WAL­TER AL­IBEY

wal­ter.al­ibey@guardian.co.tt

A man eas­i­ly con­sid­ered as 'Mr Sports' in T&T- An­tho­ny "Tony" Har­ford, has died. He leaves to mourn his wife, two sis­ters and a broth­er, as well as a son Jarred who cur­rent­ly re­sides in the Unit­ed States.

He was 68 years old when he passed away peace­ful­ly at his home in his sleep on Thurs­day night, his broth­er-in-law Kei­th Cadet con­firmed on Fri­day.

It is not known as yet what he died from, but 'Harfie' as he is af­fec­tion­ate­ly known, had been ail­ing for a while, hav­ing un­der­gone by­pass surgery, op­er­a­tion on his eyes and had been tak­ing dial­y­sis for kid­ney fail­ure, all with­in the past few years.

His un­time­ly death sent shock­waves through­out the lo­cal sport­ing com­mu­ni­ty, with trib­utes be­ing poured in by the var­i­ous sport­ing bod­ies- the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion and the T&T Crick­et Board of Con­trol, and many in­di­vid­u­als among them.

Har­ford, a res­i­dent of Cas­cade al­so played an in­stru­men­tal role in the T&T me­dia where he was, not on­ly de­scribed as the best sports pre­sen­ter be­tween 1982 to 1993, but al­so the best voice on the air dur­ing his stint on sev­er­al ra­dio sta­tions.

Har­ford's promi­nence in T&T start­ed from a bold, maybe un­think­able move to set aside his ca­reer as a pi­lot in the 1980s to en­ter the are­nas of sports and the me­dia, with the now-de­funct TTT.

His co-work­er Ash­ford Jack­man yes­ter­day de­scribed him as a main piece of the puz­zle as they cov­ered sports. " He was a pret­ty good pro­fes­sion­al, he had an ex­cel­lent voice, well trained, dic­ta­tion every­thing. And well he start­ed in ra­dio so he had a very good back­ground when he came in­to tv as he joined us at TTT.

A very good pre­sen­ter of the sports­cast. In those days it wasn't dig­i­tal stuff so hav­ing a teleprompter was an ex­pen­sive thing and when­ev­er the teleprompter wasn't work­ing, in­stead of look­ing down at the pa­per all the time, he would try and mem­o­rize some of the sports so that he can read it fac­ing the cam­era and make it more per­son­al.

We were a very good team and he was ex­cel­lent. You could come to him with a script late, it did not mat­ter, he had a gift to bring things to life.

I know there would have been slip-ups in be­tween but gen­er­al­ly, he was the best pre­sen­ter of sports we had."

Jack­man who worked in op­er­a­tions at TTT at the time was trans­ferred to sports where Har­ford, head­lined a list of icon­ic pre­sen­ters, in­clu­sive of An­tho­ny Den­ni­son and Dave Lamy. " He was par­tic­u­lar­ly pas­sion­ate about crick­et, I think that was his num­ber one sport and then horse rac­ing, but he adapt­ed, he got in­volved in foot­ball and he would look for oth­er sports. He in­tro­duced an ex­er­cise club that would do hik­ing, walk­ing and run­ning. He did a lot of pro­mo­tion of road run­ning when Raf­fique Shah han­dled the TT Marathon Or­gan­i­sa­tion, so he did a lot of pro­mo­tion of sports."

In spite of all these achieve­ments, the name An­tho­ny Har­ford res­onat­ed in the hearts of many from the ra­dio with 100.1 Fm Jack­man said.

"He went away and got voice train­ing and so on and when he came back he was a big hit on ra­dio, that's why every­body knew him long be­fore he start­ed on tele­vi­sion, from ra­dio 100.1 Fm on a Sat­ur­day night. Every­body knew about Tony Har­ford on a Sat­ur­day night go­ing through un­til mid­night in the 1980s, he was it."

Har­ford was al­so an ad­min­is­tra­tor for crick­et with lo­cal club Cli­co Preysal at the time, pres­i­dent of the T&T Su­per League which was for­mer­ly the Na­tion­al Su­per League, own­er of All Sport Pro­mo­tion Com­pa­ny which mar­ket­ed, pro­mot­ed and ran many sport­ing com­pe­ti­tions, pres­i­dent of the North­ern Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (NFA), a found­ing mem­ber of the Unit­ed T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion which took over the reins of the man­age­ment of the sport fol­low­ing hot­ly con­test­ed elec­tions in 2019, and was the main man be­hind the run­ning of the Re­pub­lic Bank Youth Cup for many years.

Cadet ad­mit­ted that be­sides be­ing Har­ford's broth­er-in-law, he de­vel­oped a deep love for him be­cause of his kind heart, say­ing: " He was a very good man who was pas­sion­ate about all his ca­reers.

He was pas­sion­ate about sports and the de­vel­op­ment of sport for the youth, he was a qual­i­fied air­line pi­lot and he was, tes­ti­mo­ny to every­body who would have heard him over the years, he was one of the best voic­es on the air. But most of all, he would leave a lega­cy of be­ing a kind and gen­er­ous per­son.

