Much-loved television presenter passed away yesterday after short battle with cancer
Sir Terry Wogan was awarded a Doctor of Laws degree by Leicester University after continually poking fun at the city’s roadworks.
The veteran presenter, who sadly died yesterday after short battle with cancer, was given the honorary degree after he kept referring to Leicester as “the lost city” on his BBC breakfast show.
Wogan’s moniker — prompted by Leicester’s seemingly endless roadworks — became an ongoing joke during road traffic reports, much to the annoyance of locals.
Suggesting that Leicester was “otherwise unknown to mankind,” the loveable Irishman was eventually invited to visit the city by angry listeners, who were keen to show Wogan what the home of this season’s current Premier League table-toppers had to offer.
An epiphany duly followed.
Jesuit-educated Wogan — who was famed for his pithy commentary during the Eurovision Song Contests — went on to host several three-day TOGs (Terry’s Old Girls and Geezers) conventions on the university’s campus. His strong connection with the city and its university led to Wogan being awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws in July 2010 in recognition of his glittering showbiz career.
There’s more: Wogan later declared, live on air, that Leicester University is “the best university in the universe.” He described himself as “very lucky” to have been bestowed with his honorary degree, reminding those present at his graduation ceremony that he was a very “lazy” as a student.
Wogan bagged an OBE 1997 and a knighthood 2005, but surely his greatest triumph was that in 2010, when he became an honorary law student.