Voices of Sport: Ian Darke - The TV and radio commentator who has described big sporting moments for decades

In our weekly series, Yahoo Sport’s Nick Metcalfe features a famous voice of sport. On another big sporting weekend, which features key Premier League games, the start of the Six Nations and the Super Bowl, commentator Ian Darke goes under the spotlight.

If you’ve followed big sport for the past four decades, there’s no way you will have avoided the work of Ian Darke.

For many years, he covered the biggest events in athletics and boxing for BBC Radio, describing some unforgettable moments. And since the early 1990s, Darke has worked for television covering boxing and football, mainly for Sky and then in more recent times for ESPN and BT Sport.

His voice is one of the most recognisable in sports commentary. He is well liked and respected among viewers because of his natural authority, great sense of occasion and such an obvious love of sport.

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Darke began his career in radio, working in the 1970s at BBC Radio Leicester. He then transferred to network radio coverage. When I was growing up, sports coverage wasn’t on a specialist station, like today’s 5 Live, but on Radio 2. And for major athletics championships and big fights, Darke was our regular companion. He also worked on football, and commentated at the 1982 and 1986 World Cup finals.

I recall twice waking up in the middle of the night to listen to him commentate on major events. First there was a dramatic 100m final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Canada’s Ben Johnson claimed victory ahead of American great Carl Lewis and Britain’s Linford Christie.

But as we found out a few days later, that was only half the story, with Johnson failing a drugs test and leaving South Korea in disgrace.

A few months later, in early 1989, came what must rank as one of the most memorable radio events of recent decades, a world heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno in Las Vegas.

The BBC only had rights to show the fight in recorded format on television on the Sunday afternoon, so apart from a few thousand people that crammed into pubs to watch BSkyB coverage, radio was the way to follow the fight live. And millions tuned in to hear Bruno famously rock Tyson with two punches, but then lose to the mighty American in the fifth round.

Although Darke was a major voice in radio, younger generations may well only know him for television work. He worked for the fledgling satellite service Eurosport at the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy.

Darke moved to Sky Sports in 1992, with the satellite company beginning their coverage of the Premier League. With Martin Tyler, who I profiled in this series back in August, commentating on the Sunday matches, Darke was on duty on Monday nights.

Everything felt new back then. After becoming used to a few live league matches every season on ITV, fans would snap up satellite dishes and flock to pubs to enjoy more football than they had ever seen before. There were even cheerleaders to entertain the crowds before the game.

The first live TV match of that era saw Nottingham Forest play Liverpool on a Sunday afternoon, with the first Monday game for Darke a clash between Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers.

There were some memorable Monday matches in that 1992/93 season, not least Manchester United going to Norwich in the spring and winning 3-1 in a crucial game between two rivals for the title. Cue Darke…

“Look at Ince here, they’ve gone through again. Men in support as well. And here is Cantona. And that’s three. You can’t believe this. Gunn is complaining to the linesman. He says it’s offside. We have mayhem here. Manchester United, incredibly, are 3-0 up and Alex Ferguson is the calmest man in Carrow Road.”

Darke has always been a fine football commentator, but you do sense that he has been at his very best when ringside. And in 1995, he switched to being Sky’s main boxing commentator. There were a host of famous fighters and big nights during the next decade. Another meeting between Tyson and Bruno, with the same result. Tyson clashing with fellow American Evander Holyfield, and biting off part of his opponent’s ear.

There were bruising middleweight contests, with Steve Collins having two fights against both Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn. There was the emergence of the exciting and charismatic Prince Naseem Hamed. Britain’s Lennox Lewis became world heavyweight champion. Darke was the caller for all that and so much more.

Darke didn’t just commentate, but often presented preview coverage building up to a big fight, as well as interviewing the leading players. In an industry that had been used to the brilliance of the BBC’s Harry Carpenter and ITV’s Reg Gutteridge, both featured previously in this series, everybody knew that Darke was another class act.

When Sky’s boxing output began to be reduced, with promoter Frank Warren taking his fighters to ITV, Darke went back to doing more football. By this time, Sky had the rights for the most famous club competition in world football, the Champions League.

But one thing satellite TV has never had the rights for of course is big international tournaments. And Darke was hired by ESPN for their coverage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa across the Americas.

Football was booming in America, and Darke endeared himself to millions watching with one of his most famous pieces of commentary. Landon Donovan scored a stoppage time goal to seal a 1-0 win over Algeria, keeping the Americans in the tournament.

“Landon Donovan, there are things on here for the USA. Can they do it here? Cross… and Dempsey is denied again. And Donovan has scored. Oh, can you believe this. Go, go, USA! Certainly through. Oh, it’s incredible. You could not write a script like this.”

His excitement perfectly matched the thrill of the moment. And despite beginning the 2010/11 season with Sky, Darke soon joined ESPN in America as their lead Premier League commentator. He also worked on MLS games, the 2011 Women’s World Cup and the 2013 Confederations Cup.

At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Darke was again the main commentator. The Americans were in a group with Ghana, Portugal and Germany. When John Brooks scored a dramatic late goal to put them 2-1 ahead against Ghana in their opening match, Darke rose to the occasion in typical fashion.

“Zusi to take it… and there. It’s there! What about that. It’s John Brooks. It’s John Brooks, For the USA. Have they stolen it? Quite incredible. He couldn’t even have dreamt that.”

Darke became a cult figure among American fans. A chant was created with the words: “Ian Darke, you are a Yank”. He went on to cover the rest of the tournament after the Americans had been knocked out, including Germany’s victory over Argentina in the final at the Maracana. Darke also commentated at two European Championships, the 2012 tournament in Poland and Ukraine, and the 2016 showpiece in France.

Darke is currently with BT Sport, where he has been 2013. BT currently have a fine spread of football rights, which includes live Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup. Earlier this week, Darke was in typically assured form as he commentated on Manchester City’s thumping 4-0 league win at West Ham.

Decades at the top of his industry, and Darke hasn’t really changed. There’s still that great passion for what he’s watching, that true love of sport. That familiar raised voice when the situation demands.

Many of the names in this series have become genuine household names. Darke is probably in more of an unsung category. But his work has certainly been appreciated by sports fans over many years. Long may that carry on to be the case.