I remember seeing this programme years ago, so it's great to see it again. Tremendously emotional for some of the participants and me too, Arthur Rowe and the singing at the end, still gets me on the verge of tears. http://harry-hotspur.com/2011/10/2-...aratively-unseen-pieces-spurs-footage-enjoy/? I'd recommend watching the 'you tube versions' direct as when they finish other great footage comes up to choose from, including when we beat Gornik 8-1
Great find Ghoddle10 thanks for the link. What a different game football was then eh! The ball was very different (Much heavier especially when wet) the boots were a bit like working boots with the hard toecap, and heading required courage as well as skill. The games did not look as dazzling as now but for me the big difference was that CHEATING (ie diving) was almost non exsistent. It's this I find hard to stomach in the modern game which apart from that is at a much higher skill level. Not because the players are better but because the boots and the ball make the game quite different. Not to mention the pitches which bare no comparison to those old often waterlogged mud baths. I remember playing practice games with a plastic Frido ball, which unless it was windy made you look so much a better player. If the wind blew it was a joke, with the ball behaving like a baloon sometimes turning sideways in the air. Here we go Coats for goalposts Enough!
Cheers Spurf, some good memories there The goalies are interesting, it still comes as a shock to me when the ball is passed back and they pick it up - even though most of my life that was allowed, but I'm so used to the new rule now.
Another thing that was great about the old days was the crowds - I wish I'd have been in a crowd like that for the Sunderland Cup game in the 50s - what an atmosphere - I remember the terraces well - and had some great times there during the 60s and afterwards but I don't think any of those crowds matched that one for the Sunderland game - looking at the pictures
I've been at WHL several times in 1960 61 season when there was over 60,000 in the ground. It was heaving!
Oh yeah I've been in massive crowds in the 60s, but there's something about those early 50s crowds, not just the size but the camaraderie, the fun of it all that looks really different - may be wrong of course.
It was the same in the very early 60's. There was no segregation of supporters, no obscene chants, or songs, etc. Everything went fine until about 1963-4 when Millwall started what we know as Football hooliganism, today.
Fair comments NSS, but I went to Spurs games in the early 60s, huge crowds, no segregation, no obscene chanting, all of that, and I still feel there was something that the scenes of that game V Sunderland had, that was missing by then. But I didn't start going till 1962 and was pretty young, so you doubtless remember it better.
It was a different world for sure, still you dinosaurs should remember it no problem, One reason for less injuries was the slower pace of the game. It's like if you're hit by a car at 10 mph, you should survive no problems, 30 mph and you'll probably get hurt. Also, as a correlation to that, players to be able to play at the pace they do now, need to be tuned up athletes (most of them anyway . This makes knocks and niggles more prevalent and unable to jog off with a quick rub of White Horse and play adequately. Oh, and modern players are pansises
Great videos - only just watched this cos the videos were playing up a couple of days ago. Had a bit of trouble seeing some of the b+w footage, though. The last bit with Arthur Rowe is fantastic - so modest and heartfelt and simple. Trying to fight back some obviously great emotion when asked what Spurs means to him and he simply says: [very long pause] "I like them...They're a great club. And to be associated with them...is nice". God - you've got to hate modern footballers, haven't you?
Great footage. Does anyone remember the football museum behind Oxford st in the west end ? It only lasted a few years in the 70's;my old man introduced me to an old gent who was talking to Brian Moore ( of the big match fame ) and it was Arthur Rowe - the most humble and gentle man i have yet to meet. Great memories.
