SCHOOL DAYS - Bill O'Herlihy:The nation's favourite television sports anchorman was never by his own admission cut out for onfield greatness but those formative years in a golden era down south helped make him the ideal studio foil for Giles, Brady, Dunphy et al, writes Seán Kenny.

HE MAY not have made it to Leeds or Arsenal or even Millwall, but the man in the anchor's chair alongside Giles, Brady and Dunphy on RTÉ television had his own playing days too. Growing up in Cork he played left-back for Crofton Celtic FC. He found time too for hurling, Gaelic football and cricket. He insists his talents were modest, but the seeds of a lifelong passion for sport were sown at a young age.

"I was a supporter and not a player, really," insists Bill O'Herlihy. "I'd hate to convey the impression that I was a great player, although I did enjoy it immensely."

As a lad he was drawn to the heaving throngs at games during a boom time for soccer in Cork. For reasons partially obscure but perhaps owing something to the distinctiveness of the name, he also developed an allegiance to Sheffield Wednesday.

"Soccer was very big when I was a young fella in Cork. The Mardyke used to be jammers, and then you went to Flower Lodge. There were big crowds, terrific teams and great characters like Paddy O'Leary, Brasser McCarthy, Tucker Allen . . . terrific players and in their own way they were inspirational."

Tribal boundaries dictated he was a Cork Athletic fan. Raich Carter, the one-time Sunderland forward and major star of the rattlers-and-Brylcreem era, came to play for the club.

"Raich Carter was the best I ever saw playing soccer in Cork. He was the first of the mercenaries to come over, I suppose, and he was in his 40s when he came . . . He had skills way beyond the locals'. We used to be in awe watching him."

This being Cork city during the '40s and '50s, though, hurling dominated.

"Cork hurling was the best hurling in the country at the time by a distance. In Cork city, you had Glen Rovers, Sarsfields, Blackrock and St Finbarr's, which was in my parish. They had unbelievable teams and there was unbelievable tribalism involved."

Although he hurled and played football with two other clubs, Lee Rovers and Craobh Rua, his allegiance as a fan lay with St Finbarr's. Conflicts of loyalty along club and county lines in Cork were sharply expressed in his attitude to Christy Ring.

"Ring was the greatest hurler I've ever seen and I saw a lot of him, because my father, God rest his soul, loved hurling and brought me to a lot of games. But you'd have an extraordinary attitude to Ring. When he was playing for Glen Rovers you hated him because you were from the Barrs, but if he was playing for Cork he was a god."

He met his childhood hero later in life, while working for the Cork Examiner and the Glen Rovers man was a Cork mentor.

"He was a very nice man but he had this aura about him and if you were a young guy, he wasn't easy to talk to. He was difficult because he was shy, not because he was rude. I'd say it was partly my fault because I was in awe of the man."

His own playing career was exclusively at club level. His secondary school, St Finbarr's Farranferris, was primarily for boarders. Dayboys like himself tended to be overlooked in the selection of hurling teams.

"In some ways I was quite resentful I wasn't considered for Farranferris. I was playing junior hurling and football at club level at the age of 15 . . . (but) unless you were exceptional, if you were a dayboy at Farranferris you weren't considered part of the hurling scene. It was natural in a way, because the boarders were playing there after school, whereas I just went home."

His ambition to become a journalist saw him leave school at 16 to work for the Examiner. The demands of work brought his hurling days to a premature close. That was a source of regret.

"I'd like to have seen how good I was, but I'm not so sure I was that good . . . I'd say junior hurling and football would have been my level."

Cricket was another youthful passion, which he retains.

"There was a tradition - I suppose it was a garrison tradition - of cricket in Cork. But my interest came entirely from John Arlott's commentaries (on BBC radio). He gave me word images of cricket that have stuck with me to this day."

Sport was splashed boldly across the canvas of his early years in Cork. The patterns it left have remained. The twinkling enthusiasm that comes across on the TV screen is heartfelt.

"I'm 69 now. People often say to me, 'You've great enthusiasm still.' But I was very lucky, and my generation was very lucky, because we grew up at a time when sport in Cork was terrific . . . We were part of an era of great sport and great sportspeople."