Vale Les Murray
Give a man a football and he might play for a day, show a man how to enjoy football and you get him hooked for a lifetime.
Les Murray was a colossus of the game in Australia, when Les spoke football you had no choice but to listen. His immaculate pronunciation and passion for the beautiful game shone through and infected a nation, whilst ensuring the world’s biggest game made giant strides in a nation an eleven year-old Laszlo Urge and his family called home after emigrating in 1957.
Les Murray was the face of football in Australia and countless of Australians have his hard work and dedication to the cause to thank for this. I have fond memories of watching Les deliver countless football sermons during his time on “The World Game” and educating a nation in regards to the world game.
Without ego and without peer Les Murray played an imperative role in how football has now become a mainstream sport in Australia.
The biggest tribute football in Australia can make to Les is for our game to continue to grow to somewhere near where he and his long term colleague and friend Johnny Warren saw the game heading. Renaming the FFA Cup trophy to the “Les Murray Trophy” or similar also has great merit considering his love for the game and this competition encompasses the at all levels.
Football in Australia has lost its greatest ambassador and all fans are richer for his involvement in the football. The beautiful game will be forever indebted to that wide eyed Hungarian refugee who arrived sixty years ago and enriched so many lives.
Image: SBS The World Game
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