Paul Trevillion

Paul Trevillion was born on 11 March 1934 in Tottenham, North London. Best known as a sports artist with a career spanning over seven decades, he produced artwork for publications like *Eagle* while still at school. From the 1960s to the 1980s, he designed and illustrated for the *Daily Mirror*, *Daily Express*, *The Sun*, *The Daily Telegraph*, *The Times*, and *TV Century 21*. In 2006, he revived his cult football cartoon *You Are The Ref*—originally a hit in *Shoot!* magazine during the 1970s—for *The Observer*, with a book collection published that same year. The feature later appeared online at guardian.co.uk from August 2008.

Trevillion spent much of the 1960s in the US working with Mark McCormack at IMG for major brands. He authored and illustrated over 20 books and created the *Gary Player Golf Class*, which ran in more than 300 newspapers worldwide. Among the sports figures he met and drew were Pelé, Bobby Moore, George Best, Franz Beckenbauer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Oscar De La Hoya. He also met and sketched Prime Minister Winston Churchill as a young man.

Beyond art, Trevillion worked as a stand-up comedian, supporting Norman Wisdom and Bob Monkhouse; had a record deal as the “world’s best worst singer”; was crowned world speed-kissing champion; and invented the “Pencil Grip” split-handed golf putting technique. In 1972, he was hired by Don Revie to boost Leeds United’s image, introducing numbered sock tags and synchronized warm-ups. In 2008, he was interviewed for the documentary *Roy* about *Roy of the Rovers*, which he illustrated in the 1950s; the film screened at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2011, at age 75, Trevillion was shortlisted for the Sports Journalists’ Association Cartoonist of the Year Award. The authorized biography *Paul The Beaver Trevillion – The Story Of Sock Tags And Self-Belief* was published in 2022. Our catalog credits him as artist, inker, letterer, and writer on 47 issues from 1959 to 1978, most notably for *TV Century 21*, *Dan Dare Annual*, and *Mark Conway*.