Underneath the binoculars, a 2GB hat, a sprinkling of Dragons paraphernalia and a winning sash from a horse race lay a coffin draped with a flag bearing the five rings of the Olympic Games.
David Morrow loved the global sports extravaganza almost more than any other sporting event. He’d been to eight of them, a soundtrack to generations of so many memorable Australian sporting moments.
His first Australian gold medal call was when Dean Lukin won Australia’s maiden Olympic weightlifting title at Los Angeles in 1984. Forty years later, it’s Australia’s only weightlifting gold. With each passing Games, Morrow’s “the tuna fisherman from Port Lincoln” commentary, as Lukin jerks the weight of two refrigerators, edges just a little further into folklore.
And on the day competition begun at Paris 2024, one of Australia’s best sports broadcasters was farewelled before about 400 mourners – with a piece of him to live on at a ninth.
In his final weeks as he battled illness, Morrow spoke to Nine commentator and close friend Mat Thompson (Nine Entertainment Co is the publisher of this masthead). Thompson wanted to know if he could use Morrow’s binoculars for his first Olympic Games in Paris. Morrow didn’t hesitate.
“It has zoned in on sporting champions across the world over many decades,” Thompson said in a video tribute from Paris. “And it also means David lives on at a ninth Olympic Games.”
The coffin of David Morrow is taken into St Brigid’s Catholic Church in Coogee.Credit: Kate Geraghty
A host of sporting luminaries gathered at the St Brigid’s Catholic Parish Church in Coogee on Thursday for the funeral of Morrow, who died last week after a short battle with brain cancer. He was 71. Morrow is survived by his wife Kristine and daughters Emily and Lucy.
Rugby league identities Andrew Johns, Laurie Daley, Paul Gallen, Warren Ryan, Shane Flanagan, Mark Riddell, Josh Morris, Darryl Brohman, Ricky Walford, Paul Dunn, Paul Langmack and Anthony Griffin joined cricket’s Jim Maxwell and Greg Matthews at the service, which honoured “one of the best broadcasters this country will ever see”.
The congregation was encouraged to wear splashes of red and donate to the Mark Hughes Foundation, which is raising money for research into brain cancer.
Morrow, who spent more than four decades working for the ABC and 2GB on radio and television, was told of his induction into the NRL Hall of Fame only days before his death.
Rugby league identities Paul Gallen, Andrew Johns and Josh Morris arrive for the funeral of David Morrow.Credit: Kate Geraghty
He was responsible for one of the most famous rugby league calls in history when Ricky Stuart set up Mal Meninga’s last-gasp try in the second Ashes Test of 1990.
Morrow, “a country boy who moved to the big smoke to realise his dream”, was wheeled inside the church on Thursday to the thunderous tune of AC/DC’s Long Way To The Top, and left to the backing of, in true rugby league style, Tina Turner’s Simply The Best and Oh When The Saints Go Marching In.
How often does a funeral say a prayer for St George to win on grand final day?
Morrow’s recall of rugby league and sporting facts was without peer.
He couldn’t remember what he danced to for his bridal waltz, but knew it was on the same day Kepler Wessels scored a century on Test debut for Australia. As his longtime 2GB colleague Mark Levy recalled, he could rattle off who won the Gundagai under-18s rugby league in 1979 just as easily as Usain Bolt’s Olympic gold medals.
He was comfortable calling Golden Slippers as well as Olympic gold medal sprints. As a teenager, he was the high school bookmaker … to teachers and students alike.
The congregation laughed so much, Father Peter Clifford even quipped: “I’m enjoying this funeral”.
“He taught me just about everything I know,” Lucy said. “Dad taught us many life lessons, look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves, and most importantly, you don’t need a long neck to be a goose.
“While Dad might be one of the best broadcasters this country will ever see, he was an even better father. Being your daughter is the greatest honour of my life.”
On Thursday, a plaque was being erected outside a Nine Radio studio which will help broadcast events from Paris. The studio will now be known as The David Morrow Olympic Studio.
“I wish he was still around to help with our Olympic coverage over the next two weeks,” Levy said. “As we know, Davey loved the Olympic Games.
“If I know Davey he will have a front-row seat somewhere in that main stadium over in Paris.”
And so will his binoculars, still there taking in one of his favourite sporting events.
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