January 22 – Captain Teddy Hits the Airwaves

IN 1927 Cardiff City won the FA Cup, the first ever transatlantic telephone call was made, and on this very day listeners were able to tune in to a live football commentary broadcast for the very first time.

In 1927 the British Broadcasting Service received it’s first Royal Charter and was now able to start broadcasting sports events from around the country, despite heavy opposition from the sports authorities and the newspapers who thought attendance and readership were bound to be hit by the new service.

The first sport to get the new wireless treatment was rugby when, on 15 January 1927, the BBC delivered the first ever live running sports commentary for the international between England and Wales from Twickenham.

The man chosen to be the first ever radio sports commentator was the rather grandly named Captain Henry Blythe Thornhill Wakelam, known as Captain Teddy. He described how he got the job in his autobiography thusly: “One January afternoon, I was working out some details of a tender, when my telephone rang. An unknown voice at the other end asked me if I was the same Wakelam who had played rugger for the Harlequins, and, upon my saying “yes”, went on to inform me that the owner of it was an official of the BBC, who would much like to see me at once on an urgent matter.”

A week after his successful debut as a rugby reporter, Captain Teddy turned to football, and on this day, from a garden shed-like hut at Arsenal’s Highbury stadium, he described to the listeners the action from the Division One clash between the Gunners and Sheffield United.

Arsenal’s Charlie Buchan took the honour of being the first player to score a goal live on radio.

The experiment had proved a success and even the gentlemen of the press were keen with The Spectator correctly predicting, “That type of broadcasting has come to stay”. The Times also reportedly it favourably with their correspondent commending Wakelam’s description of play as “notably vivid and impressive”. Perhaps Captain Teddy’s commentary was enhanced by a little something to loosen him up – in one unguarded Ron Atkinson-like moment when he thought he was off-air during his first commentary Wakelam was reputedly heard saying over the airwaves, “What about a beer?” What an excellent idea.

The Soectator’s prediction was right, that type of broadcasting certainly was here to stay and to this day TV has not entirely replaced radio as a means of following a match.

You can hear some of Captain Teddy’s commentary by clicking here, which is followed by a sofa-based chat with OTFD’s fave commentator Barry Davies.

As Wakeham probably didn’t say at the end of the Arsenal match, that’s all for now folks, but we’ll be right back here tomorrow with something that if nothing else, will take your mind off work for a couple of minutes.

Last year on this day we were telling you about some nutters who tried to use a flame thrower as part of a plan, but no, it wasn’t the A-Team. Find out who it really was here.

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