My old schoolmate, the legendary football commentator John Motson, would be shaking his head in disbelief at the news that Culford School not only now play football but have linked up with Tottenham Hotspur. Culford, a public school in Suffolk set in 400 acres of parkland, is a well-known rugby school. I was an ever present in the first XV from the age of 15 through four seasons to 18 as a wing or centre. Motty, who died two years ago aged 77, was so frustrated that football was not played in our time that his father, the Reverend William Motson, regularly wrote to the headmaster, Dr Christopher Storey, requesting that football should be played. But it was in vain. Then, the school consisted of 400 boys. Now it is co-educational with nearly 900 boys and girls. Alan Lee, a forward who started out with Aston Villa before playing for Ipswich Town and 10 times for the Republic of Ireland, began working at Culford’s new football programme as director of football in 2018. Public schools are starting to provide more football stars of the future, such as Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri. I am often asked how I became interested in sport and how I broke into TV and spent 50 years presenting. My maternal grandfather, John Cooklin, who moved to Leicester during the war and brought up five daughters, definitely had an influence. I come from Cambridge and when I was six he started taking me to Filbert Street, which began my lifelong following of the Foxes. Culford, too, and my friendship with Motty were big influences. We were both football mad and both wanted to be sports journalists. Motty practised commentating and I edited the school magazine. I started as a £5 apprentice at Jeacock’s News Agency in my home city of Cambridge. We sold stories to the national and international press as well as television and radio. It was a learning experience. Motty was on regional newspapers. Then I went to Hayters Sports Agency in Shoe Lane, just off London’s Fleet Street – a tough operation but the breeding ground of many top broadcaster and sportswriters. I joined them at the request of George Casey, the sports editor of the Sunday Mirror. He hired me to write rugby union and tennis. One day, the Sunday Mirror sports columnist Sam Leitch told me that at 22 (nearly 23) years old I should join TV as a presenter. Easier said than done! He got me on the shortlist for the equivalent of Radio 5 Live. Another applicant was Motty, who got the job! Meanwhile, Wolves and England’s Billy Wright, by now ATV’s head of sport and outside broadcasts, gave me an interview in Elstree. He said he had no vacancies but would put me on the list (a polite way saying ‘no’). Eventually, after much trying, I had two meetings, at Anglia TV in Norwich and at much smaller station Westward Television in Plymouth. Both offered me presenting jobs. Much to Anglia’s disbelief, I chose Westward Television. There were two reasons. I had never spoken in public and thought I had better join a tiny station to cut my teeth. The other reason was that I liked the programme controller, John Oxley, and thought, correctly, that he would be tolerant. That was in September 1968. In 1970, after Oxley had moved on, I discovered too late that Westward had refused a request from ITV’s head of sport, John Bromley, for me to be a reporter on the channel’s World Cup coverage in Mexico. Westward’s chief, John Terry, thought that if I went, I would not come back. So I made up my mind. I had to move on. Luck always plays a part. Bromley invited me to London Weekend TV’s annual On The Ball party in July 1971. I met Billy Wright there. This time, he invited me up to ATV in Birmingham for talks. He was looking to replace Simon Smith with a new sports presenter. I was oven ready, as they say, and was appointed to start on December 2, 1971. I went on to cover seven World Cups, three Olympic Games and thousands of football and boxing matches both at home and abroad for regional and network ITV. I also became head of sport and then controller of sport. Then, when I was 59 and after 36 happy years with ITV, Sky came in for me with director of sport Vic Wakeling, prompted by his deputy, Andy Melvin, offering me presenting roles. I stayed for 14 years, covering boxing, darts, greyhound racing, a phone-in show and, eventually, the reason I was brought in – Time Of Our Lives and Sporting Heroes, interviewing the greatest names in world sport. I spent between the ages of 23 to 73 presenting sports on TV – a span that may never be beaten. I am grateful to both channels for a wonderful career. Now aged 80, I am still working and on Tuesday my weekly comment sports column will be in both the Birmingham Mail and Coventry Telegraph in conjunction with Utilita Energy as well as online, where I will be looking back at Birmingham City’s big day at Wembley.