Terry Baddoo was born in London, England and has lived in the USA since 1995. A teenage triallist with Chelsea and Crystal Palace, the chances of winning the professional football lottery were brought home to him on a training pitch just outside south-west London when a midfielder, whom Terry thought he’d just marked out of the game, was told he’d be training with the Reserves on Monday. The pitch belonged to Chelsea and the kid’s name was Ray “Butch” Wilkins. Whatever happened to him?
A half-hearted flirtation with semi-professional football followed, coinciding with an even less enthusiastic spell as a physical education teacher, and then it was into the media as writer/reporter with a series of national magazines and newspapers in the UK.
Television beckoned in the 1980’s when Terry was recruited to work on a regional news show for ITV. The appointment began a TV career that’s now lasted more than 25 years and has taken in some of the world’s biggest media outlets, including the BBC, Sky Sports, CNN, Al Jazeera, and Chinese Central Television for which Terry hosted the English language coverage of the 2012 London Olympics.
Incidentally, whilst at the BBC Terry’s football dream enjoyed one of its finest hours when, in front of a sizeable crowd at Selhurst Park, home of the aforementioned Crystal Palace, Terry beat then England keeper, Nigel Martyn, with a header during a pro-celebrity game between the BBC and a Steve Coppell XI. Palace don’t know what they missed!
A skilled interviewer, Terry has been face-to-face with some of the world’s most celebrated sports figures, including; Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, Zinedine Zidane, Paul Gascoigne, Jurgen Klinsmann, Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini, Gary Lineker, Bobby Charlton, David Beckham, Alex Ferguson, Bobby Robson, Ruud Gullit, Lothar Matthaus, Paulo Maldini, Glenn Hoddle, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Kim Clijesters, Michael Schumacher, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Jack Nicklaus, Dikembe Mutumbo, Viv Richards, Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Linford Christie, Carl Lewis, Ian Thorpe and others too numerous to mention. However his most memorable sporting encounter was not an interview but a chance meeting in a famed London nightclub where none other than the late, great George Best bought him a drink. The fact that the tipsy Irishman may have mistaken him for then Tottenham full-back, Chris Hughton (as has often been the case), in no way diminishes the experience.
Terry currently works as a freelance writer, broadcaster, and content developer for sports and non-sports media.
