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Anyone there on October 1977 when he sat in the opposition dug out when we played them at Portman road? He must have had a fantastic reception just like Sir Bobby Robson did against Newcastle in 2001. But sadly I cannot find any information on it
2
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 16:29 - Dec 6 with 878 views
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 07:51 - Dec 6 by DJR
Even though he was manager of Ipswich before my time, I have a lot of time for Sir Alf.
I don't think he was a weirdo. Instead, I think he was a shy and reserved person, with probably an inferiority complex, given the presumably upper class nature of the people in the upper echelons of football at that time. Indeed, the class system was alive and kicking in those days, and this may explain his elocution lessons.
As evidence of his reserve, the following video about 1 minute in, shows him saying "I feel fine" when asked how he feels about winning the championship, a quote that Stuart Watson humorously mimics.
At the end of the day, what really matters with a manager is not his public persona but the effect he had on his teams, and this is a nice interview with Bobby Charlton about him.
Finally, I remember my mum saying that she had been on the same bus as Sir Alf in Ipswich after he had retired, and that they had exchanged friendly glances, which suggests he was not as cold as he might appear.
[Post edited 6 Dec 2024 7:55]
I also wonder if, perhaps, he could have been on the autism spectrum, such as Asperger's (although it's classed as 'high-functioning autism' these days). 🙄
That can often present as shyness, or inability to engage in small talk in social environments, plus the 'prickly' trait could just have been him being matter of fact, or failing to see grey, only black or white..
[Post edited 6 Dec 2024 16:36]
0
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 16:35 - Dec 6 with 856 views
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 15:37 - Dec 6 by azuremerlangus
SAR went to Bramford Rd Methodist church when I was there for Sunday school. Very quiet and reserved but used to say hello to people and was very polite.
Whatever you think of his old-fashioned personality his achievements within the game are staggering and well ahead of the time.
When I was about 15 years old, I caught a train from Liverpool Street to Ipswich (in a 2nd class carriage, of course) and found myself sitting opposite Sir Alf in an otherwise unoccupied compartment. After a while I couldn't resist trying to engage him in conversation, so I plucked up courage and said something like: "I'd love to talk to you, but I promise I won't talk about football, if you like." What followed was an absolutely delightful conversation about his travels in Europe and South America - the culture, the people, the travel and the unique feel of strange countries. He was great company, ending most sentences with "most certainly" in an unforgettably posh accent. There were some football diversions, mostly about how proud he was of his players. Overall, he came across as an interesting, thoughtful, pleasant and thoroughly kind man. It was a privilege to catch such a glimpse of his private persona. We will not see his like again.
6
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 16:37 - Dec 6 with 839 views
I left school in 1961 and started in the Enquiry Office of the then West Suffolk County Council as the ‘assistant paper clip’. We had all the telephone books there and in the Ipswich area edition was an entry for Alf Ramsey with number and address. Would not happen nowadays.
1
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 16:38 - Dec 6 with 838 views
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 16:35 - Dec 6 by Sibelius8
When I was about 15 years old, I caught a train from Liverpool Street to Ipswich (in a 2nd class carriage, of course) and found myself sitting opposite Sir Alf in an otherwise unoccupied compartment. After a while I couldn't resist trying to engage him in conversation, so I plucked up courage and said something like: "I'd love to talk to you, but I promise I won't talk about football, if you like." What followed was an absolutely delightful conversation about his travels in Europe and South America - the culture, the people, the travel and the unique feel of strange countries. He was great company, ending most sentences with "most certainly" in an unforgettably posh accent. There were some football diversions, mostly about how proud he was of his players. Overall, he came across as an interesting, thoughtful, pleasant and thoroughly kind man. It was a privilege to catch such a glimpse of his private persona. We will not see his like again.
What a lovely start to a conversation! He must have been delighted to engage in conversation about something different. And what a lovely memory you have, as a result. Nice anecdote.
2
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 17:01 - Dec 6 with 804 views
From the Guardian just a few day after his passing. Found this quite a hard read. Especially in how the FA treated him & how Sir Bobby reached out to him when he was ill.
Sir Alf departs a land unfit for heroes
Football is too manic these days to spare time for reflection, remembrance, or humanity, even in death. It knows the price of its past, of course - 'wanna buy a 'traditional' replica strip?' - but it knows nothing of the value of its goodness or grandeur.
