Football lost a true champion when Les Murray died yesterday morning, aged 71.
Les was the voice of the round ball code as much as Richie Benaud was the voice of cricket, and Ray Warren the voice of rugby league.
Three icons of sporting commentators.
‘Benords’ and ‘Rabs’ had a far easier ride in sports long accepted as they rose to the top.
But Les had a mountain to climb seeking the code’s acceptance on the Australia sporting landscape. That he achieved the seemingly impossible does the Hungarian migrant as a 12-year-old with his parent proud
Born Laszlo Urge on the outskirts of Budapest, he was schooled in Wollongong where the name Laszlo Urge gave him no little grief, so he changed to Les Murray.
There were two rungs in Les’ ladder of life – soccer and the lead singer in a classically named rock group called The Rubber Band.
Les began work as a journo in 1971, moving to Channel Ten six years later.
It was there he started a lifelong friendship with the late great Johnny Warren, and it was that friendship that gave soccer a giant lift.
They were kindred spirits, two peas in a pod of passion and dedication.to soccer – Les the commentator, Johnny the footballer on the way to becoming the captain of the Socceroos 24 times in 42 caps.
To give Roarers the picture of how soccer was viewed at the time, Johnny wrote a best selling book called ‘Sheilas, Wogs, and Poofters – an incomplete Biography of Johnny Warren, and Soccer in Australia’.
In that superb publication, Johnny described soccer as ‘wogball’, there were precious few Anglicised names playing.
In over 50 years of writing sport, there have been no better days of being in Les and Johnny’s company, hearing how they were coping with lifting the game they loved with such passion.
Not once in 30-plus years were there any doubts in their minds that soccer would become a major sport in Australia.
Not long before he died of lung cancer in 2004 aged 61, Johnny was asked how would he liked to be remembered.
He replied “I told you so”, meaning soccer had made it.
Johnny’s death devastated all those who had the privilege of knowing him, but more so for Les soldiering on in his own inimitable way until 2014 when he hung up his microphone.
Les’ death is just as devastating. His passion, his dedication, his never-say-die promotion of football, his sense of humour, and his on-going communication skills, can’t ever be forgotten.
It would be a nice touch if a statue of Les Murray was erected alongside Johnny Warren’s at the SCG on the avenue of Australian sporting legends so the yet to be born kids can salute the two close mates who put football firmly on the Australian sporting map from a cold start.
One of Les Murray’s many attributes was coining the phrase ‘The World Game’.
Today the football word and beyond mourn the loss of a true champion.
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