Hugh Johns was one of the best-loved sports commentators of the 1960s and 1970s. Renowned for his sheepskin coat, unmistakeable rich, deep voice and staccato delivery, he was a mainstay of ITV’s World of Sport on Saturday afternoons.

He made his name at ATV in the Midlands, commentating on boxing, snooker, darts, bowls and, above all, football. He was one of the best-known voices in the game and he commentated on more than 1,000 top-class domestic and international football matches, including four World Cup finals.

Slightly unfortunately for his subsequent reputation, he was overshadowed at the 1966 World Cup final by Kenneth Wolstenholme who was commentating for the BBC. In the dying moments of the game between England and West Germany at Wembley, Geoff Hurst raced towards the opponents’ goal and launched a belter to secure a 4-2 victory. Wolstenholme’s exclamation – “Some people are on the pitch. They think it’s all over . . . It is now!” – became a famous catch-phrase. On ITV Johns was more prosaic: “Here’s Hurst. He might make it three. He has! He has! So that’s it. That is it!” These words failed to achieve posterity, and in the years that ensued Johns became known, slightly unjustly, as “the other commentator of ’66”.

Hugh Richard Lewis Johns was born in 1922 and raised in Surrey, and watched his first game of football from his father’s shoulders at Stamford Bridge when he was 3. He did not remember who Chelsea were playing but it began a lifelong passion for the game.

After serving as a Fleet Air Arm pilot in the war he went into repertory theatre, securing a contract at the Castle Theatre in Farnham. He later toured the Middle East with the Combined Services Entertainment Group, and recalled that his experience on the stage helped to hone his verbal skills as a commentator, teaching him timing and how to employ the correct pitch, volume and tone.

Working in smoky venues eventually gave him a chest infection and he was advised to work in a healthier environment. Nevertheless, he continued to smoke himself, a habit that helped to give him his trademark baritone timbre.

He entered journalism, writing local football match reports for the Surrey and Hants News, before moving to the Southend Standard as sports editor. He also covered football matches for the Daily Herald and News Chronicle and in 1960 became a sports columnist for The People in Wales.

It was there that, by chance, he discovered his vocation as a sports commentator. A contemporary, Lloyd Lewis, who worked for the News of the World, also ran a television sports programme for Television Wales and West, and when he was stuck for an interviewer one week, Johns volunteered to step in.

He made an impression at TWW and was soon a regular anchorman. Three years later, when ITV was auditioning for candidates to be its commentator for the forthcoming 1966 World Cup, TWW’s editor of light entertainment sent ITV a tape of Johns commentating on one of Cardiff City’s European Cup Winners’ Cup games.

His ascent was rapid and he soon found himself auditioning at Stamford Bridge alongside a young Barry Davies. He was dropped in at the deep end, commentating on the opening game between England and Uruguay. Johns was relieved to find that his stage fright vanished before the referee blew the starting whistle.

After the tournament he made his career on television, where he soon came to be known as “The Voice” on ITV sport. He commentated on such famous encounters as Manchester United’s victory in the 1968 European Cup and on England’s failure to beat Poland at Wembley in 1973. He was commentator for ATV’s Star Soccer for 13 years from 1969. He left ATV in 1982 and moved to Cardiff where he worked for some years for HTV.

In later life Johns grew disillusioned with the game, feeling it had become corrupted by money, and he seldom went to football matches. He became an active freemason.

Until the end of his life he continued to be recognised – or at least his voice was. “Even now,” he said in 2002, “people on the phone will say: ‘Aren’t you the guy who used to commentate on the box? I grew up listening to you’.” The recognition seemed universal. “My voice has been recognised by taxi drivers in Singapore, going up escalators, in shopping centres and at Customs.”

His wife of 53 years, Joan, died in 2003. He is survived by a son.

Hugh Johns, football commentator, was born on September 6, 1922. He died on June 27, 2007, aged 84