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Timothy J.
Flynn, as he often referred to himself, was a Falstaffian presence,
a big, generous man with a magnificent, resonant voice and a ferocious
appetite for football, food and friendship. Possessed of wonderful
humour, Tim relished the chance to relate tales at his own expense.
Some
might have resented the sobriquet "Bucketmouth'', which was
given Tim in his days as a Perth sportscaster in the '70s and
'80s, yet Tim wore it like a badge of honour, just as in the past
two years he did the baldness resulting from his chemotherapy.
Bucketmouth was certainly an appropriate name. Even at the last
Swans game he attended, unbowed by the rigours of both illness
and treatment, Tim's voice resonated from the top of the stand,
ticking off those footballers he felt were approaching the pigskin
timidly.
Timidity was
something Tim did not countenance in himself or others. As a boy
he persuaded his brothers to jump from the roof using umbrellas
as parachutes. I know how they felt. In 1994 Tim told me I was
about to become an AFL football commentator and, thanks to his
boundless energy, I soon found myself calling Sydney Swans games,
alongside H. G. Nelson in matching Ferrari red jacket, while Tim
and John Walker lit up the box in their bright mustard jackets.
The jackets were contra Tim had scored from one of the broadcast
sponsors, a diverse array of entities that included Beds'R'Us
and the Sydney Theatre Company. Somehow
Tim had talked the Liverpool community radio station 2GLF, the
Swans and the AFL into assisting this bold new venture that for
the first time saw Sydney Swans fans able to tune into a weekly
broadcast of their team's game. When Tim went to ABC NewsRadio
he took the calling of the games with him and he was also instrumental
in first 2SM and then 2GB calling Swans matches. This recognition
of AFL by Sydney mainstream radio has been a big help in giving
the game credibility in NSW.
Raised in Victoria
and educated at Xavier College in Melbourne, Tim began life in
the media as a disc jockey in country radio stations and worked
in radio in Hobart, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. He switched
to television from 1968 through to 1974 in his role as GTV9's
promotions manager but then it was over to Perth where he became
a major presence, broadcasting sport on 6PM, 6KY and 6WF and hosting
TVW7's World of Football. It
was here, on 6KY, that he first became a highly rated caller of
his beloved AFL. In the early '90s he moved to Sydney, joined
NewsRadio shortly after its launch in 1994 and in recent years
was the station's Monday to Friday sports announcer.
The condolence book on the ABC website is testament to his ability
to bring the joy, humour and passion of sport to all listeners,
not just sports fans. While I did not know Tim well until the
early '90s, it turned out that our paths had in some ways crossed
much earlier. Father
Leo Flynn, the Jesuit priest at my first school in Perth, was
Tim's uncle and used to impress all of us kids with his ability
to kick a football. Footballing clearly ran in the Flynn blood
for Tim's football CV included teams from Tasmania's Sandy Bay
to the Wagga Tigers. Mike Hegarty, Tim's cousin, recalls that
in one early Kyneton game, Tim put his opponent off his kick by
doing a handstand on the mark. The only trouble was that Tim's
cigarettes fell out of his jumper.
Ultimately
Tim's great gift was to prove to be not the playing of sport but
the broadcasting of it. In private, Tim was a voracious reader
with a sharp mind ever looking for new challenges. Even in the
last few months with his health more problematic and treatment
increasing, he was actively pursuing concepts for TV game and
infotainment shows. Tim approached his illness the way he had
done everything else, with great positiveness, and most of us
are still stunned that he somehow didn't conquer it. He died at
54, just two weeks after he'd gone back to Perth to see family
and friends, insisting that he'd broadcast from there. It was
apt that the Swans wore black armbands in his honour in Sydney
while Claremont did the same in Perth – only Flynny could
span the whole continent simultaneously. Tim is survived by his
sister, Mary, and brothers John and Dan. He will be sadly missed
by them, by his many friends and by the listening public of Australia.
DAVE
WARNER
This obituary was first published
in The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday July 4, 2002
ABC
NEWSRADIO TRIBUTE::
Tim
Flynn – the ABC NewsRadio sports broadcaster – has died
in hospital in Perth at the age of 54. For several years Tim had
waged a valiant fight against cancer, working full time until
just a couple of weeks ago. Tim's
career in radio began in Hobart but he was well known to audiences
around the country. He had stints on commerical radio in Hobart,
Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney before joining ABC NewsRadio shortly
after the station was launched in 1994. In
television he worked for Channel 9, first in publicity in Melbourne
and later as special events manager for the network. Raised in
Victoria, he loved Perth and was PR manager for the America's
Cup Syndicate "Kookaburra" when the challenge was staged off Fremantle.
And it was in the west that he made his mark as an AFL caller,
a game he'd played in earlier years. He put together 6KY's on-air
team, and later also hosted Channel 7's World of Football
in Perth. He
was a valued colleague, and will be sadly missed. ABC
NewsRadio extendeds its sincere condolences to his family.
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