![]() ![]() Susan gave up her job and spent more and more of her time helping him as his health deteriorated. In 2012 he left the Guardian to return to Glasgow. In 2012 his book Celtic: A Biography in Nine Lives was published he had written several others over the years, mainly about Scottish football and beginning with One Afternoon in Lisbon (co-written with Pat Woods in 1988) about Celtic’s European Cup glory in 1967. No one had a bad word to say about him, and that spoke volumes. In an industry where cynicism is embedded, he stood out for his kind, gracious and graceful approach. If such a note had arrived from any other journalist, ego would have led to annoyance, but from Kevin it produced only a smile. True to the word’s definition, which relates to a larger amount of something than is needed, he reminded me that “teams cannot create too many chances”. Many years later a ticking off arrived by email for my use of “plethora” in relation to opportunities missed during a football match. He also allowed me to stay in his home after being instrumental in arranging some work experience at the Guardian. It only emerged later, and by accident, that all of this took place on Kevin’s day off. Support was not reserved for the young: in the late 2000s, when Hugh MacDonald, then a sportswriter with the Herald in Glasgow, arrived in London to preview a Champions League tie involving Arsenal, Kevin drove him to the club’s rural pre-match press conference and then back to his hotel. He regarded his own route as too unorthodox to be helpful and was perhaps unaware that even just a return communication from someone of his standing – which he always gave - would nonetheless be gratefully received. Self-deprecating about the scale of his own talent, he felt uncomfortable at receiving so many emails from inquisitive teenagers keen on pursuing a life in the sports media. In 2002 he succeeded David Lacey as the main footballing writer at the Guardian, moving with his wife, Susan Stewart, an investment banker, whom he had married in 1986, to Stoke Newington in north London.ĭuring his time at the Guardian Kevin was a constant source of support to other journalists, both established and aspiring. His writing was of sufficiently high quality and balance to render such thoughts redundant.ĭeepest condolences to the family of journalist and author Kevin McCarra from everyone at Celtic FC #YNWA /Mm2bv72DT1- Celtic Football Club October 25, 2020 ![]() Similarly, even in such a tribal environment as Glasgow, where support for either half of the Old Firm is generally kept under wraps, he had no fear of revealing his lifelong allegiance to Celtic, as even Rangers fans knew he would not allow that to cloud the judgment in his work. There was, however, never any prospect of Smith, Petric, Gough or anyone else in the football world becoming angry with Kevin. It was at the Times during one particularly raucous European football night at Ibrox that Kevin dictated to the copytaker down the phone that the Rangers manager Walter Smith had “returned to his previous central defensive pairing of Richard Gough and Gordan Petric” – only to find the phrase rendered into “tedious central defensive pairing” when it appeared in the paper the following morning. ![]() ![]() When the entrepreneur Fergus McCann saved Celtic football club in 1994 Kevin was at the forefront of reporting on the story and shortly afterwards he accepted a move to the Times, initially as Scottish football correspondent but later covering English matches after the direct intervention of the newspaper’s editor prevented a move to the Scotsman. Kevin’s deft touch and sharp observations quickly caught the eye of the newly established Scotland on Sunday, which in 1988 took him on as a staff writer – and the PhD was ditched. In turn that led to writing work with Scottish Field magazine. However, an invitation from the Third Eye Centre to curate an exhibition about Scottish football was followed by a commission to write a book entitled A Pictorial History of Scottish Football, which was published in 1984. ![]()
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