Above: Anthony Harford.

The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) announces with deep regret that Anthony Harford, a luminary of the sports and media fraternity has died.

MATT sends our deepest condolences to Tony Harford’s close relatives and friends, the sporting fraternity, and his colleagues, friends, and mentees in the media.

Condolences and tributes have been shared on the MATT fraternity WhatsApp chat.
Among them, veteran journalist Andy Johnson who wrote that he often thought of how “people like him – Tony Harford and Holly Thomas spent much of their lives wanting to start their own radio stations, thinking they had a formula that was needed. Jazz.”

“And then sadly found the ad market was not there for them. WMJX were his call letters, but he had to give it up before he could say, Jack Palance, as the old folks say.”

In an interview with MATT, another veteran journalist Tony Fraser said of his colleague and friend, ” He didn’t read the sports news but ad-libbed in a fluent conversational style which gave him an edge.”

“He had sports at the heart of all he did. In addition to reporting on sports and being a sports organiser, he took his young players everywhere, including taking Joshua Da Silva, the wicketkeeper/batsman (for the) West Indies, to New Zealand.”

“He also did the WITCO annual sports awards for many years after Dave Lamy. He was also a radio announcer playing music on Radio 97 and NBS radio 610. He was an all-rounder with an excellent reading and speaking voice. His death is a major personal loss.“

The following details of Anthony Harford’s professional life was taken from his LinkedIn profile.

Tony Harford was a former Television News/Sports Anchor in Trinidad and Tobago (16 years) and a radio presenter for more than three decades. He managed and marketed the first ICC Under-15 Cricket World Championship in the Caribbean and marketed and managed the Shell Caribbean cup, the first major regional football competition involving English, Dutch, French and Spanish speaking Caribbean countries in 1989-1991.

Harford (for various periods) managed and marketed the first cricket event at Disney Wide World of Sport in 1999, the West Indies Windball Championships (with over 700 participants from eight countries) the Carifta Games Track and Field, the Caribbean 7’s Soccer Championships and the ‘biggest club football competition in the Caribbean, The National Super League in Trinidad.

The nation and the fraternity owes him a enormous debt of gratitude for playing a herculean role in ensuring that sports in T&T was represented professionally, and globally.

May Tony Harford, our friend and sports doyen of T&T, Rest in Peace.