By Ken Bediako
Another Olympiad is just around the corner in Paris. And this has suddenly brought fond memories of a long departed sports media colleague Ben Eghan Jnr with whom I covered numerous global sports events including D.K Poison’s WBC World featherweight boxing title fight in the US 1975 and the boycott prone controversial Montreal Olympics in 1976.
Ben Eghan Jnr who passed away in 2003 aged 76, was a sports commentator of repute from the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation stables. He was my personal friend. Our friendship started in the early sixties when as a junior sportswriter with the Daily Graphic. The two of us were regulars at Sports Director Ohene Djan’s weekly press conferences at Accra Stadium on Mondays.
By his training as a paid talkative, Ben and the other senior colleagues were the ones who asked most of the questions and we, the shy looking youngsters, were mostly interested in the post conference “Item 13”.
Despite the wide gap in age Ben Eghan, was never bossy and he took us as his younger brothers sharing jokes but at the same time teaching us all the nuances in the profession. Ben had a profound amount of humour, he was full of jokes and always had a funny story to tell.
I recall this incident at the Ambassador Hotel in May 1964 when British boxing promoter Jack Solomons, was in Accra to promote Ghana’s first World boxing title fight between Floyd Klutei Robertson and Sugar Ramos. The promoter was hosting some selected sports journalists and boxing officials to dinner when a steward brought a huge menu. Almost everybody decided to make a selection but Ben boomed amidst laughter in Fante “ne nyinaa bi” meaning I will take all.
This amusing remark eventually became his nickname and both young and old colleagues were at liberty to call him this. Ben took no offence; he would rather repeat same. His affable character was manifest mostly during our numerous sports
assignments outside the country.
Those were the days when Ghana sports was on high pedestal and the media was fully represented at all major events involving Ghana. As If by design, on most occasions, I shared a room with “Big Ben” as I used to call him.
Our most fascinating experience was in September 1975 when Ben and I went to Los Angeles to cover D K. Poison’s world featherweight boxing title fight against Reuben Olivares of Mexico. We arrived in London in the early hours on transit for what we reckoned to be nearly 12 hours. I therefore suggested to Ben that we could go to the City centre to while away the time. I called a friend to take us home.
Ben wasn’t too keen on the proposal and he asked whether my friend was coming in his own car which, I confidently answered in the positive. My friend arrived within an hour and as we followed him to the parking lot we eventually found ourselves in a public transport bus. Ben, the ever jovial, whispered into my ears, “Your friend’s car is extremely big”. I couldn’t help laughing.
It took us a little over an hour to get home. Food was ready and there were a lot of drinks too. Suddenly it dawned on Ben to recheck the departure time on our Air tickets only to realise that we had less than 30 minutes to departure time. For some strange reasons we had got the departure time mixed up. It wasn’t 12 hours after all.
Ben was not amused in the least. He seriously advised me never to mix business with pleasure. I took his advice in good faith and it guided me a lot in my 21-year career at the sports desk of the Daily Graphic and beyond. To cut a long story short, we abandoned the sumptuous food, prepared for us and hurriedly hired a taxi to Heathrow but obviously we had missed the flight.
I remember vividly what the lady at the Check in counter asked after examining our Air tickets, “How did you manage to miss the flight?
I took a glance at Ben and he jokingly asked me asked whether I really understood the question the lady asked. The lady was obviously surprised we could miss a flight when we had arrived at the Airport more than ten hours ago.
We got the next flight to Los Angeles after two hours for the nearly 12 hours nonstop flight. Unfortunately, Ben’s luggage could not be traced on arrival in Los Angeles till after four days. With no dress to wear Ben had to do with some of the many fit for all baggy “joromi” tops in my luggage.
Honestly Ben was full of anxiety on the trip because he said it was the first time GBC was broadcasting live from the USA and he did not want to take any chances at all. Luckily on the night of the fight all lines went through. Listeners back home heard us loud and clear. I did the end of round summaries of the fight on radio for the first time in my life. Back home some of my friends said my summaries were too brief and I kept on asking “What is Poison doing with his right hand”? The good news was that Poison won the fight clearly on points to become the first Ghanaian world boxing champion.
The following year Ben and I were in Canada for the Montreal Olympics with two other colleagues Ken Amoah of GBC and Sammy Aduagyei of Ghanaian Times. Although Ghana at the last minute boycotted the Games alongside other African and Caribbean countries, we stayed on a bit and spent some time in the US and UK before returning home.
Between 1976 and 1982 I travelled with Ben across the length and breadth of Africa and my colleagues at the time notably Joe Aggrey, Oheneba Charles, Sammy Aduagyei, Eric Segoh, Emmanuel Amoako, Ebo Quansah and P. K Arthur will all tell you that Ben Eghan was s good companion.
They all recall with excitement, their exploits along the West Coast, especially the Joe Aggrey- Ben Eghan episode at Bouake, which is still a guarded secret.
The 1982 Afcon in Libya was the last trip I made with Ben until the Ato Austin-Kojo Yankah conspiracy drove me away from the Daily Graphic in the wake of the Rawlings revolution alongside other so-called “anti- revolutionaries”. The strong media team in Libya comprising Oheneba Charles, Nii Anum Thompson, Harry Thompson, Eric Brakohiapa, Niikoi of GNA never stopped talking about the great fun we shared with Ben at the Press Centre in Tripoli.
All jokes aside Ben Eghan was an assiduous worker his diction as a broadcaster was perfect and he had the right voice to be on air.
No wonder he was made the first vice President of SWAG at its formation in 1968. He was the anchorman in the GBC sports strong team of Joe Lartey, William Opare, Ken Amoah and Ishmael Alabi, all of blessed memory.
May the exploits of all these star performers be emulated by the younger generation.
Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.
