Doddie Weir Obituary, Death – The young Doddie would often hide under the covers before coach Jim Telfer called him at home or, worse yet, pounded on his door at Melrose, where Telfer oversaw Sunday morning training sessions that he would do anything to avoid. There are numerous tales about Weir’s encounters with Telfer, who would coach him for Scotland and the Lions, throughout his playing career.
Good-natured and full of life, Weir responded to the blow of receiving his illness’s diagnosis in 2016 by establishing the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, a nonprofit organization with his wife, Kathy, to raise money for MND research. The number on his Scotland shirt is where the word “five” comes from. During the 1997 Lions’ tour of South Africa, Doddie Weir was playing for the team in Durban. During the 1997 Lions’ tour of South Africa, Doddie Weir was playing for the team in Durban. Image courtesy of David Gibson/Shutterstock
Doddie (George) Weir was born in Edinburgh, the son of Nanny (Margaret, née Houston) and Jock Weir. His parents, who were farmers, also had Kirsty, Thomas, and Christopher as three other children. Doddie completed his education at Scottish Agricultural College after first attending Stewart’s Melville College. At Stewart’s Melville FP (former students), he started taking his rugby seriously. By 1989, he was playing for Melrose. He made his Scotland B team debut against Ireland at the end of that year while still a teenager.
He was a strong athlete who showed promise. Brian Meek, a columnist for the Glasgow Herald, said of Melrose’s Doddie Weir: “His jumping and catching are a joy to watch, but he still looks like he should eat more porridge.” He was playing for Scotland against Argentina at Murrayfield the following year. Weir’s prowess in the lineout was evident. Later in 1990, Scottish rugby writer Norman Mair noted that he could not recall anyone being launched as high into the air as Weir had been during Scotland’s tour of New Zealand.
Weir weighed only 92 kg (14 st 7 lbs) back then, before the professional era of bulking up, which aided the lifters in the lineout, but the New Zealanders noticed something in the visitor who was so thin. A rare honor given to foreign players in New Zealand, Waikato asked him to stay and play for them for a few months. A young Martin Johnson had previously received a similar request. Weir demonstrated his versatility by representing Scotland as the No. 8 third-row forward. The somewhat reticent convert to serious weight training came under the influence of the fitness guru Steve Black when he relocated to the Newcastle club in 1995.
The sport had just transitioned to the professional level when the club sent Black to the US to research conditioning in gridiron football. Even Weir was impressed. The Rugby Football Union had put a 12-month moratorium in place at Twickenham, but Newcastle was at the forefront of professionalism in the English club game, breaking the rule to entice a plethora of top players. Doddie Weir after the Queen bestowed his OBE medal upon him at a 2019 investiture ceremony held at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
Doddie Weir after the Queen bestowed his OBE medal upon him at a 2019 investiture ceremony held at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Image courtesy of WPA/Getty Images Professionalism was a motivating factor in Weir’s selection for the successful Lions tour to South Africa in 1997, by which time he had given his performance a physical edge that was immortalized by TV commentator Bill McLaren’s famous remark that Weir was “on the charge like a mad giraffe.
” Weir always embraced his role as the goofball in the group, but he occasionally resented the label of “daft laddie” and developed a fierce sense of rivalry. Telfer trained his packs to combat the South Africans’ effective scrummaging during that tour. Weir, however, was not going to be a part of Johnson’s Test team. The home lock, Marius Bosman, brutally stamped on Weir’s knee during a midweek match against Mpumalanga, ending his tour and jeopardizing his playing future.
Although he gave himself the satisfaction of naming a hedgehog-shaped shoe-scraping brush outside his door back home after the South African so he could stamp on him every day, Weir recovered but could never forgive Bosman. After playing in his final Scotland game against France in 2000, he left Newcastle two years later to finish his playing career with a stint with Border Reivers. Weir then went back to living on a farm and doing part-time commentary and after-dinner speaking. He also served as the commercial director for a company that his father-in-law founded for waste management.
Weir won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason award for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity in 2019 and was given the OBE for his charitable work. He was a folk hero in Scotland, and the phrase “larger than life” could have been made up just to describe him. Before Scotland’s match against the All Blacks earlier this month, his entrance onto the field of play in a recognizable blue and yellow tartan suit with his family elicited the loudest cheer of the Murrayfield afternoon.
In 1997, he wed Kathy Huchinson. She, their sons Hamish, Angus, and Ben, his siblings, and his father live on after him. Rugby player Doddie (George) Wilson Weir was born on 4 July 1970 and passed away on 26 November 2022.