Phil Gifford, the sports journalist, broadcaster and author who wrote about New Zealand sport for more than half a century and invented the satirical rugby character Loosehead Len, has died in Auckland aged 79.
Newstalk ZB and the New Zealand Herald reported this morning that Gifford died on Tuesday night. He is survived by his wife Jan and their children Emmalene, Jane, Scott and Adam.
For many New Zealanders he was a voice before he was a byline. Canterbury listeners knew him for more than a decade as one half of a breakfast radio partnership with Simon Barnett, rugby fans knew him from Radio Sport’s Saturday morning rugby show, and readers knew him from a column that ran for decades. RNZ described him as “Blessed with a laconic turn of phrase and insightful wisdom”, which is about as neat a summary of his work as anyone could write.
Gifford’s path into journalism started early. According to the Herald, he wrote his first sports report aged 12, in 1959, for the Waihī College school magazine, covering the final test of that year’s series between the All Blacks and the British and Irish Lions. His father Ray had given up dairy farming for health reasons and become editor of the Waihi Gazette, and with that family connection and a couple of encouraging teachers, the young Gifford won a cadetship at the New Zealand Herald in Auckland in 1965.
He went on to work as a news reporter for the Auckland Star before sport became his life’s work. Chris Lynch Media notes that he was born in Hamilton in 1947, reported from the 1968 Olympic Games and covered four Commonwealth Games. The Herald says he attended every men’s Rugby World Cup from the first tournament in 1987 through to 2019.
In 1973 he created Loosehead Len, a fictional rugby tragic whose columns poked fun at the game and the people who ran it. RNZ said the character offered “anti-establishment commentary on the sport and its culture” at a time when rugby in New Zealand was treated with something close to reverence. Len proved so popular that seven books were published under his name.
Those were only part of a large body of work. Gifford published more than 25 books, most of them about rugby. His biography of former All Blacks coach Alex Wyllie, Grizz, The Legend, became the biggest selling New Zealand sports book of the 1990s. He also wrote books with or about Peter Fatialofa, Mike Brewer, Todd Blackadder, Dame Valerie Adams, Sir Peter Leitch and Sir Wayne Smith.
His broadcasting career began in 1980 and took in Radio Hauraki, ZM, More FM, Radio Sport and Newstalk ZB. The partnership with Barnett began on the 91ZM breakfast show in Christchurch in 1992, moved to More FM in the mid 1990s and ran until 2003, when Gifford left to join Radio Sport. The pair were reunited nationally on Newstalk ZB Afternoons from 2019 until 2021. Along the way he won nine New Zealand radio awards.
His writing drew just as much recognition. Gifford was twice named New Zealand sportswriter of the year and three times sports columnist of the year. In 2010 he received the Sparc lifetime achievement award for services to sports journalism, and in the 2024 New Year Honours he was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to broadcasting and sports journalism.
Gifford never lost the fan’s eye that made his work readable. In a Herald interview published in December 2023 to mark his honour, he picked out the All Blacks wing and fullback Will Jordan as a player to watch. “I’m a huge Will Jordan fan. There’s a Dan Carter-ish element to him. With the great ones, you feel they are seeing three moves ahead.”
He was also honest about the parts of the job that hurt. In the same 2023 interview he named the 1981 Springbok tour as his low point. “The worst experience by a long way was the 1981 Springboks tour. Rugby was so precious to me and suddenly in 1981 it completely divided the country.”
And he did not shy away from the game’s hardest questions. Asked about head knocks, he said concussion was “the single biggest issue facing the game, and I’m not sure there is an answer to it.”
He kept writing to the end. He had been a regular contributor to the Herald since 2019, covering two World Cups, two Olympics and the appointments of three All Blacks coaches. His final story for the paper followed the All Blacks’ first test win over the Springboks, a result he called one of their greatest.
Tributes began arriving within hours of the news. Rugby commentator Tony Johnson told TVNZ’s Breakfast programme he was “very sad” to hear of Gifford’s death, 1News reported, and shared stories from his long career.
Gifford’s career spanned the amateur era, the bitter divisions of 1981, the birth of the Rugby World Cup and the professional game that followed. Few people saw as much of it up close, and fewer still could explain it with as much humour. For a generation of readers and listeners, the sound of New Zealand sport included his voice.
Did you read Loosehead Len, or wake up to Phil Gifford and Simon Barnett on the radio? Share your memories of him in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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