Cliff Morgan
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Cliff Morgan (born 7 April 1930 at Trebanog, Rhondda) is a former Welsh rugby union player who played for Cardiff RFC and earned 29 caps for Wales between 1951 and 1958.
Morgan was from a mining family and joined Cardiff Rugby Club straight from school in 1949, playing at fly-half. Blessed with natural balance and strength, together with an astute line-kicking ability and searing acceleration, he quickly made an impact. He also played club rugby in Ireland for Bective Rangers in the 1955 season, with the club being dubbed the "Morgan Rangers" as a result. He won his first cap for Wales against Ireland in 1951, playing opposite his own hero Jack Kyle. He was part of the Grand Slam winning Welsh side of 1952 and was made captain of Wales in 1956 in the light of his success on the legendary 1955 British Lions tour of South Africa. During that tour, which ended in 2-2 drawn Test series, it was the mercurial Morgan who emerged as the general who marshalled a talented Lions backline that included Jeff Butterfield and Arthur Smith in the centre, with Cecil Pedlow and Tony O’Reilly on the wings. Morgan’s try in the first Test at Ellis Park, in front of a world-record crowd (then) of 100,000, helped secure a sensational 23-22 victory at the end of a match that some still consider the most exciting ever played. The Springboks levelled the series in the second Test. Then, with Lions skipper Robin Thompson injured ahead of the third Test in Pretoria, Morgan was made captain and duly inspired his team and controlled the game to ensure a 9-6 win that meant the series could not be lost. The South African newspapers dubbed him “Morgan the Magnificent” and the level to which his influence was thought key was reflected in the frenzy of coverage his injured ankle received as the fourth test came around. Although he played, he was not fully fit and the Lions could not prevent the Springboks squaring the series. But his reputation was already made and the memory of that tour proved long-lived.
Following his retirement from the game in 1958 he found a new career in broadcasting. Although he will forever be remembered for his celebrated commentary on the 1971 Barbarians rugby match against the touring All Blacks at Cardiff ("This is Gareth Edwards... a dramatic start?... what a score!"), his broadcasting career was far more wide-ranging and influential than that single event would suggest. During his playing days he had already been spotted by the BBC as a natural talker and communicator, and in 1958 he joined BBC Wales as Sports Organiser in Cardiff. His exceptional ability as a programme-maker and story-teller briefly took him outside the familiar world of BBC Sport in the mid-60s, when he spent two years as editor of ITV’s current affairs programme This Week. Returning to the BBC he then produced established TV sports programmes such as Grandstand and Sportsnight With Coleman, and, from 1970, was himself one of the original team captains (opposite Henry Cooper) on the long-running TV quiz A Question of Sport. In radio he found a natural outlet for his love of music, presenting for a time the BBC Radio 2 series These You Have Loved.
Off-air, his enduring influence in the world of sport and beyond helped him rise to join the ranks of leading BBC Executives. In 1974 he became Head of BBC Radio Outside Broadcasts, and from 1976 to 1987 he was Head of Sport & Outside Broadcasts for BBC Television. There he supervised coverage of the biggest broadcast events such as football World Cups, Commonwealth and Olympic Games, as well as Royal Weddings and other national ceremonial occasions.
After his retirement from BBC Television in 1987, he returned to radio where his warm, mellifluous voice, together with his natural conversational style and his wide range of contacts in sport and entertainment, proved a boon to popular BBC Radio 4 series such as Sport on Four (1987-1997), My Heroes (1987-90) and Down The River. In 1988 he was the subject of ITV's This Is Your Life
He has contributed to numerous publications about rugby and lent his voice to many popular rugby videos. Among his books, he edited Rugby The Great Ones (1970), wrote perceptive short profiles to accompany John Ireland’s illustrations for the anthology Rugby Characters (1990), and in 1996 produced his autobiography, Cliff Morgan: Beyond the Fields of Play (with Geoffrey Nicholson).
When the International Rugby Hall of Fame was created in 1997, Cliff Morgan was among the inaugural inductees, alongside his Lions contemporary Tony O’Reilly, and other Welsh rugby legends such as Barry John and Gareth Edwards.
For his contribution to broadcasting, he was honoured with OBE and CVO.
