Norman May, who died on September 11 aged 88, will be celebrated at a service at the Sydney Cricket Ground today.

Gordon Bray AM was an ABC colleague of May’s for 25 years and is currently Head Rugby Commentator for Network TEN. Here he looks back at May's tremendous career.

Norman May was Australia’s original “Mr Olympics”. During his 50-year broadcasting career in radio and television his erudition and inimitable style saw him cover every Games from 1964 to 2004, achieving international recognition for his iconic call of the men’s 4 x 100m medley gold medal at Moscow in 1980.

Norman May commentated with few notes because the relevant information was already compartmentalized in his finely tuned brain.

He would often arrive at the venue just before a telecast and mischievously ask, “Hello chaps, who’s playing?”

None of those in the know were ever fooled. His flippancy was a ruse, disguising diligent preparation and his sheer joy at the prospect of the contest ahead and adding his insights to yet another ‘live’ broadcast.

May’s voice was cultured and crystal clear, his delivery unerringly concise. The tone sometimes verged on the melodic but the overall effect of his call was always engaging. Norm’s enthusiasm and infectious passion for sport demanded your attention even if you had no special interest in the event he was broadcasting.

That was the special charm and expertise of Norman ‘Nugget’ May, a genuinely world class sports commentator and Australia’s first premier voice of television sport.

At his retirement May estimated that he’d covered more than 40 different sports over a 50-year career, but for ABC Olympic team colleague Jim Fitzmaurice, Nugget’s greatest performance was dramatically removed from any act of athletic competition.

The slaughter of eleven Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympics sent shockwaves around the globe. The Olympic family was numbed by the horrific events that had unfolded within the supposed sanctity of sport’s ultimate arena.

“There were 80,000 people at the memorial service in the stadium as the coffins were laid out,” Fitzmaurice recalls. “You could hear a pin drop. I was sitting next to the great American sprinter Wilma Rudolph. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. In fact, everyone’s cheeks.”

Alongside, Norman commentated the service back to Australia by himself, displaying a rare and remarkable sense of timing, compassion and sensitivity.

“I know everyone talks about his ‘Gold, gold, gold!’ call, but that performance without question was the most amazing commentary he did in his whole life,” says Fitzmaurice. “It summed up Norman’s special ability and grand sense of occasion.”

Sport was in May’s blood from childhood. He graduated from Sydney Boys’ High where he represented the 1st XV as a backrower and the 1st XI as a spin bowler.

Rugby and cricket always found a special place in Nugget’s sporting heart, as did his old school. Whenever he commentated the GPS Head of the River on the Nepean, Sydney High students erected a banner under the ABC TV scaffold naming it ‘The Norman May Stand’.

ABC rowing commentator Doug Donoghue, himself a Sydney High alumna, fondly recalls how Norm was always afforded a student guard of honour as he made his way to the commentary position.

“We arrived by water on one occasion and when we hit the pontoon the whole school started chanting …. ‘Norman! Norman!’ It was an incredible outpouring of affection for their favourite old boy.”

But it was his surf life saving prowess that helped clinch his first job with ABC Sport back in the late 1950s.

As proud member of the all conquering Freshwater SLSC, Norm won national titles in the R & R and Teams Event. With that pedigree, he was approached to do some ‘expert’ surf life saving commentary in 1957. His sidekick was Melbourne Olympian and multiple national surf gold medal winner Jon Donohue.

Nugget did so well that an offer of a permanent job with ABC Sport came the following year. The same pair commentated together for 26 years and fronted the ABC’s first colour transmission from Swansea-Belmont two decades later.

In winter he still found time to represent Manly Rugby Club where he played 50 lower grade games, mainly in reserves.

The ABC’s early stable of young TV sports commentators came through a rigorous process of selection and training. They were initially appointed as ‘Specialist Trainees’. One of those pioneers was Alan Marks, who later became Head of Special Events for the ABC.

“Those were the days before ‘live’ television broadcasts, so everything was shot on film and subsequently scripted,” Marks explains.

“For example, the famous Tied Test cricket footage back in 1960 was flown to Sydney after stumps each day and then shot-listed and voiced by Nugget for an on-air turnaround at 10.30 that night.”

Marks believes the demands of that type of precise scripting, married with ‘ad lib’ voicing to tight deadlines, helped Norman enormously in the development of his skills as a television commentator.

The ABC’s long-serving Sports Editor in Queensland, Arthur Denovan, first met ‘Nugget’ at a television training course in Sydney in 1958 and was amazed at how quickly May had embraced the new medium.

“He understood television right from the start. When to talk and when not to talk. He appreciated the impact of pausation.”

Denovan and May covered four Olympics together and the pair became lifelong friends. The two bachelors even spent their annual vacation together on the Gold Coast.

“During the Tokyo Games Norman asked me where I went for holidays. I told him Surfers Paradise and he said, ‘Do you mind if I join you?’” Denovan still chuckles at the memory.

For more than two decades they rented an apartment right on the beach. “We both had plenty of money so we went to all the best restaurants and we knew a lot of people on the Coast. With our surf life saving connections, we got invited to all the parties.”

Throughout the ’60s and ’70s, May was both the face, and voice, of ABC Sport. On radio and television he commentated on Test Cricket, Test Rugby, Olympic and Commonwealth Games, plus just about any other major sporting event the national broadcaster cared to cover.

He was on a pedestal. When covering the polo at Warwick Farm, the tournament sponsors reserved a special corner in their ‘Bollinger Tent’ for his pre- and post-game entertaining.

Olympic Games commentary allowed him to scale new heights. The bigger the occasion the more he seized the moment. He especially revered our great swimmers such as Shane Gould, Dawn Fraser, Tracey Wickham and Murray Rose.