No wonder Lady Ramsey has in effect told the Football Association, and London in general, to go jump in the Thames. She is organising her beloved Sir Alf's memorial service herself, thank you, and it is going to be on Saturday week at St Mary-le-Tower in their home town of Ipswich.
Football badly uses its heroes when it has done with them. Remember how Bill Shankly 'died of a broken heart' when his Liverpool turned its back on him after retirement? Remember how Ramsey's own princely lieutenant, Bobby Moore, was left to languish? Prophet Ramsey had earlier been allowed to slink away without honour. Not once did the FA seek to use his expertise or unique experience. In his 12 years' stewardship of the England team, in spite of its unparalleled successes, the FA never paid him a salary of more than £10,000.
When the World Cup was won, he shared 1/22nd of the bonus of £22,000 the FA had put up for the squad. When it unceremoniously booted Ramsey out in 1974, it could not even manage a year's salary pay-off - just 10 months' and £8,000.
He asked the FA if it could strike him a replica World Cup winner's medal - easily done - but it held up its hands in horror and refused. It never asked him to seminars, functions or even matches. In 1996, even as his ill health began to take hold, he could have managed a trip to watch England at Euro 96. Nobody invited him.
Sir Alf's private funeral is in Ipswich tomorrow but Saturday week will be his show and this time football will have to come to him. The FA had no involvement with the memorial service, a Lancaster Gate spokesman was quoted yesterday, 'other than sending a strong contingent'.
The vicar, the Rev Peter Townley, said Lady Vickie had requested 'a celebration of Alf's life; it is not simply for the people of Ipswich but for whoever wants to come'. There is no league football that day and they might well be flooding into the old town from points farther off than Lancaster Gate.
It was just as one of his successors as England manager, Glenn Hoddle, was settling into his notorious 1998 World Cup diary with his FA ghost David Davies that football was alerted - by an earlier Ipswich and England manager, Bobby Robson - to the sharp decline in Sir Alf's poor health after a stroke.
For three months, with both prostate cancer and Alzheimer's disease taking their grip, Sir Alf lay in the general ward of Ipswich hospital. Robson said their mutual former secretary at Portman Road, Pat Godbold, had been distressed at visiting her former boss and finding him 'wandering around not knowing where he was and suffering on a public ward with staff too overworked to properly look after him'.
Robson offered to pay for Sir Alf's private treatment but Lady Ramsey sharply retorted that she was perfectly satisfied with her husband's treatment and the outstanding care he was receiving.
Lady Vickie was with him when he died last Wednesday. She registered his death in Ipswich on Friday, entering his occupation simply as 'Knight of the Realm, England football manager (retired)'.
It says it all in a way: the Dagenham boy who became a son of Ipswich and then all England too. All things considered, St Mary-le-Tower is far more fitting than Westminster and London. Though partially rebuilt in the 19th century from the foundation that young butcher's son Cardinal Wolsey knew, St Mary's has close connections with other great men of England's culture: the artists Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable, for instance, not to mention Mr Pickwick at the nearby Great White Horse. It is rich in timeless brasses and memorial busts.
Wolsey was hurrying from York to be buried there. He did not quite make it, of course, but Shakespeare's epitaph to the Ipswich Cardinal sits perfectly too on Ipswich's football knight. The FA might care to note it on its wreath: 'Lofty and sour to them that loved him not; but to those men that sought him, sweet as summer... So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him.'
3
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 17:15 - Dec 6 with 779 views
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 17:01 - Dec 6 by ITFC_History
From the Guardian just a few day after his passing. Found this quite a hard read. Especially in how the FA treated him & how Sir Bobby reached out to him when he was ill.
Sir Alf departs a land unfit for heroes
Football is too manic these days to spare time for reflection, remembrance, or humanity, even in death. It knows the price of its past, of course - 'wanna buy a 'traditional' replica strip?' - but it knows nothing of the value of its goodness or grandeur.
No wonder Lady Ramsey has in effect told the Football Association, and London in general, to go jump in the Thames. She is organising her beloved Sir Alf's memorial service herself, thank you, and it is going to be on Saturday week at St Mary-le-Tower in their home town of Ipswich.
