MEMORIES OF MORRISON

JOHN MORRISON, who was BN’S Scottish correspondent between 1983 -94 has died aged 85 after a long fight against ill health.

John was appointed by late BN editor Harry Mullan whose judgment was vindicated by the quality of the concise and sometimes controversial views that Morrison expressed about boxers and promoters.

He also vindicated Mullan’s faith in him by producing reports and analysis of bouts that were clear, free of any personal malice towards the ring participants and informed by a career covering sports other than boxing, variously for the

Washington Post in the USA, the

Scottish Daily Express (in the 1950s when it a had a huge circulation) and many other newspapers.

John’s tenure as BN’S Scottish correspondent coincided with a purple patch in Scottish pro boxing that saw the rise of Caledonian ring luminaries like two-time WBO strawweight champion Paul Weir, who John predicted would be a top notcher after he had tracked the Ayrshire boxer’s amateur career. Similarly when Tommy Gilmour staged Edinburgh’s first professional boxing show in 30 years in April 1984, John was at the Playhouse venue ringside for

BN to report on a six-bout bill that featured flyweight Danny Flynn and St Helens welterweight Ian Chantler, whom Nigel Benn knocked out in less than a minute in a subsequent contest.

BN readers also benefitted from John’s frank and informed analysis of contests featuring other Scots champions like Drew Docherty and WBO flyweight champ Pat Clinton.

When Coatbridge based American, ex-heavyweight Freddie Mack instituted the Scottish Hall of Boxing Fame in 2004, it was a mark of the esteem that John Morrison was regarded when he was chosen to play a leading role in picking those boxers to be inducted.

In the 1990s John authored the first biography of Ayrshire born but Glasgow based world and British flyweight champion Jackie Paterson.

John’s wife Peggy predeceased him, and he leaves a son and daughter to whom all at BN offer their condolences.