A tribute to Jon Swift: When Swifty pulled a Molly

Jon Swift, the well-known Joburg-based journalist who died last week, once did something most racing pundits could never hope to – he tipped eight outright winners on a nine-race card at Turffontein.

It was the one and only time the charming, popular ‘Swifty’ ventured into horse terrain but it added an interesting chapter to the colourful story of a newspaper legend.

As is often the case with journos, it started with a long lunch. Partaking of that lunch was David Mollett, racing man extraordinaire and ubiquitous tipster well known to punters throughout the country.

Well-fueled, ‘Molly’ arrived at the Business Day office late on Friday afternoon to write up his predictions for the coming weekend’s racing action. BD sports editor Swift was facing an early-edition deadline but Mollett felt the call of nature and had to dash to the toilet.

Comfortably ensconced on the loo, Mollett dropped off to sleep.

Time ticked by; Swift got deadline panic. He snatched up a Turffontein form guide and proceeded to make random picks for the “Mollett Selects” column – choosing horse and jockey names that appealed to him in the moment.

You know what happened next. Mollett still relates the tale with relish. Reminded of it, Swift used to chuckle and feign indignation at having to write Monday morning’s puff item about Mollett’s genius with the gee-gees.

Iconic sports journalist

Swifty worked for just about every newspaper in Joburg over the years and will be remembered with fondness by generations of hacks of all stripes. Descriptions posted this week of him as a “free spirit” and the “kindest colleague” ring true.

On a personal note, Jon was the first person I met when arriving in the Rand Daily Mail subs room some 45 years ago and he was incredibly friendly and helpful – not least in leading the way to the nearby Federal Hotel (the infamous “Fed”) for between-edition sustenance.

Jon followed his namesake father into the print media game and his schoolboy games prowess led him inevitably to sports writing. Golf, boxing and rugby ended up being specialities, but he was the ultimate all-rounder. He and I even finagled him a trip to the 2000 Sydney Olympics to represent a financial publication – the Games being one of the last things he still had on his sporting bucket list.

Leading lights in all sporting codes were among his multitude of friends and acquaintances. Almost everyone at any playing field would hail Swifty. And if you liked a drink and told a good story, he was more than happy to hug you, order another round and start singing cowboy songs.

Memorable column

In latter years, looking increasingly like Mark Twain, Jon wrote amusingly and stylishly for this newspaper, notably a column about the past weekend’s sporting action – as reflected in the musings of drinking buddies at his local watering hole.

This assembly of characters included the Incomprehensible Scot, the Arithmetically Challenged Golfer, the Former Free State Hooker, the Agriculturalist, Biggles, the Travelling Thespian and Dave the Silent.

Here’s an edited bit from one of his last columns (from 2018): “There was an aura of gloomy despondency veiling the shoulders of the usual gathering; the weekend had dictated there had been little to exult about.

“Into this atmosphere, the Demented Irish Miner descended like a thunderclap, dispensing his own, unique brand of the chaos theory which largely dictates his approach to the rest of humanity’s attempt to hold a level keel through the tumultuous oceans of being alive…”

RIP Jon.