Over the years GROGS has been very fortunate with the array of guest speakers joining us. Bill McFarlan was as good a speaker as any before him. He spoke in a way which might have been expected of a man whose skills include sports commentaries, broadcasting, journalism, being an author and founding his own media training company. In a well-structured speech, Bill was entertaining, interesting and informative in equal measures. He told us about learning his craft in his early days in journalism which led on to a broadcasting career in both BBC and STV and, eventually, Setanta Sport. During this time, he was privileged to meet some of the “Titans” of sport and broadcasting with Bill McLaren being the Godfather of sports commentators. He described him as the “best in the world” and was thrilled to have met him and being mentored by him on multiple occasions. As well as the Voice of Rugby other famous names from the Golden Era of BBC sports rolled off his tongue, people he had met and conversed with:- David Coleman, Dan Maskell, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Graeme Souness, Billy McNeill, Liz McColgan and Yvonne Murray to name but some. The GROGs present were starstruck into silence except when laughing at Bill’s humourous stories about commentary celebrities like James Sanderson and John Toye and a very funny story about Tom Weiskopf when designing the Loch Lomond course. After his broadcasting career largely ended, Bill set up a media training company to help sporting celebrities get over their nerves and shyness at TV and radio interviews. He had many well-known clients including Glasgow Warriors during the Gregor Townsend era but one he confessed to failing with was Gordon Strachan who couldn’t help but revert to his cocky self even after lengthy tutoring by Bill. Bill then took on a more serious note about how dangerous misinformation is and how it was damaging democracy. World leaders lie instinctively, he said, they then repeat the lies and, in turn, sometimes these lies are repeated by the media, giving them some respectability. He wants journalists to champion truth as an essential in their work to help save democracy and he ended with apt quotes from Robert Burns and Bill McLaren on the importance of truth and facts. Never has a guest speaker more earned a bottle of Famous GROGS whisky as the one given to Bill McFarlan with much appreciation for his time.