Football badly uses its heroes when it has done with them. Remember how Bill Shankly 'died of a broken heart' when his Liverpool turned its back on him after retirement? Remember how Ramsey's own princely lieutenant, Bobby Moore, was left to languish? Prophet Ramsey had earlier been allowed to slink away without honour. Not once did the FA seek to use his expertise or unique experience. In his 12 years' stewardship of the England team, in spite of its unparalleled successes, the FA never paid him a salary of more than £10,000.
When the World Cup was won, he shared 1/22nd of the bonus of £22,000 the FA had put up for the squad. When it unceremoniously booted Ramsey out in 1974, it could not even manage a year's salary pay-off - just 10 months' and £8,000.
He asked the FA if it could strike him a replica World Cup winner's medal - easily done - but it held up its hands in horror and refused. It never asked him to seminars, functions or even matches. In 1996, even as his ill health began to take hold, he could have managed a trip to watch England at Euro 96. Nobody invited him.
Sir Alf's private funeral is in Ipswich tomorrow but Saturday week will be his show and this time football will have to come to him. The FA had no involvement with the memorial service, a Lancaster Gate spokesman was quoted yesterday, 'other than sending a strong contingent'.
The vicar, the Rev Peter Townley, said Lady Vickie had requested 'a celebration of Alf's life; it is not simply for the people of Ipswich but for whoever wants to come'. There is no league football that day and they might well be flooding into the old town from points farther off than Lancaster Gate.
It was just as one of his successors as England manager, Glenn Hoddle, was settling into his notorious 1998 World Cup diary with his FA ghost David Davies that football was alerted - by an earlier Ipswich and England manager, Bobby Robson - to the sharp decline in Sir Alf's poor health after a stroke.
For three months, with both prostate cancer and Alzheimer's disease taking their grip, Sir Alf lay in the general ward of Ipswich hospital. Robson said their mutual former secretary at Portman Road, Pat Godbold, had been distressed at visiting her former boss and finding him 'wandering around not knowing where he was and suffering on a public ward with staff too overworked to properly look after him'.
Robson offered to pay for Sir Alf's private treatment but Lady Ramsey sharply retorted that she was perfectly satisfied with her husband's treatment and the outstanding care he was receiving.
Lady Vickie was with him when he died last Wednesday. She registered his death in Ipswich on Friday, entering his occupation simply as 'Knight of the Realm, England football manager (retired)'.
It says it all in a way: the Dagenham boy who became a son of Ipswich and then all England too. All things considered, St Mary-le-Tower is far more fitting than Westminster and London. Though partially rebuilt in the 19th century from the foundation that young butcher's son Cardinal Wolsey knew, St Mary's has close connections with other great men of England's culture: the artists Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable, for instance, not to mention Mr Pickwick at the nearby Great White Horse. It is rich in timeless brasses and memorial busts.
Wolsey was hurrying from York to be buried there. He did not quite make it, of course, but Shakespeare's epitaph to the Ipswich Cardinal sits perfectly too on Ipswich's football knight. The FA might care to note it on its wreath: 'Lofty and sour to them that loved him not; but to those men that sought him, sweet as summer... So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him.'
That is desperately sad. I didn't know any of that, and I hang my head in shame, because I worked at the club for over a decade, and had many conversations with Pat Godbold about Sir Alf.
There is an old proverb that says 'the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth'. Meaning, at our death, we have left a legacy, a name for ourselves, memories that people can cherish. At birth, we have it all to do.
I'd like to think that Sir Alf's legacy has been one of profound joy to Ipswich fans, and England fans alike.
Some of the anecdotes on here have been lovely.
He left his mark, and he was loved and appreciated by people who mattered, even if the FA left him high and dry.
Edit: you also just nudged me to call Pat Godbold and have a chat. Thank you. ❤️
[Post edited 6 Dec 2024 17:29]
3
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 17:19 - Dec 6 with 754 views
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 17:01 - Dec 6 by ITFC_History
From the Guardian just a few day after his passing. Found this quite a hard read. Especially in how the FA treated him & how Sir Bobby reached out to him when he was ill.
Sir Alf departs a land unfit for heroes
Football is too manic these days to spare time for reflection, remembrance, or humanity, even in death. It knows the price of its past, of course - 'wanna buy a 'traditional' replica strip?' - but it knows nothing of the value of its goodness or grandeur.
