Rodger Baillie

Posted: September 1, 2024

RODGER BAILLIE, who had a glittering career as a sports writer at the Daily Record, Sunday Mirror and The Sun, died on August 26 [2024] aged 84. He began as a 15 year old copy boy and was still writing for major papers until he was 80.
Rodger was educated at Glasgow’s famous Hutchesons’ (correct) Grammar School for Boys. His first job as a copy boy was at the Evening News, switching to the Daily Record when the News closed.
From there he went to the Record’s sports desk working his way up until securing a much sought after job on the Sunday Mirror, based in Glasgow. He spent many years there until he returned to the Record. He left the Record in the 1990s to join The Sun.
Rodger was President of the Scottish Football Writers’ Association and current incumbent Chic Young paid this tribute. “Rodger had the ear of the great and good of our game, close to giants such as Jock Stein and Willie Waddell. He had an impish sense of fun and a warm love for life. I don’t remember not smiling in his company.
“He had a contacts book which was an A to Z of the glitterati of the Scottish game. He covered England’s World Cup win in 1966, and reported on six World Cups with Scotland as well as two European Championships.
“He was in the dressing room with the Celtic team after they defeated Inter Milan 2-1 in the 1967 European Cup Final, and in attendance when Rangers won the European Cup Winners Cup in Barcelona five years later.”