Stuart Cosgrove – Off the Ball

His voice is one of the most recognisable in Scottish football. BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Off the Ball’ has become as much part of the Scottish match day experience as Bovril and pies. The show recently celebrated its 30^th anniversary as a Saturday afternoon staple. Stuart Cosgrove, along with his co-presenter Tam Cowan, provide a soundtrack to the best day of the week.

Destined for St Johnstone

Football has been in Stuart’s life from an early age with a team that he was born to support.

“You could say that I started nine months before I was born. I was born into a family in Perth, Scotland and I had been named Stuart John Francis Cosgrove, S-J-F-C. I was from a very early age, destined to be a St Johnstone fan. My father passed away when I was very young at age, just seven. His younger brother Billy wasn’t only my uncle but to some extent became a surrogate father.

I could see Muirton Park from my bedroom window so in some respects in was predestined. If I’m honest. I look back on my life and it’s one of the things that’s given me the greatest pleasure. There is a pleasure and identity and I’m not one of these people who like to shop around. I don’t have a favourite English team or spend much time looking around the globe for a team to support. My football has always been rooted in St Johnstone and in the early days that was at Muirton Park.”

Muirton memories

Muirton Park was the home ground of St Johnstone from 1929 to its closure in 1989. The club then moved to their present home of McDiarmid Park. The terraces of Muirton may have been an every day sight for a young Cosgrove, but it was away trips with Uncle Billy that stand out in his memory.

“When I first started to attend live games, it was a wonderful time. Although I had the emotional pain of my father dying so young. There was still quite a lot of what you might call spiritual goodwill in my life. We were economically a very poor family but spiritually and emotional I had a rich family. We would go to games away from home during the week. They had a special kind of resonance as they would be floodlit and there would be a journey to the game.

The first time I went down to Queen of the South was for a League Cup game. I was about six years old. I was so excited about this trip. My Dad was a driver for CoOp and had this big heavy goods haulage lorry. There were guys up on the back of the lorry and we were all in the cab.

On this occasion I had wet myself and I remember feeling a bit of shame. My uncle Billy was always really kind to me. He took off my jeans and put them in front of the radiator on the lorry and left them there. We travelled the next ten miles or so with my trousers hanging on the front of the lorry. That is a vivid memory for me. I remember nothing of the actual game. The journey there is still lodged in my mind so many years later.”

Vital link

Football remains a vital link between Stuart and his late father. The importance of that time in his life is clear, as is the importance of the link to his club.

“In a way I’ve probably hyper focussed on the games I knew he was at. There was a famous game where we beat Rangers and Alex Ferguson was our striker at the time. He scored a hat-trick in the game. It has become a famous match in St Johnstone’s history because of what Sir Alex went on to achieve in his career.

My Dad and Uncle Billy had gone away to Ibrox for that game. I was too young to go but that game has added kudos in my mind knowing that they were there. The fact I took such an interest in the matches my dad would have been at really enriched my understanding of St Johnstone. The thing with modern football is that social media has led to a generation of people who are only interested in the now. I’m more interested in the social history of football than the data and statistics that you see pored over now.”

Obsessed with Soul Music

The beautiful game may have been Stuart’s first passion but music and writing soon followed. Through the medium of the fanzine Cosgrove was able to link all three of those interests as his career took off after moving to London.

“I was very interested and obsessed with soul music. That is what got me into a mix of fanzine writing and writing about music. I joined music papers which led to me eventually joining NME and then on to television. Music was really the catalyst for my career.

There are so many similarities between football and music. The fanzine movement also existed in music and the two often rubbed up against each other. To some extent the whole idea of the post punk era where you could become your own publisher from home was really exciting. Once music fanzines started to pop up it was aways a matter of time before football followed.

There has always been an odd conversation between the two subjects. Where certain bands or songs take on a real status and great memory for people. I came to music through soul music. I’m aware of how the guys on the tannoy are keen to get particular songs played at the game. There are certain groups over the years such as The Specials and The Jam. They were urban kind of groups that really had an appeal to football fans.”

History of the Game

As he mentioned earlier in the interview, Stuart doesn’t feel the need to shop around for his football fix. He views the game in a more cerebral fashion, which you might expect from someone who studied at Harvard and has a Ph.D. in Media. He is fascinated with the history of the game in Scotland and the importance of the game to the people of his homeland.

