"Last living original great of a sport"

[Wouter D]

Best racing driver of all time, now there’s a debate.

Juan-Manuel Fangio.

[Kevin S]

Juan-Manuel Fangio.

And that's the thing in terms of this thread - irrespective of who is the GOAT, Fangio is the Original Great (Ogre?). All others are Subsequent Greats, even Brabham and Clark.

Fangio lived until 1995. But do we exclude him as pre-TV?

[Satchmo Distel]

No, I don't think so. The first known live race in the UK was the 1953 British Grand Prix, which is his era.

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedule...ice/1953-07-18

Cricket might be Jim Laker, who was SPOTY in 1956*. Bannister or Chataway for athletics, maybe. Infact SPOTY is a good guide if we are applying this yardstick specifically to UK greats:

Pat Smythe (show jumping), Dai Rees (golf), Ian Black (swimming)*, Tommy Simpson (cycling), Stanley Matthews or Bobby Charlton (football)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Sp...Awards_by_year

*Denis Compton would be the other shout, a big enough name to be referenced in Fawlty Towers.

**world swimming would be...Johnny Weissmuller? Mark Spitz in colour TV terms.