No wonder Lady Ramsey has in effect told the Football Association, and London in general, to go jump in the Thames. She is organising her beloved Sir Alf's memorial service herself, thank you, and it is going to be on Saturday week at St Mary-le-Tower in their home town of Ipswich.
Football badly uses its heroes when it has done with them. Remember how Bill Shankly 'died of a broken heart' when his Liverpool turned its back on him after retirement? Remember how Ramsey's own princely lieutenant, Bobby Moore, was left to languish? Prophet Ramsey had earlier been allowed to slink away without honour. Not once did the FA seek to use his expertise or unique experience. In his 12 years' stewardship of the England team, in spite of its unparalleled successes, the FA never paid him a salary of more than £10,000.
When the World Cup was won, he shared 1/22nd of the bonus of £22,000 the FA had put up for the squad. When it unceremoniously booted Ramsey out in 1974, it could not even manage a year's salary pay-off - just 10 months' and £8,000.
He asked the FA if it could strike him a replica World Cup winner's medal - easily done - but it held up its hands in horror and refused. It never asked him to seminars, functions or even matches. In 1996, even as his ill health began to take hold, he could have managed a trip to watch England at Euro 96. Nobody invited him.
Sir Alf's private funeral is in Ipswich tomorrow but Saturday week will be his show and this time football will have to come to him. The FA had no involvement with the memorial service, a Lancaster Gate spokesman was quoted yesterday, 'other than sending a strong contingent'.
The vicar, the Rev Peter Townley, said Lady Vickie had requested 'a celebration of Alf's life; it is not simply for the people of Ipswich but for whoever wants to come'. There is no league football that day and they might well be flooding into the old town from points farther off than Lancaster Gate.
It was just as one of his successors as England manager, Glenn Hoddle, was settling into his notorious 1998 World Cup diary with his FA ghost David Davies that football was alerted - by an earlier Ipswich and England manager, Bobby Robson - to the sharp decline in Sir Alf's poor health after a stroke.
For three months, with both prostate cancer and Alzheimer's disease taking their grip, Sir Alf lay in the general ward of Ipswich hospital. Robson said their mutual former secretary at Portman Road, Pat Godbold, had been distressed at visiting her former boss and finding him 'wandering around not knowing where he was and suffering on a public ward with staff too overworked to properly look after him'.
Robson offered to pay for Sir Alf's private treatment but Lady Ramsey sharply retorted that she was perfectly satisfied with her husband's treatment and the outstanding care he was receiving.
Lady Vickie was with him when he died last Wednesday. She registered his death in Ipswich on Friday, entering his occupation simply as 'Knight of the Realm, England football manager (retired)'.
It says it all in a way: the Dagenham boy who became a son of Ipswich and then all England too. All things considered, St Mary-le-Tower is far more fitting than Westminster and London. Though partially rebuilt in the 19th century from the foundation that young butcher's son Cardinal Wolsey knew, St Mary's has close connections with other great men of England's culture: the artists Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable, for instance, not to mention Mr Pickwick at the nearby Great White Horse. It is rich in timeless brasses and memorial busts.
Wolsey was hurrying from York to be buried there. He did not quite make it, of course, but Shakespeare's epitaph to the Ipswich Cardinal sits perfectly too on Ipswich's football knight. The FA might care to note it on its wreath: 'Lofty and sour to them that loved him not; but to those men that sought him, sweet as summer... So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him.'
Yeh, not a good read. The FA not doing themselves any favours there. It’s also interesting to read the cynicism about the game in general. We see the corruption by money as a more recent thing, but the time of SAR’s passing was pre-PL (just).
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 17:01 - Dec 6 by ITFC_History
From the Guardian just a few day after his passing. Found this quite a hard read. Especially in how the FA treated him & how Sir Bobby reached out to him when he was ill.
Sir Alf departs a land unfit for heroes
Football is too manic these days to spare time for reflection, remembrance, or humanity, even in death. It knows the price of its past, of course - 'wanna buy a 'traditional' replica strip?' - but it knows nothing of the value of its goodness or grandeur.
No wonder Lady Ramsey has in effect told the Football Association, and London in general, to go jump in the Thames. She is organising her beloved Sir Alf's memorial service herself, thank you, and it is going to be on Saturday week at St Mary-le-Tower in their home town of Ipswich.
