Vale David Morrow: Ray Hadley pays tribute to broadcasting legend 06:50

Ray, afternoon. Yeah, good afternoon, Michael. It's with some sadness and regret I announce that my mate and colleague David Morrow has passed away.

I've been advised by Mark. I haven't spoken to his wife, Christine, nor his daughters, Emily or Lucy, as yet, because it just happened in terms of me being told. He passed away around midnight last night after a courageous battle against brain cancer. No doubt surrounded by his family, Christine and the girls, Emily and Lucy.

Christine told Mark that it was David's express wishes that any media that needed to be attended to, given his prominence in the media, be handled by me, and I've obviously accepted that responsibility. I wish I wasn't telling people that my mate of more than 40 years' standing has...

succumb at the age of 71. He just had celebrated his 71st birthday. So we're roughly the same age. We started working together. David started in country radio, most particularly at 2KM Kempsey, my hometown, and was a football commentator, general broadcaster, and a race caller. And that's where we first encountered each other. He was calling rugby league and doing the Olympics and doing a whole range of other things before me. And then we worked together at Harold Park Trots every Friday night for quite a number of years.

He doing for the ABC and me doing for commercial radio on course. And then, of course, from 1987, our paths crossed every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in joining broadcast boxes, me for TUE and then 2GB and David for ABC. And then about nine years ago, when his tenure at the ABC had come to conclusion,

We spoke and I said, I want to wind back a bit. Why don't you come over and work for us? And his rapport with Mark Levy and Daryl and Piggy and the rest of the crew was almost immediate.

And he fitted in like no one else could possibly fit in because he was a very... Apart from being a magnificent commentator, he was a really, really good man. And then at Christmas time, the announcement came that he was diagnosed with brain cancer and he fought courageously, but...

Unfortunately, that battle has come to an end and to a certain extent, I think with some relief because he was in great discomfort in the latter stages of his life. But on behalf of Christine, Emily and Lucy and the rest of their family, their extended family, and on behalf of, I guess, sports fans who've been touched by David Morrow throughout his long and distinguished career, which was in excess of 50 years, it's with regret I say that David's no longer with us and

Thankfully, I was able to convince exactly one week ago at about this precise time, other members of the Hall of Fame Committee, which I'm part of, that it was pretty important that David be elevated to the Hall of Fame. And I want to thank the other 14 members of that committee after I made a speech in front of them at Rugby League headquarters that they unanimously agreed with me that David should be elevated. That afternoon, with Mark Levy visiting him in hospital,

in the hospice and Christine being there I was able to phone and go through the speakerphone and while David was not in a position to converse with me he certainly was able to acknowledge in some way the fact that he had been elevated. Christine was terribly excited that's where the girls later that night when they were told and so a week later he's no longer with us so it's vitally important that we achieve what we did last week and I thank Peter Valente and the rest of the committee for doing that and it's a great honour for David and his family but

but obviously a very difficult time for them. And we offer our sincere condolences on behalf of Nine Radio and the continuous call team, of which it was a very important part. And I know it'll be with a sad heart that we all arrive in Brisbane this afternoon and confront State of Origin without a mate with us. But we'll be dedicating the game tonight to his memory, which will live long because of the outstanding work he's done over half a century. So David Morrow's gone, but will never be forgotten.

Yeah.

He was a hell of a bloke. We had some wonderful times together on football tours and going to country race meetings together. And then as part of the continuous call team in the latter years, I didn't do as much as I normally did. But whenever I did, it was just like, you know, we hadn't parted company. We were back together again. And even as opponents on the ABC at TUE, then 2GB, we were always mates. We'd glance across at each other when something...

remarkable would happen or something unremarkable would happen with a refereeing blunder or something and each shrug each other's eyes, shrug mine and we'd start laughing and get back to doing what we're doing. But look, I've worked with a lot of people over a long period of time in broadcasting and

I think, as I said in the Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday, there's no more versatile sports commentator than David Morrow. Had he been able to go to the Olympics with me next Tuesday, there are, I think, 33 sports we participate in. He would have called just about every one of them. He was at home calling, of course, the rugby team,

an outstanding cricket commentator, an outstanding cricket commentator. But he could do track and field. He could do swimming. He could do all of the things other people couldn't do and to be sadly missed by everyone. I know his colleagues, led by Alan Marks and the rest of the crew at the ABC, Gordon Bray, who'll be with us, of course, for the Olympics and many others who crossed paths with David during his long time at the ABC, will be very saddened by the news this afternoon.

Indeed. Indeed, it'll be a tough night tonight, I think, Ray, with that in mind, with Origin. I wish you strength for that, and I think we all just hope and pray that David's now in a beautiful place and that he's comfortable and that his struggles come to an end. Thank you very much. Thanks. Thank you, Ray. Ray Hadley there, calling in with the news about David Morrow. David has passed away after a battle with brain cancer. He was 71.

I mean, I didn't know David anywhere near as well as Ray. I first met David when I moved to Weekends here on 2GB, and I did that for a year. And he was the kind of man, I have to say, that with... I don't think he knew me very well at all. I'm sure he didn't. But he just treated you with enormous respect. And you couldn't help but treat David with...

just endless reams of respect because of his knowledge, not just of his craft in the media, but his knowledge of his subject matter. Ray obviously mentioned their rugby league and cricket, but the wide gamut of sports, he was just so well versed.