Folks,
98FM's weekly sports show "Now That's What I Call Sport" airs every Sunday morning from 9-10am.
Presented by myself Johnny Lyons, this week's show broadcast on Sunday June 8th features the following guests :
1. Arnold O'Byrne -
Would you beggar believe it but this distinguished gentleman - after Wor Jackie of course - is one of the most influential figures in the history of Irish football.
Arnie was the Chief Executive of Opel and sponsored Irish football when everyone else back in the eighties was telling the Football Association of Ireland to take a run and jump.
He tells a good yarn about meeting the top brass of the FAI back in the day and being well impressed with the polished performance they served up to him.
What he didn't know was that they'd been in and out of every doghouse in the country over the previous two years without a shilling for their efforts!
Anyway, Arnold took a punt and, boy, was he rewarded for his bravery !
Thanks to a certain Scotsman called Gary Mackay, the Republic qualified for the finals of a major tournament for the first time in our history when making the finals of Euro 88.
And what a party that started with the whole nation gettin' behind the team and goin' crazy!
Ray Houghton put the ball in the English net and the whole thang went stratospheric.
It peaked with the Italian World Cup defeat in '90 before ending at USA '94 where Houghton popped up again to burst the Azzurri balloon.
But it wasn't just behind the scenes that Arnie flourished - he was gonna get down and dirty and shtick his snout out and front the Opel campaign!
If you're a nipper or you just don't remember, you've gotta YouTube Arnold's funny pronunciations and, as they say, he had a face for radio !
Nevertheless, he ventured where no one else would go and Opel reaped the benefits with humongous sales of their motors !
Arnold joins us live in studio to reminisce about the rare auld times!
2. Ray Cosgrove -
Making his first appearance since his five star performance on Big Red during the All Ireland final last September, Cossy looks ahead to Dublin's opening defence of their All Ireland crown with the Leinster Championship quarter final against Laois on Sunday at Croker.
Former Dub Ray sets the scene for what'll hopefully be another Golden Year for the Boys in Blue !
3. Jim Gavin/Kevin Nolan -
Always wanting to shoot the breeze with the protagonists, here's one we did before!
Stephen "The Hairy Man" Doyle specialises in threading his avuncular thrusts through the eye of the journalistic needle and arriving at bullseye!
The Dubs bainisteoir Jim and Boy in Blue Kev return Stevo's darts with interest and then some !
4. Chris "The Killing" Fields -
Another of the up and coming UFCers from Baile Atha Cliath, anyone bringing to mind the brilliant three time Oscar winning film " The Killing Fields " scores immediate brownie points with me !
Chris I salute you, you Ultimate Cage Fighter you !
Competitions:
1. 2 pairs of tix for the Dubs against Laois
2. An Old El Paso hamper with lots of goodies including a Mexican football jersey !
Thanks,
Johnny.
