The boxing upset of the 70s — and how the Rand Daily Mail almost lost the scoop
The Rand Daily Mail’s ‘technology- aided’ scoop on Gerrie Coetzee’s win in Monte Carlo 40 years ago almost never got to print
Boxing was big in SA in the 1970s. And SA had some big boxers. So when Gerrie Coetzee won the right to fight an elimination bout for the World Boxing Association’s heavyweight title in glamorous Monte Carlo on June 24 1979, it was the perfect opportunity for the Rand Daily Mail to showcase its cutting-edge technology by getting the story out before any of its rivals.
However, the newspaper bosses hadn’t reckoned on a third-year BJourn student who would be sitting at one of their fancy new “video display terminals” (VDTs) as a trainee subeditor. That student was me and this is the story of how that Mail scoop nearly didn’t happen. Most people know how excited editors shout “Hold the front page” when there is late and important news. This was “Find the front page!”..
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