Life @ EA

This series of 30-minute interviews are with Accies who have been prominent in the world of sport, either on or off the field of play. Throughout the interviews, we will hear about the skills and life lessons they learned at the Edinburgh Academy to help them succeed in their chosen sports role. Whether as a player, a coach, a writer or an administrator, all will reflect on school life in and out of the classroom and their journey through sport as a career. 
 

Series interviewer, Charles Runcie, was a pupil at the Academy, starting in Miss McKenzie’s Prep 4C at Arboretum Road in 1966, through to Mr Robertson’s VIII Mod class at Henderson Row, a decade later. He enjoyed a 34 year career working in sport at the BBC, joining at Radio Scotland’s Queen Margaret Drive in 1982 before heading south in 1987 to Broadcasting House and BBC Sport. He was latterly Head of Sport for English Regions, a role which as a Scot he always thought quite ironic. 

In this episode, Charles talks to Andy Mitchell, who was at the Edinburgh Academy from 1963–76.  A lover of football, he became Head of Media for the Scottish Football Association for a decade from 1997 and is now a well-respected sports author and historian.  He has worked as a consultant for the FIFA World Football Museum, and was on the selection panel for the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.  He continues to work on a regular basis for UEFA as a Media Officer, and has his own website www.scottishsporthistory.com, and at the beginning of the interview there is a discussion on some of his recent work as consultant on a Netflix series about the early days of football too. 

Next Month we look forward to sharing an interview with Bradley Forbes-Cryans, a Team GB slalom canoeist. Make sure to keep a lookout for episode 4 in February.

If you missed the last episode with Georgina Usher, you can view it here.