Bill McLaren gathered thousands of items relating to the game during his years as a commentator
By David Knox
BBC Scotland Selkirk
Historians in Hawick are working through thousands of books, videos and clippings in a bid to recreate Bill McLaren’s “chaotic” research room.
The study of the “voice of rugby” was where match-day preparations took place during his 50-year career.
A recreation of the office will act as a centrepiece of an exhibition to celebrate Bill’s centenary.
Historian Murray Watson said he had spent two years going through 30,000 different items from the room.
Bill McLaren was considered by many to be the “voice of rugby” during his long commentating career
Bill McLaren’s career behind the microphone began with BBC radio in 1953.
Over the following five decades he became one of the most recognisable and favoured voices on radio and television.
As well as being awarded an MBE, OBE and CBE, Bill became the first non-international player to be inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame.
Following his death in 2010, the Bill McLaren Foundation (BMF) was formed by former friends and colleagues in his hometown of Hawick.
Murray Watson is going through Bill’s vast archive ahead of this autumn’s exhibition.
Later this year the foundation will host a major exhibition to celebrate the centenary of Bill’s birth on 16 October 1923.
As well as building a replica of the famous Murrayfield scoreboard that sat above the East terrace, the exhibition will allow visitors to sit inside the original commentary gantry from the national stadium.
But taking centre stage will be the recreation of Bill’s study.
Murray, who is a volunteer with the BMF, said: “Bill was enormously thorough in his preparations with his commentaries and for his writing – and he did all of his research in a time long before Google.”
Image source, Bill McLaren Foundation
Bill played for Combined Services XV in Italy in 1946
However, he said it was fair to describe the room as “chaotic” and added: “It was an absolute tip.
“It was full of books, newspaper cuttings, magazines and videos – there were three piles of videos from floor to ceiling.
“We have now resurrected all of the furniture that was in there, things like the desk, the chair, the shelves, the typewriter and even the empty Hawick Balls tins he used for pens and paperclips.
“For the exhibition we will put everything back to where it was left.”
Image source, Bill McLaren Foundation
Hawick High School XV in 1937 with Bill McLaren, second from right on back row
During the exhibition at Hawick Museum, thousands of previously unseen artefacts and photographs will help tell Bill’s story from his early years, through his playing career and into his military service during World War Two.
The celebration, which will be held initially during October and November, will also feature items from his family life, his years as a PE teacher, where he introduced the likes of Jim Renwick, Colin Deans and Tony Stanger to the game of rugby, and also the 18 months he spent on an isolation wing after contracting tuberculosis.
But commanding the most space in the Wilton Park museum will be Bill’s vast archive of rugby memorabilia and reports.
Murray added: “Bill was like the Wikipedia of rugby, long before there was Wikipedia.
“And he was loved for his knowledge as well as his humour.
“We have around 10,000 items of fan mail and we could only find one that had a complaint.”
From next spring, the Bill McLaren 100 exhibition will share Hawick Museum with a display charting Hawick Rugby Club’s 150 years.
