Bjørge Lillelien (29 March 1927 – 26 October 1987) was a Norwegian sports journalist and commentator.
A commentator for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation from 1957 until just before his death from cancer in 1987, he commentated on many sports, but concentrated on winter sports and football.
Lillelien was a popular and engaged commentator. It was not unusual for people to turn off the sound on the TV and listen to him on the radio instead.[1] Lillelien quoted by a colleague: "We shouldn't necessarily make a boring radio program even if it is a boring football match. We should make a sports show that excites people". As a person he was often introvert and quiet, the opposite of his on air persona.
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In 1948, he went to Northwestern University to study journalism. After going back to Norway for his military service, he got a job in the newspaper Fremtiden. But it didn't take long before he was working for the Norwegian broadcasting network.[2]
In 1963 a long working relationship with Håkon Brusveen started in the cross country races at Holmenkollen.[3] The olympic champion from the 1960 Olympics would be standing somewhere by the ski track and give his view on the runners' performance as they passed. This collaboration would last for the rest of Lilleliens working days. Brusveen went on working for NRK after Lillelien's death.
Most famously, he commentated on Norway's 2-1 victory against England in a World Cup qualifier in Oslo on 9 September 1981. At the end of the match, alternating between English and Norwegian, he proclaimed (in Norwegian) "We are best in the world! We have beaten England! England, birthplace of giants", before taunting a roll call of famous English people, usually quoted in an edited, English-only form as follows:
The full Norwegian/English version reads as follows:
The full version, completely translated to English:
Although the commentary was for Norwegian radio, it soon made its way to an English audience, and became quite famous in England, where it is generally regarded with good humour and even affection. The election campaign was the Norwegian parliamentary election of 1981, which was held on 13 and 14 September of that year.
In 2002 Lillelien's words were designated the greatest piece of sports commentary ever by The Observer's Sport Monthly magazine. Such is its place in British sporting culture that parodies of the commentary have been written to celebrate domestic sporting victories, such as the following when the England cricket team beat Australia to regain the Ashes in September 2005:
And again, when England's cricket team finally won a game against New Zealand on the 2006/7 one-day series, the BBC's web coverage came up with:
Following Scotland's 2-1 victory against Norway in Oslo in September 2005, the Daily Record parodied the quote, using known Norwegians:
The Deputy Editor of the Daily Record at the time, Murray Foote, since issued an apology for the inclusion of Vidkun Quisling in the quotation:
Following England's 14-9 defeat of France in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Will Greenwood exclaimed "François Mitterrand! Michel Platini! Your boys took one hell of a beating!"
In advance of the Scotland v Norway game at Hampden on 10 October 2008, a parody was created by Tennent Caledonian Breweries (sponsor of the Scottish National Team) for radio and subsequently animated and posted on YouTube.[5]
Following Liverpool FC and Royal Bank of Scotland's famous win over the former's owners, George Gillett and Tommy Hicks in a legal battle to force them to reconstitute the board and so allow a sale to proceed.