Football badly uses its heroes when it has done with them. Remember how Bill Shankly 'died of a broken heart' when his Liverpool turned its back on him after retirement? Remember how Ramsey's own princely lieutenant, Bobby Moore, was left to languish? Prophet Ramsey had earlier been allowed to slink away without honour. Not once did the FA seek to use his expertise or unique experience. In his 12 years' stewardship of the England team, in spite of its unparalleled successes, the FA never paid him a salary of more than £10,000.
When the World Cup was won, he shared 1/22nd of the bonus of £22,000 the FA had put up for the squad. When it unceremoniously booted Ramsey out in 1974, it could not even manage a year's salary pay-off - just 10 months' and £8,000.
He asked the FA if it could strike him a replica World Cup winner's medal - easily done - but it held up its hands in horror and refused. It never asked him to seminars, functions or even matches. In 1996, even as his ill health began to take hold, he could have managed a trip to watch England at Euro 96. Nobody invited him.
Sir Alf's private funeral is in Ipswich tomorrow but Saturday week will be his show and this time football will have to come to him. The FA had no involvement with the memorial service, a Lancaster Gate spokesman was quoted yesterday, 'other than sending a strong contingent'.
The vicar, the Rev Peter Townley, said Lady Vickie had requested 'a celebration of Alf's life; it is not simply for the people of Ipswich but for whoever wants to come'. There is no league football that day and they might well be flooding into the old town from points farther off than Lancaster Gate.
It was just as one of his successors as England manager, Glenn Hoddle, was settling into his notorious 1998 World Cup diary with his FA ghost David Davies that football was alerted - by an earlier Ipswich and England manager, Bobby Robson - to the sharp decline in Sir Alf's poor health after a stroke.
For three months, with both prostate cancer and Alzheimer's disease taking their grip, Sir Alf lay in the general ward of Ipswich hospital. Robson said their mutual former secretary at Portman Road, Pat Godbold, had been distressed at visiting her former boss and finding him 'wandering around not knowing where he was and suffering on a public ward with staff too overworked to properly look after him'.
Robson offered to pay for Sir Alf's private treatment but Lady Ramsey sharply retorted that she was perfectly satisfied with her husband's treatment and the outstanding care he was receiving.
Lady Vickie was with him when he died last Wednesday. She registered his death in Ipswich on Friday, entering his occupation simply as 'Knight of the Realm, England football manager (retired)'.
It says it all in a way: the Dagenham boy who became a son of Ipswich and then all England too. All things considered, St Mary-le-Tower is far more fitting than Westminster and London. Though partially rebuilt in the 19th century from the foundation that young butcher's son Cardinal Wolsey knew, St Mary's has close connections with other great men of England's culture: the artists Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable, for instance, not to mention Mr Pickwick at the nearby Great White Horse. It is rich in timeless brasses and memorial busts.
Wolsey was hurrying from York to be buried there. He did not quite make it, of course, but Shakespeare's epitaph to the Ipswich Cardinal sits perfectly too on Ipswich's football knight. The FA might care to note it on its wreath: 'Lofty and sour to them that loved him not; but to those men that sought him, sweet as summer... So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him.'
I downvoted this. It wasn't because of the story, just because I downvoted the FA. Probably should have upvoted though. I'm a clutz sometimes! 😂
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Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 22:38 - Dec 6 with 569 views
I never saw his Town team play but i was around for 1966. I met Sir Alf once, at a Coffee shop in Dedham in the early 90s, Lady Ramsey spent ages playing with our toddler, while Sir Alf was happy sipping his tea. Sad that he didn't receive more recognition but he was a quiet man and seemed content shunning the limelight
1
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 23:25 - Dec 6 with 530 views
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 16:29 - Dec 6 by Swansea_Blue
So he was supposed to be a good manager, but he thought you only get 2 points for a win
And that was exactly what you got in those days, three points for a win was introduced in 1981 in England but didn't happen much elsewhere for another fifteen years:
Love this interview of Sir Alf when he was Birmingham manager in 1977 on 23:25 - Dec 6 by WeWereZombies
And that was exactly what you got in those days, three points for a win was introduced in 1981 in England but didn't happen much elsewhere for another fifteen years:
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