Video: I shed a few tears says TV veteran Harry Gration

The journalist started out as a history teacher in Yorkshire but used school holidays to compile match reports for local radio stations.

After becoming sports editor of BBC Radio Leeds, he went on to present Look North in 1984, forming an on-screen partnership with fellow presenter Judith Stamper, and, following a five-year break, returned to the programme in 1999 where he has appeared mainly alongside Christa Ackroyd.

He has also presented long-running sports programme Grandstand and has covered the 
Olympics nine times, as well as the Commonwealth Games, the football World Cup, Wimbledon and the Open Golf Championship.

The presenter, who lives in York, said: “It is an overwhelming honour. Something I never thought would happen to me.

“I know my family is very proud but I have to say thank you to all my colleagues. They are the ones who have made this happen.

“For a lad born in a back-to-back in Bradford I know my mum and dad would have loved to have been around for this day. And, yes, I did a Dickie Bird and had a few tears.”

He has won two Royal Television Society Awards for sports documentaries, and was president of the Scarborough Cricket Festival in 2006 and 2007. Between 2005 and 2008 he was also chairman of the Yorkshire Tourist Board Tourism Awards and he is involved with charities across Yorkshire.