McMurran, a running coach and the ageless veteran of 33 years as a sports reporter at the Otago Daily Times, was last night honoured with the Services to Sport award at the Otago Sports Awards dinner.
The Sparc-sponsored award has previously been won by, among others, Otago sporting greats Lois Muir, Duncan Laing, Charlie Saxton, Laurie Mains, Iain Gallaway and Dr Dave Gerrard.
World champion rower Hamish Bond was named the Otago Sportsperson of the Year.
Wanaka-based freestyle Skier Jossi Wells (18) won the Otago Daily Times-Class Act Junior Sportsperson of the Year award for the third successive year.
McMurran has been an integral part of the Dunedin athletics scene since his school days and a prominent voice in the media since joining the ODT in 1975.
"Alistair has made an immeasurable contribution to sport, both within Otago and nationally, as a coach, mentor and sports journalist," Sport Otago chief executive John Brimble said.
McMurran's quiet manner, vast knowledge and determination to promote a range of sports have helped him carve out his reputation as an industrious and widely respected reporter.
Through four decades, he has been a devoted follower of club rugby.
He has also given blanket coverage to athletics, his first love, as well as bowls, rowing, swimming, croquet, multisport and others.
Brimble said McMurran had championed minor sports that might otherwise have been ignored.
"Alistair pioneered the focus on a range of sports and sportspeople that have benefited from the media exposure he has provided," he said.
"Some of the smaller sports received better coverage in the ODT than in any other major daily paper, thanks to McMurran's efforts."
McMurran is a former winner of the New Zealand sports journalist of the year award and is the only multiple (2004 and 2007) winner of the national bowls writer's award.
While his name appears daily above newspaper stories, his work as a middle-distance running coach is more behind the scenes.
A disciple of the great Arthur Lydiard, he helped generations of athletes reach their potential.
His greatest success story was Dick Tayler, whom he guided to Commonwealth Games gold in 1974.
He also coached Olympians Euan Robertson and John Campbell, Commonwealth athletes Stuart Melville and the late Chip Dunckley, and was the middle-distance coach of the New Zealand team at the Pan Pacific Games in Australia in 1977.
More recently, he coached New Zealand junior 10,000m record-holder Blair Martin and national 1500m champion Richard Olsen.
McMurran was born inLyttelton and educated at Mornington Primary School and Otago Boys High School.
A promising runner, he once defeated future Olympic medallist John Davies at high school and became Otago Boys cross-country champion.
Later, he won the Ness Cup mile race at the Caledonian Ground.
McMurran could also wield a cricket bat, as an opener at both 1st XI and senior club level.
He trained as a teacher, and broke his neck during a summer period working at a wool store when a bale fell on him.
Outside sport, McMurran's great love is travel.
He is a member of the Travellers' Century Club, having visited more than 160 countries.
