THE clue is in the name: Sports PERSONALITY of the year.

I think it is clear to everybody by now, because of his unconventional opinions, that Tyson Fury’s personality doesn’t live up to his undoubted sporting prowess.

If you ask me, he doesn’t have enough personality to fight his way out of a paper bag, which is ironic considering he is the Heavyweight Champion of the World. In the last week I have been thinking a lot about sporting personalities, based on personal experience, particularly the five years I spent working on the Sports Desk of this paper.

The best thing about being a journalist is you get to meet lots of inspiring people, and most of them are so-called ‘ordinary’ people who have done something special enough to warrant a story in the press.

Actually, everybody who has drawn breath has an amazing story to tell, even if they often don’t realise it, but when you get to meet celebrities, the reverse can apply.

Their fame and their achievements on a national or even international stage leads you to expect their personality to match – and sometimes it is a letdown when you meet them.

It is especially disappointing when they turn out to be not quite as friendly as they appear to be when they are smiling for the cameras.

On the other hand, if the star with the big persona turns out to have the right personality in ‘real life’, you’ve hit the jackpot. I will never forget the night I met footballing legend Sir Stanley Matthews at the County Ground.

He was everything you would want him to be – modest, quietly spoken and charming – and I made sure the last thing I did before leaving was shake his hand so I could go straight home and shake my young son’s hand in the hope of passing on some magic.

It was also my pleasure to meet the great Paralympian, Tanni Grey- Thompson, who was the perfect example of a sporting great who is a smiling, down-to-earth lass underneath her stardom, and she has been one of my all-time favourites ever since.

But the sporting celebrity whom I was most proud to meet was, ironically, a boxer.

That’s where any similarity with Tyson Fury ends.

The late Sir Henry Cooper always came across on telly as a gentle giant and more like somebody’s favourite uncle than a man who had put Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) on the canvas.

He seemed almost too good to be true, so it was a wonderful day when I got a brief chance to talk to him at a local golf club and discovered his character exactly matched his image.

A true gentleman, generous with his time and genuinely amiable, as far as I could see he really was ‘Our ‘Enry’.

The irony is that while he was the first person to win SPOTY twice (in 1967 and 1970), Henry never did become World Champion and make it to the top of his sport, unlike most of the other award contenders at the time.

In those days it really was a contest to find the top personality of the year.

Back then we instinctively knew something that we now seem to have forgotten. Being a great sportsman isn’t about winning as much as it is about being a role model – someone to look up to as both a sportsman and a man (or woman).

So let’s not hear any more nonsense about the BBC’s annual competition being mis-named or calls for sportspeople to be judged on achievements, not personality.

In the red corner: Henry Cooper. In the blue corner: Tyson Fury. No contest.