Have you had a footballer as a neighbour?
Apr 9, 2024 18:46:34 GMT
Fred Colon, madmarvin, and 2 more like this
Post by neilmc4 on Apr 9, 2024 18:46:34 GMT
Confession time. This birth of this piece of trivia was prompted by reading some of the personal stories featured in the "How close to The Abbey were you born?" thread below ; it made for such a refreshing change , particularly at this critical juncture in a difficult season , to get a peek behind the username and hear some really touching , poignant , emotional and amusing tales from fellow U`s. Sadly it was also partly prompted by the death last month of my only footballing neighbour - please share your own stories , I`m sure that most will be more impressive and interesting than mine but here goes anyway.
For a couple of years in the mid Seventies we lived in a small village in Bedfordshire and just up the road from us lived one Jimmy Husband. Younger members won`t have heard of him but he appeared in the 1968 FA Cup Final when his Everton side lost to West Brom (Jeff Astle got the winner in extra time) before The Toffees won the First Division title in 1969/70 with a squad that included Alan Ball , Joe Royle and Howard Kendall. By the time we moved (nearly) next door to him he`d moved to Luton Town (then in the Second Division) and had migrated out to the wing from his former role as a centre forward. At the age of eight I didn`t really take much notice of his occupation despite being taken to Kenilworth Road a few times by my Dad , I was far more interested in getting up to mischief , along with my mates , with his son Jamie. On one occasion I turned my ankle in his back garden and Jimmy gave me a piggyback home. After a couple of years he moved to the States when they tried to launch "soccer" in the US with the likes of Pele , Johann Cryuff , Bobby Moore and Franz Beckenbauer. Jimmy spent three years with the Memphis Rogues , managed by former Chelsea stalwart Eddie McReadie , and I remember everyone at the village primary school being in total awe and insanely jealous that Jamie was going to live in America.
When the NASL collapsed Jimmy and his family came back to Bedfordshire and (as was the fashion in those days) he briefly ran a pub before going to work for Everton as a scout. As mentioned previously , he died suddenly last month at the age of 76. My memories of him are fairly scanty tbh , he seemed just like everybody else`s Dad apart from the fact that he turned up at school every summer to give out the prizes on Sports Day. It`s a measure of how times (and footballers` wages) have changed that he lived in a very modest two-bed semi and drove a very average family saloon.
Come on , I`m sure plenty of you can do much better than that. Who were / are your footballing neighbours?
For a couple of years in the mid Seventies we lived in a small village in Bedfordshire and just up the road from us lived one Jimmy Husband. Younger members won`t have heard of him but he appeared in the 1968 FA Cup Final when his Everton side lost to West Brom (Jeff Astle got the winner in extra time) before The Toffees won the First Division title in 1969/70 with a squad that included Alan Ball , Joe Royle and Howard Kendall. By the time we moved (nearly) next door to him he`d moved to Luton Town (then in the Second Division) and had migrated out to the wing from his former role as a centre forward. At the age of eight I didn`t really take much notice of his occupation despite being taken to Kenilworth Road a few times by my Dad , I was far more interested in getting up to mischief , along with my mates , with his son Jamie. On one occasion I turned my ankle in his back garden and Jimmy gave me a piggyback home. After a couple of years he moved to the States when they tried to launch "soccer" in the US with the likes of Pele , Johann Cryuff , Bobby Moore and Franz Beckenbauer. Jimmy spent three years with the Memphis Rogues , managed by former Chelsea stalwart Eddie McReadie , and I remember everyone at the village primary school being in total awe and insanely jealous that Jamie was going to live in America.
When the NASL collapsed Jimmy and his family came back to Bedfordshire and (as was the fashion in those days) he briefly ran a pub before going to work for Everton as a scout. As mentioned previously , he died suddenly last month at the age of 76. My memories of him are fairly scanty tbh , he seemed just like everybody else`s Dad apart from the fact that he turned up at school every summer to give out the prizes on Sports Day. It`s a measure of how times (and footballers` wages) have changed that he lived in a very modest two-bed semi and drove a very average family saloon.
Come on , I`m sure plenty of you can do much better than that. Who were / are your footballing neighbours?