Known as the Clown Prince of football in his day. Born in 1922 Leonard Francis Shackleton, Bradford. (1946-48) would have been 91 today, he probably eearned less in his whole carreer than some of todays players get a week. The "Clown Prince of Football" moved to SJP from Bradford Park Avenue in 1946 at a cost of £13K and instantly started to repay that outlay with six goals on his home debut as Newport County were rattled 13-0 (although one of the six was netted by an opponent). By 1948 though he'd departed for Roker Park, after his crowd-pleasing playing style failed to meet with universal approval at SJP - captain Joe Harvey expressing the opinion that the team would win nothing with him. Just over six months after defecting to the red and whites in a £20K deal, Shack won the first of five England caps but fell foul of the FA selectors and was often overlooked. He played out the rest of his career on wearside until forced into retirement aged 35 due to an ankle injury suffered against Arsenal - the club who had released him as a youngster. A career as a sports journalist saw him write for the Daily Express & Sunday People, while he owned a barbers shop in mackemland and was also qualified as a boxing referee! Len settled in Grange-over-Sands in later years and was living there when he passed away in November 2000. From NUFC.com ______________________ Heard lots of stories about Shack when I was a kid, a real crowd pleaser for the most part, but not so popular with the management. Trevor Ford was the most expensive player in football (£35k I think it was) in those days, but it seems Shack and him didn't get on too well. In one game where Ford was clear in front of goal, Shack passed the ball to him but put a lot of top spin on it and left Ford kicking at empty space as the ball rolled back to Shack.
My Dad (an Everton supporter) was a great admirer of Shakleton. He always said that the ball stuck to his feet. Although I now live near Morpeth, I grew up on the outskirts of London (where the family had moved with Dad's work and became a Fulham supporter - his adopted club. In the 60s we had Alan Clarke, Rodney Marsh (who we travelled with fairly regularly) and Malcolm MacDonald - Dad reckoned he was better than any of them - perhaps all of them rolled into one. I like to remember him telling me stories of some of the greats of his youth. Shakleton, Stan Cullis of Wolves, his real favourite Dixie Dean of Everton and (grudgingly) Dean's arch rival - in a Moriarty/Dick Dastardly sort of way - Elisha Scott (Liverpool 'keeper). Thanks for reminding me.
