Fearless Cooney was ‘a force of nature’
ONE of Scottish sports journalism’s most influential figures has passed away following a long illness.
Bryan Cooney, head of sport when the Scottish Daily Mail was relaunched as a stand-alone title in 1995, was widely considered to be one of the most inventive and driven figures in the business. Beginning his career at The Press
and Journal, Bryan’s talents for sniffing out a story, then telling it with wit and style, took him to The
Sun, The Daily Star and then to The Mail.
An absolute force of nature who built an entire department from scratch, his fearlessness and willingness to speak truth to power — regardless of how powerful — were his hallmarks as a sports editor.
He kept writing, too. And winning awards. Much to the chagrin of the full-time writers beaten to the top prizes by his occasional forays ‘back on the tools’. His achievements at the Glasgow office soon caught the eye of the bosses in London, who lured him south with instructions to transform the sports department at Northcliffe House.
Bryan achieved much during his time in London and returned to tackle a series of new projects in the early 2000s. He won more awards for his radio work, with one fantastic series — The Pain of the
Game — widely regarded as a masterclass, and continued to work into his 70s.
The subject matters he chose reflected his fascination with flawed and broken characters. People who had been beaten up by life. And sport.
He later wrote several books, covering subjects as diverse as his beloved Aberdeen FC, the great ‘lost talent’ that was George Connelly — and trail-blazing Scottish musician Gerry Rafferty.
A hard taskmaster who was never anything other than demanding of his staff, Bryan had a backlog of stories about personal interactions — often arguments, funnily enough — with just about everyone in the game.
Beyond the laughs we used to get out of these tales, listening to Bryan spin another uproarious yarn about his adventures underlined a key point. When he asked you to do something that seemed ridiculous, make that extra call and chase every detail, you did it.
Not just because he had almost superhuman antennae for a story. But because you knew he’d do it. And he’d done it. All of it.