Channel 7 sport legend Pat Welsh to quit after 47 years

Pat Welsh, one of television’s finest sports journalists, leaves Channel 7 after 47 years next week with no regrets but many choice yarns.

Seven’s Pat Welsh in 2014

In the same month Channel 7 clinched a billion-dollar cricket rights package, Pat Welsh has recalled the day he sealed another tricky television deal ... with a box of meat pies.

It was in the early 1980s when rugby league icon Arthur Beetson had returned to Redcliffe, but was not interested in making the drive across Brisbane to Mt Coot-tha for Seven’s iconic Sunday morning show Sportscene.

That was until Welsh shamelessly appealed to Beetson’s great weakness – a decent pie.

“He kept on saying it was a long way to come and we should just record something in Redcliffe,’’ Welsh said.

“Finally I said, ‘Artie, we’ve just signed Joe’s Pies as a sponsor and they are just delicious. If you drive up to the show we’ll give you a box of these beautiful pies … done deal.’ ’’

Few journalists ever talked Beetson into anything. Or Wayne Bennett. Or Greg Norman. Or Allan Border.

Yet Border gave Welsh his exclusive retirement story, Norman hosted him on his private jet and Bennett still enjoys it when Welsh prods him with a key question at a press conference. They’ve been going respectfully back and forth for nearly half a century.

All of these relationships say much about the man who first landed with Seven on Mt Coot-tha as an affable, unpretentious country kid from Bundaberg.

Pat Welsh in 1997

He will leave next week on his own terms, 47 years and nine months later, a wiser man but still very much that same person. Like many people’s favourite drink of the 80s, he’s still got that nice splash of Bundy in him.

Welsh was always the big star who never thought he was above anyone or anything despite a journey including nine Olympics, more than 75 State of Origin matches and three decades of golf coverage, where his nickname, Whisperin’ Pat, was partially due to players letting him get so close they could hear him breathing.

It’s an extraordinary career for the man who will read the Channel 7 sports report for the last time next Saturday night, his last commitment for Seven though he will continue as a breakfast radio host with Ian Healy on SEN.

One station, one city, one mountain … for 47 years.

And, for the first 36 of them, just one sick day. That’s how much he loved the job as he forged a reputation as a giant of the game with the deft, soothing interview skills that could somehow extract the inner person from an Olympic athlete in that frenzied, madhouse minute after the race of their lives.

“I found it really comforting to see him there after I won gold in London and just felt in that chat we shared something really special,’’ said hurdles champion Sally Pearson.

Pat Welsh with Usain Bolt

Advancing years are the eternal enemy of television stars but Welsh warmly embraces memories of the early days and his self-deprecating humour pokes fun at his “ancient history’’ and the fact his next hair cut will be the first he will have to pay for since 1980.

“The funny thing is I am only two months removed from black and white television which finished at the end of 1974 and I started early April 1975. I mean you mention black and white footage to the youngsters at work … it’s archival stuff. I don’t think they realise how old I am!’’

Pat Welsh with Greg Norman at Coolum in 2002

THE BORDER STORY

Welsh’s biggest scoop came the day Border told him over lunch at Brisbane’s Two Small Rooms restaurant in 1994 he was retiring from Tests.

When Channel 9’s Kerry Packer saw the Channel 7 watermark on Welsh’s exclusive while watching a news report in his London hotel he was outraged.

“I had been friends with AB and our families became friends and we had played golf and I just knew something was up.

“AB had three or fourth days growth and would admit his mood wasn’t great. For the first time in ages he had a mobile phone with him waiting for Cricket Australia to say they would organise whatever he wanted to. The call never came. I thought CA treated him dreadfully and should hang their heads in shame for that.

“Eventually AB put his beer down sand said “right that’s it … we will do an interview this afternoon … I am retiring.

“It was just crazy … such a tense day. We finished the interview. Smoking was banned in the building and AB didn’t actually smoke. But he just needed a puff asked where he could have one and our managing director gave him permission to have a puff in the board room. I’ll never forget that.’’

Pat Welsh (left) with his Sydney Olympics colleagues Bruce McAvaney, Robert de Castella and Dave Culbert

FUN AND GAMES

Welsh was the first interviewer to speak to Cathy Freeman after her iconic 400m win at the Sydney Olympics.

“That was the highlight of the big events. Cathy was always marked as a future star but future stars don’t always come through, particularly on the track. She had done all her stuff overseas away from the suffocating spotlight but she was expected to win.

“Bruce McAvaney’s call was outstanding and I felt Raelene Boyle chimed in with one of the best pieces of commentary I’ve heard when she simply said “what a relief.’ That was it. The nation just exhaled.’’

