Name these Blades...

[boo radley]

Young Gary Lineker middle left with vacant smile wondering where the crisps are.

 

[Cyprus Blade]

certainly saw Cec Coldwell referred to as George on occasions, usually in photos in football mags or cigarette or chewing gum cards. Always thought it was his first name and Cecil his second name, I'm probably wrong on that?

No,you are dead right according to Wikipedia - George Cecil Coldwell (b January 12, 1929 in Dungworth, near Sheffield, England – d November 9, 2008).

Played in over 600 matches for the Blades, He had two stints as acting-manager in 1975 and 1977-78. Later he ran a newsagent's in Sheffield and Cheadle Hulme, before retiring to Poynton near Stockport

 

[Cyprus Blade]

Gerry Summers - came across an article on him in a Wolves heroes site

http://www.wolvesheroes.com/2013/08/25/golden-summers/

This piece stands out - "At £3,000, he was the only one of the legendary Blades ’back six’ of Alan Hodgkinson, Cec Coldwell, Graham Shaw, Brian Richardson, Joe Shaw and Summers to have commanded a transfer fee. “We played for years together and never seemed to miss a game,” he said.

“I was left midfield, although sometimes right side when I had played at Albion. A few of the United players said they knew I was going to be a manager because I suggested after one match that we should drink a bottle of champagne that we had been taking round the country with us, looking for an excuse to get stuck into it. The manager, John Harris, agreed and we opened it in the dressing room after one victory.”

 

[Shalalalafenoughty]

I saw him as a skilful but lightweight inside forward who had a perceptive pass and good vision. However, his frame meant he lacked physical presence and this angered the macho 'get stuck in' brigade.

That is exactly my recollection of Tony Wagstaff.

I started going in 1964 and saw him play many times although he never quite established himself in the first team. His treatment by the boo-boy section of the crowd was the first time I'd witnessed such a thing. Even at my young age I could see that it badly affected his confidence and his performances suffered.

We've always had that element, unfortunately, but we're not unique in that regard.

After he left for Reading, it was Frank Barlow's turn for stick and there have been plenty more down the years.

 

[Silent Blade]

After he left for Reading, it was Frank Barlow's turn for stick and there have been plenty more down the years.

In the Green Un a week after our 2-1 win at Oxford (John Hope's and Trevor Hockey's debut for us) in January 1971, Peter Howard wrote saying that a "so called" Blade was in the Manor Ground car park before the game looking at Blades players coming out of their coach to get into the ground, and when he saw Frank Barlow coming out, he yelled "Barlow" and said a rude word telling him "to get lost". Howard was condemning the actions of that "so called" Blade

 

[Hodgyman]

We'll win summat one day, I tell thee ....

I wish they would hurry up, quite a few of us on here are getting a little long in the tooth (If we have any teeth left) . The only trophy that I remember us winning was the County Cup.

 

[cahill]

Aaah County Cup, remember it well, those were the days. "Oh no Frank Barlow anyone else but Frank Barlow" (sung to the tune of Cumbaya). I think the Wagstaff brothers came from my neck of the woods in Hoyland.

I'm related to Tom Fenoughty apparently. His sister married my cousin. Never met him like

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

...............and "squad", "rotation", "tired", "bad", "pitch", "injured" were all separate words from a dictionary and never used in the same sentence.

UTB

Excellent post but........


.....no one had a squad, no one was rotated, every one was tired, we all played on bad pitches and half the team was injured.

 

[blade.i.am]

Now that was a shirt. No logos, no sponsors, just plain and simple red and white stripes.

 

[Newbury Blade]

No,you are dead right according to Wikipedia - George Cecil Coldwell (b January 12, 1929 in Dungworth, near Sheffield, England – d November 9, 2008).

Played in over 600 matches for the Blades, He had two stints as acting-manager in 1975 and 1977-78. Later he ran a newsagent's in Sheffield and Cheadle Hulme, before retiring to Poynton near Stockport

View attachment 11440

Gravestone of Cec and his wife Frances in Poynton, Cheshire. "United Forever."

 

[sportinguista]

This might help...

View attachment 11417

Cracking photoshop on Len Allchurch.

Is that Chris Morgan second from left on the back row?

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Excellent post but........


.....no one had a squad, no one was rotated, every one was tired, we all played on bad pitches and half the team was injured.

well we did have a squad - we had a proper reserve team, but agree with what you have said - people just "got on with it" in those days.

I recall a story from years back before unrestricted wages came in - think it was £23 for 1st team and £21 for reserve team. We apparently had a reserve team full back (think) who play 600+ games and only a hand full for the 1st team - when asked why he didn't move to another club he said there was no point as he was getting almost the same as the 1st team lads.

Perhaps some of our "older generation" fans came remember who this might be?

UTB

 

[Cyprus Blade]

I recall a story from years back before unrestricted wages came in

!961 was the year it was abolished - link here on history of players' wages http://spartacus-educational.com/Fwages.htm . Johnny Haynes subsequently became the first £100 per week footballer.

 

[Silent Blade]

well we did have a squad - we had a proper reserve team, but agree with what you have said - people just "got on with it" in those days.

I recall a story from years back before unrestricted wages came in - think it was £23 for 1st team and £21 for reserve team. We apparently had a reserve team full back (think) who play 600+ games and only a hand full for the 1st team - when asked why he didn't move to another club he said there was no point as he was getting almost the same as the 1st team lads.

Perhaps some of our "older generation" fans came remember who this might be?

UTB

Roy Ridge was at the Lane for over 10 years and made only 11 1st team games between 1953 and 1964 before moving to Rochdale

That is him on the left with Willie Hamilton and Billy Hodgson

 

[Shalalalafenoughty]

Great thread this, my knowledge of the Blades and their players is without doubt, the strongest during this period discussed here. Young minds retain knowledge better?

I thought of your question yesterday when I read this, LSF:

"Rosebud is more probably Welles’s intuition of the illusory flashback effect of memory that will affect all of us, particularly at the very end of our lives: the awful conviction that childhood memories are better, simpler, more real than adult memories – that childhood memories are the only things which are real. The remembered details of early existence – moments, sensations and images – have an arbitrary poetic authenticity which is a by-product of being detached from the prosaic context and perspective which encumbers adult minds, the rational understanding which would rob them of their mysterious force. We all have around two or three radioactive Rosebud fragments of childhood memory in our minds, which will return on our deathbeds to mock the insubstantial dream of our lives."

It's from an article by Peter Bradshaw on the film Citizen Kane.

I think he's basically saying that if Charlie Kane - or Orson Welles, for that matter - had been a teenager in Sheffield in the late sixties or early seventies then his last words before he takes his final breath on this earth are likely to be: "...and with Eddie Colquhoun, promotion is sooooooon..."