His calling reached its apotheosis in the epic final of the Men’s 4x100m medley at Moscow. There will never be another commentary like it: economy of words with a sense of anticipation building to feverish excitement – yet with total clarity in that final countdown.

“Ten metres now! Brooks in front. It could be Australia’s gold. Five metres! Four! Three! Two! One! Gold! Gold to Australia! Gold!”

That stupendous commentary climax established Norman as an instant national sporting treasure. The Aussie men’s gold medalists gratefully claimed him as their fifth team member.

But while ‘Gold! Gold! Gold!’ made May famous with the Australian public, his colleagues treasure more private memories of the larrikin broadcaster.

Jim Fitzmaurice and May became good mates after the two TV commentators were chosen by the ABC for their first overseas Olympic coverage, from Tokyo in 1964. But he believes the quintessential ‘Nugget’ story came from the Mexico Olympics when the pair again shared TV duties, and an apartment.

“They stationed us way out of town, probably by design”, Jim quipped. “However, on the eve of the opening day of competition Norman decided to hit the bright lights in the city.”

But the Head of ABC Sport, the late Bernard Kerr, rang that night to say he wanted Norman to cover the fencing competition next morning. A car would pick Norman up at 6am.

Fitzmaurice dutifully left a note on his colleague’s pillow outlining this somewhat confronting news. It also mentioned that he would wake Norm at 5.30am for a briefing on the sport because he knew May didn’t have the slightest clue about its rules or techniques.

A somewhat inebriated Nugget returned to their room at 2.45am and woke Fitzmaurice in an agitated state, saying he couldn’t read the note.

“I then informed Nugget he was doing the fencing and said I’d wake him at 5.30 and explain everything. Defiantly, Norman insisted he needed the information there and then.

“So my weary briefing lasted about fifteen minutes, and was repeated while he showered a couple of hours later.”

When Fitmaurice arrived at the Australian broadcast office in Mexico City later that morning he bumped into senior producer, Ron May, and politely enquired how Norman had fared on the fencing,

To his great relief, the response was positive. “He was spot on. Absolutely terrific. He’s in the next office.”

As a jaded Norman laid eyes on his dapper roommate, the reaction was instant and triumphant. In a very croaky voice he announced, “I killed them, Jimmy.”

Without question, Norman’s greatest admirer and supporter over the years has been Australian Olympic boss John Coates AC. Norman was godfather to one of his five sons.

“We have lost a close friend, an extremely talented man who could make any sporting event spring to life. Australians hung on his every word. He was passionate, he was entertaining. He loved a drink and a laugh, but he was always a true gentleman”.

Coates highlights Norman’s tireless fundraising efforts across three decades for Australian Olympians. He also acknowledges the commentator’s commitment to future Olympians.

“After his retirement he supported our Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF), sharing his skills with young journalists and his love of sport with the young athletes. He was in his 70s at the time and referred to himself as the “world’s oldest teenager”.

Norman loved mixing with Australia’s top athletes and that was never more evident when hosting the original annual ABC Sportsman of the Year Award. His skillful interviewing technique always provided fascinating insights and flashes of characteristically Australian humour.

A boyhood accident with a bow and arrow resulted in the loss of his right eye but while that disability never seemed to hinder his professional performance, it did provide a certain level of anxiety for those around him.

Whenever driving his beloved old Datsun across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, he had total distrust of the front rear vision mirror. Maybe he just couldn’t see it. On one occasion he turned his head right around to check the traffic behind before changing lanes, and promptly ran up the back of a truck.

The damage was minor but the bumper was now permanently jammed over the bonnet grille. For the next three years he proudly announced he was unable to check the car’s oil or water. Although restricted to short trips, the engine finally gave up and Norman happily resorted to taxis.

‘Nugget’ was a true larrikin who always delivered behind the microphone but played hard away from it. He challenged authority and was his own man. He refused to tolerate people he perceived as insincere.

That strong-willed approach was admired by great broadcasters such as Alan McGilvray and Geoff Mahoney who were his regular drinking partners. Their yarn-spinning sessions at the pub were a vital educational experience for the next generation of young commentators.

When on interstate test cricket duty, Norman was a loyal attendee at McGilvray’s daily ‘prayer’ meeting in his hotel room. Over a bumper or two of some fortified beverage the senior commentators would preview the coming day’s play.

Which leads us to possibly his greatest personal calamity. As a connoisseur of French champagne, Norman was once given a large batch of Bollinger from France and stored it with mine hosts Dick and Maureen Thornett at his favourite watering hole, the Dolphin Hotel in Surry Hills.

But as the Dolphin’s thriving business expanded and with space at a premium, Maureen asked Nugget if he could pick up his valuable booty.

In response, and following a regulation Saturday night session at the hotel, Norm hailed a cab and several cases were placed on the back seat. He then returned inside to say a quick goodbye but the taxi sped off into the night.

On scores of subsequent cab rides, ‘Nugget’ always made a point of asking the driver if he knew where he could buy some cheap French champagne. Alas, and much to his distress, the culprit was never tracked down.

Norman looked after his ageing mother at Curl Curl before moving to the Eastern Suburbs following her death.

In recent years he has shared a less demanding rural lifestyle with his constant companion and dedicated carer, Roxanne Minchin, together with her daughter and other family members who all adored him. Ernie, his beloved Jack Russell, was never far from his side.

Norman May was awarded an AOC Order of Merit in 1989 and the Olympic Order in 2000. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2004 and appointed a member of the Order of Australia in 2009.

Gordon Bray AM