His Olympic journey saw him once offered $5000 for his ticket at the Barcelona Olympics opening ceremony (“I declined but I still think about it’’) and was at the same Games when the archer who send a flaming arrow over the Olympic cauldron tried to charge $25,000 for a chat the next day.

Pat Welsh (right) with Mal Meninga (centre) at the rugby league World Cup in 1994.

“A bit rich considering he missed the target. There is a video of the arrow in the carpark. They went to Plan B and switched the cauldron on anyway. He did one interview and it was shopped around. It probably cost us $1000.’’

BLOW-UPS

The words Pat Welsh and “blow-ups’’ sit in the one sentence as oddly as “vegetarian’’ and “meat pie’’ for his easygoing, unflappable style was the perfect antidote for rising tension.

It’s why the question “did he actually have any?’’ prompts a lengthy silence as he goes back in time …

“I did once clash with Pat Cash but I will accept a fair deal of responsibility for that. He had misbehaved at Wimbledon and was out for a Davis Cup soon after and was on some interview panels and kept pushing him about the behaviour thing.

“In the end he just blew up. He said “I hate the questions you ask’. That’s really about the only one I can remember.’’

THE SHARK AND THE KING

Welsh covered golfing superstar Greg Norman early in his career in Brisbane and the connection grew to the point where Norman once hosted Welsh, Dean Jones and Border at his home on Jupiter Island in Florida.

“There is no doubt he (Norman) was the biggest of the global stars. They become wary of people trying to become too close to them because they might not have the purest of reasons. He kept his enclave close.’’

Welsh says one of the most dramatic days of his career when Wally Lewis was effectively axed by the Broncos and he saw both sides of a complex story.

“Wayne Bennett had this theory where he liked to move players on a year early and he obviously thought things were not going to get better. There were cameras everywhere. It was madness. Wally was devastated. I felt for him but Bennett stuck by it and things worked out for him.’’

THE RUGGED FINALE

Welsh’s last year in the job was a brutal one.

He was rocked by the deaths of his beloved mother Marie, his 20-year golfing commentary partner Jack Newton, cricketers Rod Marsh (who he was scheduled to interview on the trip on which Marsh had a heart attack), Shane Warne (whom he knew well through Allan Border), Andrew Symonds and rugby league’s Paul Green with whom he chatted just weeks before his death.

“I just couldn’t wait for the year to end … it was just terrible.’’

But it was also a year which spotlighted the respect in which Welsh is held.

Green’s mentor, businessman Mick Power, was deluged with media requests on the day Green died but the only person he could face was Welsh whom he later praised for the sensitive way he conducted the interview.

Pat Welsh (right) with late colleague David Fordham in a Seven promo

THE START

Welsh grew up idolising ABC sports guru Norman May on the ABC – one of only two stations he could get in Bundaberg – and took a job at Channel 7 after narrowing missing a cadetship at The Courier-Mail.

“The Seven news director was a gruff Kiwi who asked “how good are you?’ I was a wide-eyed country kid and said “I have no idea.’’ He said “well, be down here in a fortnight. If you are no good I will sack you.

“I had a couple of tough early stories early like car accidents and a suicide and my mother was on the phone saying “I knew Brisbane would be like this … you are coming back to Bundaberg.’’

Years later Marie would chip him when he revealed his sure-fire hangover cure (a pie and a Coke) to The Courier-Mail but that’s another story …

CHANGING TIMES

The past 47 years have seen a technological revolution like no others and Welsh shakes his head at the changes.

“When I started cameramen went to a day of Sheffield Shield cricket with 200 feet of film and there was an art in saving the film by clocking on just when the bowler was delivering each ball and clocking off straight away if nothing was happening.

“Now you can get a helicopter in the air at five minutes notice and have live pictures going to air from 100km away in 30 minutes.’’

Welsh has been an industry pacesetter in so many ways but concedes while the initials IT may stand for Information Technology, the more appropriate term for him would be “In Trouble.’’

“I know for a fact one group cheering my departure will be (Channel 7’s) IT department. Every time they saw my number three or four of them would go into the foetal position and think ‘what has he done now?’

Pat Welsh and wife Cec

WHAT’S NEXT

Welsh, who lives in South Brisbane with wife of 12 years Cec, says one of the few items on his bucket list is to visit the Super Bowl for the spectacle as much as the football and he leaves the mountain with no regrets.

“I have reached the end and it’s a bit of a rarity in television that you get to decide your own future. It’s great I am handing over to Benny Davis at Seven as he and I have been great mates for many years. And I love doing the radio with Heals.

“I am fully aware of how lucky I have been it. The thing that brings it home is you see competitions saying you can win the trip of a lifetime to the (US) Masters and we will throw in the airfares. I got to go there many times for work and enjoyed every bit of it.

“I just feel lucky.’’