Hugh McIlvanney scoops honorary degree

Nov 13 2009

A LEGENDARY sports writer who started his career with the Kilmarnock Standard has received an honorary degree – his only university qualification.

Hugh McIlvanney, one of the country’s most respected and celebrated journalists, was awarded an honorary doctor of arts from De Montfort University on Thursday.

During his acceptance speech at the Leicester university, Hugh slammed the presence of drugs in sport, questioned celebrity culture in football and gave advice to budding young professionals looking to get into his profession.

He was given the accolade in recognition of his outstanding achievements throughout his career in journalism, both as a sports writer and news reporter.

After 50 years in the business, he said: “I believe it is a tradition when receiving a degree that you give advice to students and I have two or three suggestions to those looking to get into my own scribbling profession.

“The basic discipline is reporting, but the key is to know that you cannot know it all.

“Never mistake information for knowledge, but educate yourself to make independent judgement.

“Amid all the blogging, twittering and such don’t lose touch with books. Brush up on your Shakespeare as he’s the main man.”

He added that marketing jargon is infesting the current the Premier League and that the current merchandising and wages in the game were tempered by memories of the generations of footballers gone before.

“There is a rampant culture of celebrity in football, where status no longer needs to be about performance, but their lifestyles will count for more.

“It is brain numbing,” McIlvanney added.

The writer, who has twice during his career been named Sports Journalist of the Year and once Journalist of the Year, started his career on the Kilmarnock Standard at 17-years-old as a news reporter.

Following two years national service with the RAF he returned to Scotland on the Daily Express then moved to The Scotsman in Glasgow.

In 1992 he moved to the sports desk for The Observer, before continuing in that line for The Sunday Times.

“I let myself be persuaded from news to games, which have a form of truth more readily displayed in writing that other forms of journalism,” he said.