David Miller, a hugely respected sports journalist for newspapers including the Times, the Telegraph and the Daily Express, has died at the age of 91; a former chair of the SJA, a Times obituary describes Miller as “authoritative” and extremely well connected…
By The SJA
Tributes are being paid to the renowned sports journalist and historian David Miller, who has died at the age of 91.
Miller was the chief sports correspondent of The Times and was also served as chair of the Sports Journalists’ Association from 1981 to 1983, when the SJA was known as the Sports Writers’ Association.
He also covered sport with great distinction for the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Express, and wrote many books, including biographies of Sir Matt Busby, Sir Stanley Matthews and Lord Coe.
In 2023, Miller was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin Medal by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in recognition of his journalism on the Olympic Movement, of which he wrote the official history. Another of his books was a biography of Juan Antonio Samaranch, the seventh IOC President whose term lasted 21 years.
He graduated from Cambridge University in 1956, and in a career that lasted more than 50 years, he covered 21 editions of the Olympic Games and 14 FIFA World Cup tournaments. He was a fine athlete himself and won football blues during his college days.
In an article for the SJA website in 2006, looking back at his long career, he reflected on moments such as freelancing for The Times at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, when he would have been 23 years old. “My wife came too, the weather was fabulous, and we existed largely on milk and biscuits,” he wrote.
He joined the Telegraph in 1960, and then the Sunday Telegraph. He recalled his experience at the 1972 Munich Olympics and missing out on what would have been a “world scoop” about the tragic terrorist attack that unfolded.
Miller became the chief sportswriter for the Daily Express in 1973, and a decade later, he returned to the Times.
In a Q&A with the Football Writers’ Association website in 2013, Miller said the 1966 World Cup Final was his most memorable match and that the goal he never tired of watching was Pele’s first for Brazil against Sweden in the 1958 final.
On the occasion of his De Coubertin Medal, then IOC President Thomas Bach said: “Your writing ultimately served a higher purpose than to simply inform people of the latest scores and results.
“With your expert knowledge of the Olympic Movement, you always instinctively grasped the central idea of the Olympic mission: to unite the entire world in peaceful competition.”
Miller won the Doug Gardner Award for services to the SJA and sports journalism at the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards’ 2000 ceremony.
An obituary of Miller in The Times reads: “He reported on the beautiful game with a style of writing unadorned by superfluous phrasing while nobody could accuse him of not being well connected in the sporting world.”
When I was a kid, I would wait for my Dad to come home form work, scrabble thru his briefcase and get out The Times. I devoured all the sports pages but when I read David Miller it opened my eyes to a different, observational way of writing. I wanted to be that man! That he wrote about my sports – football and athletics – with such authority only increased my awe as did his collaboration with my hero Seb Coe on a definitive biography: still on my bookshelf + I still regularly consult as a coaching manual. Undoubtedly he became too close to some of his extraordinary contacts, yet when I finally met him as a fellow pro, I was able to tell him he was the first sports writer I aspired to be. RIP
— Rob Draper (@draper_rob) October 20, 2026
In its obituary to Miller, the Telegraph described him as “one of the great figures of British sports journalism”, adding: “It says something for the breadth and longevity of Miller’s sportswriting that he should have seen both Stanley Matthews and Lionel Messi play and covered 50 Wimbledon championships.”
If you are interested in sharing your memories of David via publication on the SJA website, please email us – we welcome your contributions.
Further reading…
David Miller obituary: sportswriter and editor (The Times)
David Miller, sports journalist who covered Olympic Games and World Cups for the Telegraph
David Miller story archive (SJA)
FWA Q&A with David Miller (Football Writers’ Association, 2013)
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