Tributes have been paid to ‘legendary’ Scottish sports journalist Rodger Bailie, who has died at the age of 84.
The Scottish Football Writers’ Association (SFWA) led the tributes to Baillie, who began his career as a Glasgow Evening News copy boy as a 15-year-old.
He moved to a similar Daily Record job before joining their sports desk and worked his way up from there.
Baillie finished his career as The Scottish Sun’s chief sports writer. He “retired” in 2005 but carried on writing until he was 80 for the likes of The Scottish Sun, Sunday Times and the News of the World.
He also served as president of the SFWA, whose current chief Chick Young was among those singing Baillie’s praises.
Young said: “Rodger had the ear of the great and good of our game, close to giants like Jock Stein and Willie Waddell. He was the owner of an impish sense of fun and a warm love for life. I don’t remember not smiling in his company. He had a contacts book which was an A to Z of the glitterati of the Scottish game and breaking stories streamed from his typewriter.”
As well as covering England’s World Cup win in 1966, Baillie reported on five World Cups with Scotland as well as two European Championships.
He was in the dressing room with the Celtic team after they defeated Inter Milan 2-1 in the 1967 European Cup Final in Lisbon, and was also there when Rangers won the European Cup Winners Cup in Barcelona five years later.
The Scottish Sun also published a glowing tribute to Baillie, describing him as a “legendary sportswriter.”