He has helped every­body who called on him, he has nev­er turned away any­one."

For oth­ers, Har­ford was a men­tor and fa­ther fig­ure who could have done so much for foot­ball in T&T. Richard Piper, who worked close­ly with him at All Sport Pro­mo­tions and with the Su­per League said: " I am still in shock. I know he was ill but I didn't ex­pect that. Tony's pass­ing will and has left a void in the sport­ing land­scape.

Tony, in his en­deav­ours, would have brought the busi­ness of sports in TT to the fore­front. He pi­o­neered many dif­fer­ent events and av­enues that peo­ple would have bought in­to. He was in­deed an icon in the world of sports and the me­dia. He will al­ways be known as the man from tv.

It's a great loss to me, I look up to Tony al­most like a fa­ther fig­ure,

the type of op­por­tu­ni­ties he af­ford­ed me in the field of sports is un­par­al­leled."

<T&T Marathon 2022 in Har­ford's ho­n­our>

An­tho­ny 'Tony' Ig­natius Em­manuel Har­ford, who passed in his sleep on Fri­day fol­low­ing months of chal­lenges with his health. Tony was not on­ly a versed ra­dio an­nounc­er as we are all aware, known for his smooth voice and ex­pert mas­ter of cer­e­monies role. Tony was al­so a sport­ing en­thu­si­ast of great pro­por­tions, not on­ly hav­ing played crick­et in his ju­nior years, but al­so was a one time marathon­er when he com­plet­ed the TTIM in 7hours 45 sec­onds in 2005 at the age of 51, which he was very proud of.

As far as I could re­mem­ber, Tony took a per­son­al in­ter­est in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Marathon from the ear­ly days. In the 1980s and 1990s he fea­tured the T&T Road Run­ners Club and oth­er run­ning clubs on his ra­dio pro­gram pro­mot­ing dis­tance run­ning, like the Tin­actin 10K and en­cour­ag­ing the fra­ter­ni­ty. It was through All Sport Pro­mo­tions he pro­duced video cov­er­age of the T&T In­ter­na­tion­al Marathon (TTIM) on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions build­ing its pro­file and mak­ing it what it was and is to­day, an in­ter­na­tion­al brand.

In re­cent years Tony and the T&T Marathon Com­mit­tee (TTMC) part­nered once again bring­ing it to the fore­front of the minds of the run­ning fra­ter­ni­ty and se­cur­ing spon­sor­ships in sup­port of its ob­jec­tives.

Tony Har­ford was a pleas­ant and af­fa­ble hu­man be­ing, his ban­ter at any com­mit­tee meet­ing al­ways light­ened the day mak­ing it easy for us to have pro­duc­tive and suc­cess­ful com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

Hav­ing known Tony from dif­fer­ent are­nas, I re­mem­ber him con­duct­ing his char­i­ta­ble Bin­go games help­ing many to raise funds for their cause and nev­er charg­ing for his ser­vices. In 1991, when I co-or­di­nat­ed the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the Carif­ta Games host­ed by the NAAA and held at the Hase­ley Craw­ford Sta­di­um, the rain fell heaver­ly and Tony would sim­ply say to me “Di­ane, not to wor­ry, breathe, every­thing would be fine”. From that day for­ward I al­ways had faith that all would be well.

Tony will sure­ly be missed in many cir­cles as his ver­sa­til­i­ty has shown. The TTIM 2022 will be held in his ho­n­our as we cel­e­brate 40 years of the race's ex­is­tence. Con­do­lences to his sis­ter, Ab­bi De Souza, fam­i­ly, friends and as­so­ciates and may he for­ev­er sleep in peace.

<Trib­utes poured in for Har­ford>

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion wish­es to pay trib­ute to An­tho­ny Har­ford, a vet­er­an sports­cast­er, sports ad­min­is­tra­tor and friend of the FA fol­low­ing his pass­ing at the age of 68.

Mr Har­ford was the con­sum­mate pro­fes­sion­al in TV, ra­dio and as a sport­ing ad­min­is­tra­tor and pro­mot­er.

His knowl­edge and de­liv­ery made him a favourite of lo­cal sports fans – but he was even more beloved by those who knew him or worked with him. He had a gen­uine in­ter­est in the hu­man side of sports

Mr Har­ford first carved out a niche in the pan­theon of lo­cal broad­cast­ers as a sports an­chor and re­porter for TTT.

He cov­ered a wide range of sports which saw him com­men­tate, re­port and serve as an ad­min­is­tra­tor in some of the most mem­o­rable sport­ing ex­pe­ri­ences in our his­to­ry. He al­so served in West In­dies Crick­et and re­gion­al ath­let­ics.

Cer­tain­ly, he was one of the most recog­nis­able faces and voic­es in lo­cal sport. Not on­ly was he a man of great calm­ness but he was al­so one of the gen­tle­men in the lo­cal sport­ing are­na. “Tony” was al­ways op­ti­mistic de­spite the chal­lenges of­ten pre­sent­ed in the ad­min­is­trat­ing and pro­mo­tion of the lo­cal sports.

