On The Ball title
<< 3rd May 1974 - No.18[]
replacing Young Footballers Club
to 10th February 1979 - No.6/7 >>[]
replaced by Sports Spotlight
On The Ball was the regular feature for football fans. Named after a section of World Of Sport, ITV's masthead sports programme in the 70's, the Feature was headed by Brian Moore who also introduced On The Ball on TV. Look-in already had from nearly the beginning a football feature, prior to On The Ball. It was called Young Footballers Club. As well as giving a bit of information on a team or player, the feature also gave interesting tips and information on improving your game, a feature mirrored in On The Ball later as 'Star Tip', in which a tip was given to improve your skills, sometimes highlighting a player who used this tip in real life.
On The Ball artwork
On The Ball was usually in two parts, a text page which was full of information about a team, player or football event. This page was always dressed in an array of brilliant drawings by Sheridon Davies, who also wrote the page. The second part was a colour poster (as shown above), featuring the team the article was about or more often, one of their star players, these were obviously popular as later football had nearly as many heartthrobs as pop! The feature ran until early 79, and a few weeks after finishing, Brian Moore reappeared in a new feature called 'Sports Spotlight', which covered a more varied selection of sports, and still included Sheridon Davies masterful drawings. maybe Look-in received a few complaints that they didn't show enough of other sports? Anyway, On The Ball was a great feature that became a fixture in the 70's and a big loss when it finally finished.