So the news is out that Henrik Larsson, a footballer, is to be awarded an honorary degree by Strathclyde University for services to Scottish sport.
Apparently, he evinced a desire while playing for Celtic to enrol on a “college course” - oh well, a university degree will just have to do.
One equally distinguished Strathclyde soccer legend will be particularly pleased at this honour. We refer, of course, to Professor Brian Boyd of its education faculty, well-known as a former schoolboy international - almost.
Young Brian, for whom Larsson is a sporting hero, played for Scotland schools against England in 1966, the year when (as we are constantly reminded) our southern cousins won an obscure football trophy.
He observes: “We beat England 1-1 that year. They were at least six inches taller and two stones heavier on average than we were!”
On a loftier note, as it were, Boyd found pedagogical comfort in Larsson’s newly-acquired award. “If Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences is credible,” he says, “then we should be acknowledging those who are gifted in kinaesthetic or spatial dimensions, as well as those who have talent in linguistic, logicalmathematical and musical areas.”
Come on, the spatials.