Har­ford’s in­volve­ment with na­tion­al foot­ball dates back to the 1990 Road to Italy cam­paign and be­yond and lat­er cul­mi­nat­ed with the 2006 World Cup cam­paign where he pro­vid­ed yeo­man ser­vice as a ser­vant in lo­cal foot­ball with the tour­ing arrange­ments for the na­tion­al team and sup­port­ers both dur­ing the qual­i­fiers and the World Cup in Ger­many.

He al­so made a ster­ling con­tri­bu­tion to the archiv­ing of video ma­te­r­i­al of the Na­tion­al Team and con­tributed to the World Cup DVD doc­u­men­tary. He would lat­er go on to serve as Pres­i­dent of the North­ern Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion and the Na­tion­al Su­per League.

Our sin­cere thoughts go out to Tony’s fam­i­ly and friends. May his soul rest in eter­nal peace.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Crick­et Board (TTCB) has sent con­do­lences on the pass­ing of me­dia per­son­al­i­ty An­tho­ny "Tony" Har­ford.

Pres­i­dent of the TTCB Az­im Bas­sarath said yes­ter­day he was shocked to learn of the news and re­mem­bered speak­ing to the af­fa­ble Har­ford as re­cent­ly as a month ago.

He said Har­ford will be re­mem­bered as a friend of crick­et who was al­so in­volved as a sports ad­min­is­tra­tor in lo­cal foot­ball.

Har­ford was the di­rec­tor at All Sport Pro­mo­tions Lim­it­ed and for­mer tele­vi­sion news and sports an­chor in Trinidad and To­ba­go for 16 years and a ra­dio pre­sen­ter for more than three decades.

He is well-known for his im­pact on lo­cal and re­gion­al crick­et and is re­mem­bered for be­ing the first com­mer­cial man­ag­er of the West In­dies crick­et team.

He al­so man­aged and mar­ket­ed the first ICC Un­der-15 Crick­et World Cham­pi­onship in the Caribbean and the first crick­et event at Dis­ney Wide World of Sport in 1999.

This was the West In­dies Wind­ball Cham­pi­onship. He was al­so the Chair­man/Pres­i­dent of Cli­co Preysal Sports Club

His in­put and ex­per­tise in the up­lift­ment of sport and es­pe­cial­ly lo­cal and re­gion­al crick­et will be re­mem­bered.

The for­mer air­line pi­lot start­ed his ca­reer as a ra­dio per­son­al­i­ty and lat­er be­came bet­ter known as a sports ad­min­is­tra­tor, and was at one-time co-own­er and man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of the WMJS easy lis­ten­ing jazz and sports ra­dio sta­tion.

He is al­so re­mem­bered for ar­rang­ing char­ter flights for lo­cal foot­ball fans in the 2026 World Cup cam­paign in­clud­ing a trip to Bahrain in 2005 for the his­toric play-off match which the So­ca War­riors won to qual­i­fy for Ger­many. Har­ford al­so took fans to Ger­many for the pre­lim­i­nary group games for T&T.

For­mer na­tion­al crick­eter An­dre Lawrence wrote:

"Tony Har­ford along­side his friend and part­ner Bruce Aa­nensen changed and helped shape my life. It’s a sim­ple as that. For this, I’m eter­nal­ly grate­ful and it’s a debt I could nev­er re­pay.

With youth­ful as­pi­ra­tions to be­come a pro­fes­sion­al crick­eter, it was Tony’s re­la­tion­ship with an Eng­lish Club that gave me an op­por­tu­ni­ty to progress quick­ly in­to what even­tu­al­ly be­came my ca­reer for 16 odd years. But that wasn’t all as I trav­elled with Tony with re­gion­al crick­et teams as cap­tain to the Unit­ed States and Cana­da, along with be­ing Head Coach to help guide U17 boys on a trip to New Zealand….a tour that helped pro­duce West In­di­an Test Crick­eter Joshua Da Sil­va, and na­tion­al bats­man, Kea­gan Sim­mons. These and many oth­er tours have con­tributed to groom­ing many tal­ent­ed young sports­men.

I’ll al­ways re­mem­ber his stints in the me­dia, his host­ing of events such as the QPCC An­nu­al Awards etc, and his choic­es in mu­sic. Al­ways easy and en­joy­able lis­ten­ing. You don’t get much smoother than Harfie.

I’m sad­dened to learn of his pass­ing to­day as I ex­tend con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and close friends. God’s speed Harfie."

May he rest in eter­nal peace.

Sports jour­nal­ist Vidia Ram­phal wrote: "When­ev­er Sarah heard Tony Har­ford on the ra­dio, she would tell me, "Dad­dy, that man sounds just like you." Truth is, while I al­ways tried to sound like him, I could on­ly be a poor im­i­ta­tion of one of the great­est broad­cast­ers to grace the air­waves in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

I worked with Tony for 18 months at All Sports Pro­mo­tions and it was a great ed­u­ca­tion. All the in­sights he gave me in­to sports­cast­ing serve me well up to this day. Thank you, Tony. You were the best. You will nev­er be for­got­ten..."