“There is a very simple measurement of that importance and it is through statistics. Annually, Scotland is the most supported league in Europe. More people in this country get out and watch football than any other. When I see those statistics come out every year, I’m always really proud of them. They show that at heart, despite everything football has become, there is an absolute passion for local community football.

You hear people say there are too many clubs in Scotland and we should cut them in half. That’s okay for supporters of big clubs to say that. But, who gives them the right to say somewhere like Stranraer shouldn’t get to have a football team. Who are the people affiliated to the bigger clubs to play God and decide who does and does not get to have a football team in their community.

Historically fascinating

“I’ve always loved Scottish football. I feel that I understand it more and that I’m culturally comfortable with it in a way. In 1929 Scotland were playing Germany in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. This was the only time in history that two St Johnstone players were capped in the same game. Our goalkeeper Sandy McLaren and right wing back, a guy called Willie Imrie. They got a draw in the game and Imrie scored a goal. It’s a historically fascinating game. In the stadium where Jessie Owens won his gold medals in the context of Hitler’s Germany. Trying to get young guys to show any interest in it can be frustrating. They can’t watch footage of those players on Youtube.”

Off the Ball

‘Off the Ball’ has earned a place in the hearts of Scottish football fans over its thirty years on air. It is listened to on the way to games, at games and in the absence of games. The show aired throughout the period of the Covid pandemic when supporters had no football to go to. Stuart and Tam became something of a link to normality for those that were missing such an important part of their week.

“I regularly forget about the shows importance but I often get reminded. I was recently at an event at my son’s school. Standing in the refectory of this school in Glasgow, the amount of folk that came up to me saying things they remember from past shows. One person thanked us for the show during Covid as they said it really kept them going through that period. I’ve also had nice comments from people who say that listening to the show brings back fond memories of their father as they would listen together on their way to games. There is something really charming about it because you realise that you are part of the culture. When it comes back to you warmly from people who mean it, it makes me feel proud of it.”

Important messaging

“The messaging which was done alongside Jason Leitch who was the medical spokesman at the time of Covid was important. We were keen to use him a spokesman to answer things that would never get put to someone in government.

One that springs to mind is a guy that got in touch saying he wanted Mr Leitch to be honest with him as his daughter was getting married in September and they had been round a few hotels. It was going to be expensive and he was looking for good news that the wedding might get put off. Jason had a laugh with him but they guy was basically saying I know this virus isn’t good but if it saves me twenty grand can it stick around for a bit. It’s not the sort of thing that would normally be on any government news conference but it fitted in with the tone of our show.”

Cup Double

Cosgrove’s beloved St Johnstone won a cup double during the period of the pandemic that saw supporters locked out of stadia. The Scottish Cup Final provided Stuart with one of his favourite memories.

“At the St Johnstone cup final win, I was able to be there to cover the game. When we scored, I cheered so loudly that it was picked up by the broadcasters. I took off into the corridor screaming and saw this guy in dungarees jumping up and down. I had no idea who he was but I hugged him and we were jumping up and down.

Once it had calmed down, he told me that he had worked out that the trackside advertising would get changed in the morning of the game. He found out the company that were changing the advertising boards and went and bought a pair of dungarees and turned up at the ground as if he was working. As soon as he got into the ground he went and hid in the toilets for six hours. It was a nice private moment being able to share that moment with a St Johnstone fan and it made you think about the fans who couldn’t be there.”

Gil Scott-Heron

There have been many guests over the years in the ‘Off the Ball’ studio. I finished by asking Stuart his favourite but he told of an interview he conducted in his music media days.

“I did the first big interview with Gil Scott-Heron, the singer song-writer. He talked about his father being a Celtic player in the fifties. I wished that interview had happened on Off the Ball. It was a transatlantic call and I was asking the first question when he suddenly said ‘aw wait till I tell my wee maw I’ve met you son.’ His father had met a Scottish woman who had gone out to live in Detroit. Gil had taken her on as a step mother almost. He was telling me that his father lived in Glasgow for a few years when he played for Celtic. I thought ‘really’, I couldn’t believe it. I would love for that conversation to have taken place on the show.”