “His droll accounts, littered with classical references and literary metaphors, became a vital part of the Scotsport formula”, noted the Guardian obituary.
Bob joined Radio Clyde in the 1970s and he later worked for BBC Radio Scotland. When he gave an interview to mark his final Now You Know column, he said his favourite player had been Stanley Matthews, and Real Madrid’s 1960 European Cup final at Hampden his favourite game. His one regret, however, was that he hadn’t played more cricket.
Among those who paid tribute when he died were Billy McNeill, Arthur Montford and Archie Macpherson.
Said Montford: “Bob was a character in many different ways. Of the original Scotsport team he was by far the most knowledgeable”.
Read more: Herald Diary
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