Iconic sports journalist Phil Gifford dies aged 79

Iconic sports journalist, broadcaster and writer Phil Gifford has died. 

He died in Auckland on Tuesday night, aged 79. He is survived by wife Jan and his children Emmalene, Jane, Scott and Adam. 

Gifford had been a journalist for more than 50 years and was a regular contributor to the Herald since 2019, covering two World Cups, two Olympics and the appointments of three All Blacks coaches. 

His career began in radio where he worked at multiple stations including former sports station Radio Sport and other NZME-owned stations ZM and Radio Hauraki. 

He was also a host on Newstalk ZB, more recently on the Afternoons show alongside Simon Barnett for two years between 2019 and 2021. It was a reunion of the pair after 16 years hosting together on Christchurch’s 91ZM breakfast show from 1992 before switching to More FM in 1996, until Gifford left in 2003 to join Radio Sport. 

During his time behind the mic, he won multiple radio awards. 

Phil Gifford (left) with Sir Mick Jagger during an interview in 1989. 

He was also an accomplished author, having published more than 26 books. Seven of these were under the name Loosehead Len, a satirical rugby character he created in 1973. 

He has also written rugby bestsellers including his book on Alex Wyllie, Grizz: The Legend, the biggest-selling New Zealand sports book of the 1990s, also penning many biographies of some of New Zealand’s biggest names including Dame Valerie Adams, Sir Peter Leitch and Sir Wayne Smith. 

In 2010, he was awarded the Sparc, now Sport New Zealand, lifetime achievement award for services to sports journalism. 

Phil Gifford as MC at the Hawke's Bay Sport Awards in 2015. Photo / Warren Buckland 

In the 2024 New Year Honours, Gifford was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to broadcasting and sports journalism. 

The last story he penned for the Herald was after the All Blacks’ first-test victory over the Springboks, which he labelled one of their greatest wins. 

Gifford first began sports writing aged 12, penning an article in 1959 for the Waihī College school magazine – a report on the final test of that year’s series with the Lions. 

Phil Gifford (from left), Peter Williams and Keith Quinn in 1989. 

His father, Ray Gifford, was the editor of the Waihi Gazette at the time, after picking up a job there in the 1950s, having stopped dairy farming for health reasons. 

It was through this family connection and a couple of encouraging high school teachers that he made his way into journalism, picking up a cadetship at the Herald in Auckland in 1965. 

He attended every men’s Rugby World Cup from the inaugural event in 1987 until 2019. He won nine New Zealand radio awards, and was twice judged New Zealand sportswriter of the year and three times New Zealand sports columnist of the year. 

Ben Francis is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.