Keith Quinn: A Lucky Man

Shoal Bay Press

$44.95

Review: Wynne Gray*

The title describes just part of the armoury which allowed Keith Quinn to reach the top of sports broadcasting in New Zealand.

He had an insatiable hunger for information, facts and collecting sporting data. That capacity for homework never deserted him.

Quinn had instincts for the job which came to the fore in 1972 when he travelled to the Munich Olympics as a 25-year-old. Heading the team was Lance Cross, then broadcast head of the Broadcasting Corporation and an International Olympic Committee member.

As the drama of the Israeli hostage crisis unfolded, Cross told his staff he was the only one to file reports back to New Zealand. On no account was anyone else to interfere.

The much junior Quinn was monitoring overseas satellite reports of the siege and discovered that in the confusion Israeli athletes had been killed, rather than rescued as Cross had reported.

Dare he ring home, Quinn pondered. His instincts told him he had to because Cross was asleep.

His reports won great acclaim and the issue was never broached between Quinn and Cross.

Quinn had timing and fortune. After being dumped in 1983 he rose again to commentate on the 1987 Rugby World Cup.

He was not just a rugby groupie. In 1987 he and producer Brendon Butt proposed a "fly on the wall" television documentary about the All Blacks in Japan.

Team manager Malcolm Dick said the dressing room would be too small for a TV crew but a camera could be left running.

When the film was played on TVNZ a few days later coach John Hart was criticised for allowing cameras into the hallowed changing rooms and grandstanding for the cameras.

Quinn believed that backlash cost Hart the All Black coaching job later that year in a contest with Alex Wyllie. He described the decision as the "silliest the Rugby Union has made in a long time."

Quinn's strong opinions, his journey through life and work, health struggles, his gift for storytelling and his knowledge and broad experience allow him to produce a warming account of an interesting life.

* Wynne Gray is the Herald's chief rugby writer.