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Hugh McIlvanney, widely considered to be one of the finest British sports journalists, has died at the age of 84.<\/p>\nHugh McIlvanney, widely considered to be one of the finest British sports journalists, has died at the age of 84.<\/p>\n
The Football Writers\u2019 Association, of which McIlvanney was a life member, confirmed the news on Twitter, calling him \u201cone of the true greats of sportswriting\u201d.<\/p>\n
McIlvanney began his journalism career on the Kilmarnock Standard before moving to Fleet Street in 1962.<\/p>\n
Especially renowned for his reporting on football and boxing, McIlvanney covered the 1966 World Cup final and the \u2018Rumble in the Jungle\u2019, after which he remained friends with Muhammad Ali.<\/p>\n
When McIlvanney retired in 2016 after a career spent predominantly with the Observer and the Sunday Times, Ali was one of the first to pay tribute.<\/p>\n
Ali had said: \u201cHis words were a window to the lives, the courage, the struggles and the triumphs of the great champions of his time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has contributed richly to the fabric of our sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlvanney\u2019s friend and former colleague Pat Collins wrote on the FWA\u2019s website: \u201cHis influence on British sports writing is profound, and he has long since secured his place alongside Ian Wooldridge and Frank Keating in the trinity of our greatest sports writers.\u201d<\/p>\n
His friend, the broadcaster Danny Kelly, wrote on Twitter: \u201cWhen you were having a proper barney with Hugh, his use of language\u2026 made you secretly glad you were fighting. #genius.\u201d<\/p>\n