GERRY HARRISON: 1936-2025

Our Vice-President, David Harrison, pays tribute to his brother Gerry, who represented Corinthian-Casuals between 1959 and 1962, before going on to become a renowned sports journalist and broadcaster…

My brother Gerry Harrison died on 23 August, aged 89. He was a keen footballer and member of Corinthian- Casuals in the 1950s and ‘60s. His first match was on 2 September 1959, against Ilford, when the club had no ground of its own and rented the vast stadium at Crystal Palace.

Three days later, he played his second game, against Tooting & Mitcham United, where a much-treasured goalmouth photo was taken, showing Gerry on the right goalpost with me on the left and our good friend Brian Wakefield going out to punch the ball. Another important figure in Corinthian-Casuals’ story, Tony Slade, was one of the Tooting players coming the other way.

After only 21 games, including the first three matches of the 1962/63 season, Gerry moved to Manchester to work for the Daily Express. He started playing for Altrincham, a leading non-league club., where the programme notes read: “New to Cheshire League football this season, at present on the staff of the Daily Express but finding time to be one of the fittest members of the team. Gaining experience with every game.”

Gerry and I had long shared a passion for football. As schoolboys we practised for hours with our neighbour, heading a tennis ball past him as he kept goal against the garage door. We were keen West Ham fans, taking the District Line from Upminster to Upton Park, then paying 1 shilling and 6 pence to stand in what was known as “The Chicken Run”.

We always arrived early with our sandwiches to be on the halfway line opposite the players’ tunnel. When the teams came out, we competed to be the first to shout “’Ere they come!” Bobby Moore, Geof Hurst and Martin Peters – England’s World Cup stars in 1966 – were soon our heroes. “If only you could pass the ball like Bobby Moore!”

Gerald Philip Harrison was born on 1 August 1936 at Upminster, Essex, where our mother taught in the local primary school. Our father was a journalist in Fleet Street with the Press Association and Reuters, later a literary agent and long-time chairman of the Press Club.

Gerry and I both went to Brentwood School, Gerry ending with a year on an English-Speaking Union Exchange Scholarship to Pomfret, Connecticut in the United States, crossing the Atlantic on the famous liner, Queen Mary.

We both did National Service in the Paras and were both commissioned 2nd Lieuts. I went first, serving in the Airborne Gunners, with 13 months in the Suez Canal Zone. Gerry was in 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regt, serving in Cyprus and on a peace keeping mission in Jordan.

In 1959, Gerry went to Brasenose College, Oxford, to read Modern History. In his second year, after recovering from a serious knee injury, he won a blue for football, playing left back for Oxford in a 2-2 draw against Cambridge at Wembley. He played in the university match again the following year, 1961/62, when Oxford lost 2-0. He was also the OUAFC match secretary.

A Wembley programme described him as “a tall powerful player, very good in the air, who can play in almost any position”.

I had also been at Brasenose, reading French, and played for Oxford for three years from 1953-56, the last as captain.

At university Gerry also did some reporting – on hockey – for the Times at the 1960 Rome Olympics. The newspaper then invited him to write a 400-word report on an upcoming match between Oxford University and Tottenham Hotspur. “Bit difficult,” he said. “I’m playing in that game.” “Never mind,” they said. “Go ahead.” And he did.

On 22 November 1967, Gerry helped launch the new Radio Merseyside. Reporting for their opening show, he was one of the first voices heard on the new local station – or should have been. Broadcasting from what became known as Radio City Tower he could hardly be heard at all. When they finally got through to him there was such shrill feedback that he was virtually inaudible!

An opportunity to move up soon presented itself. In January 1969 the Radio Times issued a challenge: “So you think you could be a commentator?” The BBC was looking for an additional broadcaster to join the team for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.

The Beeb received almost 10,000 applications; auditions were arranged across the country. A final 30 were invited to commentate on a recording of a recent international between England and Wales. Sir Alf Ramsey was chairman of judges.

Gerry made the final six and Anglia were sufficiently impressed to offer him a position as commentator. So began a career that would last for 24 years, mainly reporting on his local league teams, Norwich City and Ipswich Town, not least Ipswich’s famous victories in the FA Cup in 1978 and the UEFA Cup in 1981, under Sir Bobby Robson.

He also fronted other sports coverage, including snooker and darts and was formally promoted as Anglia’s Head of Sport in 1985. By this time, he was a familiar face on the region’s nightly news show.

A tribute on Voices of Football said: “Over the course of more than two decades Harrison became the voice and face of sport in East Anglia”.

Another tribute said: “Gerry Harrison was one of the instantly recognisable voices of televised football in the seventies and eighties”.

In the mid-90s Gerry and his wife Kate set up a London base with a flat in Chiswick, close to the Thames, commuting regularly from their Norwich home. Gerry became a leading figure in the company Trans World International, now IMG Media, helping to launch a new football magazine, Futbol Mundial, telling human stories from every corner of the sport. He also played a key role in IMG’s coverage of Premier League football, overseeing production and international distribution.

He was proud to recall that he reported on six World Cups for commercial television. He went to Mexico in 1970, and again in 1986, covering Italy against Argentina in the tournament which featured Diego Maradona’s “goal of the century” against England.

He liked to remember his first World Cup in Mexico with ITV. He kept receiving calls in his hotel room. Word had spread that one “G. Harrison” was staying. Callers apparently thought he was George Harrison of the Beatles!

In all these endeavours he had the warm support of his wife Kate. She was a dancer, soon to be an air stewardess. They met in 1966 in a pub in Cheshire. Kate was 23; they married two years later. Gerry and Kate were together for 59 years. Their home was at Cringleford, a Norwich suburb.

Gerry and Kate had three daughters: Joanna, a journalist; Nicola, a photographer; and Georgina, a dancer and campsite manager. Five grandchildren and two step grandchildren survive him.

Gerald Phillip Harrison born 1 August 1936, died 23 August 2025, aged 89