Bill Nicholson (footballer)
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | William Edward Nicholson | ||
Date of birth | 26 January 1919 | ||
Place of birth | Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, England | ||
Date of death | 25 October 2004 | (aged 85)||
Place of death | Hertfordshire, England | ||
Position(s) |
Wing-half | ||
Youth career | |||
Young Liberals | |||
Scarborough Working Men’s Club | |||
1936–1938 | Tottenham Hotspur | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1938 | Northfleet United | ||
1938–1955 | Tottenham Hotspur | 314 | (6) |
International career | |||
1951 | England | 1 | (1) |
Managerial career | |||
1958–1974 | Tottenham Hotspur | ||
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
William Edward Nicholson
Early life
Born in
Playing career
Nicholson joined the
In 1946, Nicholson returned to the Spurs first team, playing at centre half for two seasons, then moving to right half for a further six years. He was a vital part of the legendary "push and run" Tottenham team which won the league championship in the 1950–51 season.[6]
He made his full international debut for
Managerial career
Any player coming to Spurs, whether he's a big signing or just a ground staff boy, must be dedicated to the game and to the club. He must never be satisfied with his last performance, and he must hate losing.
— Bill Nicholson[8]
Nicholson took a Football Association (FA) coaching course and joined the coaching staff at Tottenham upon his retirement as a player. He quickly rose through the ranks of the coaching staff to become first team coach in 1955. He subsequently assisted England manager Walter Winterbottom at the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden.[5]
On 11 October 1958, Nicholson was called to the Tottenham boardroom and appointed manager of the club in succession to Jimmy Anderson. At the time the club was sixth from the bottom of the First Division and there was little indication that the greatest period in the history of the club was about to begin. That afternoon, in the club's first game under Nicholson's management, Tottenham Hotspur beat Everton 10–4 at White Hart Lane.[9] This represented a new club record, surpassed only by their 13–2 (10–1 at half-time) FA Cup replay win over Crewe Alexandra in the 1959–60 season.[10]
Less than two years later Spurs wrote their place in the history books when they won the Football League championship and the FA Cup in the 1960–61 season, the first "double" of the twentieth century. Spurs dominated the opposition that year, winning their first eleven games and scoring 115 goals in 42 games. The following year they won the FA Cup again, and narrowly missed a place in the 1961–62 European Cup Final, losing to Benfica in the semi-final.
In the
In
As the 1970s wore on, Nicholson became increasingly disillusioned with football, in particular the increased player wages and the endemic hooliganism. He was appalled by the hooliganism he witnessed at the
Post-managerial career
After quitting the Spurs manager's job, Nicholson spent a year at
Recognition
Nicholson was appointed an OBE in 1975.[14] In 1999 an approach road to White Hart Lane was named Bill Nicholson Way in his honour.[9] On 8 August 2001, the club played a testimonial match in Nicholson's honour against Italian club ACF Fiorentina,[15] following an initial testimonial against West Ham on 21 August 1983.[2] In 2003 Nicholson was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his impact as a manager.[5] Spurs fans had also campaigned for many years to have Nicholson knighted in recognition of his outstanding achievements and contribution to football but they were unsuccessful.[6][16] Bill Nicholson died on 23 October 2004 after a long illness.[6][9]
Bill Nicholson has been credited with saying, 'It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.'[17] Sports historian, Norman Giller, who has written biographies on both Nicholson and his skipper Danny Blanchflower, traces this quote to Blanchflower. "Bill was a blunt Yorkshireman who just did not use this sort of language," Giller has written in[18] "Danny was the poet of the team and he both said this and wrote it in his newspaper columns when captain of Tottenham. Somehow somebody has put the words into Nicholson's mouth, but it was definitely Danny who said it first."
Honours
As a player
Tottenham Hotspur
- Football League First Division: 1950–51
- Football League Second Division: 1949–50
- FA Charity Shield: 1951
As a manager
Tottenham Hotspur
- Football League First Division: 1960–61
- 1966–67
- 1972–73
- FA Charity Shield: 1961, 1962, 1967 (shared)
- 1973-74
- 1962–63
- Anglo-Italian League Cup: 1971
See also
- List of UEFA Cup winning managers
- Joy Brook
- List of English football championship winning managers
- List of longest managerial reigns in association football
References
- ^ The Scarborough News report Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 28 December 2012
- ^ a b c d "Bill Nicholson". Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 27 July 2004.
- ^ Holmes, Logan (13 March 2014). "Tottenham On This Day: Bill Nicholson Goes On Trial At Spurs". Spurs HQ. Archived from the original on 31 August 2017. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
- ^ Bill Nicholson fact-file Retrieved 24 October 2014
- ^ a b c d e "Bill Nicholson". Football Hall of Fame. National Football Museum. Archived from the original on 10 February 2007. Retrieved 23 December 2007.
- ^ a b c Hart, Simon (23 October 2004). "Tottenham mourn Nicholson". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 23 December 2008.
- ^ Davies 1990, p. 71.
- ISBN 0-9548336-5-1.
- ^ a b c "Tottenham legend Nicholson dies". BBC Sport. 23 October 2004. Archived from the original on 16 January 2009. Retrieved 23 December 2008.
- ^ "Tottenham". ITV.com. Archived from the original on 16 October 2008. Retrieved 23 December 2008.
- ^ Bill Nicholson: Football's Perfectionist
- ISBN 9781909534506.
- ^ a b c "Bill Nicholson". The Independent. 25 October 2004. Archived from the original on 18 November 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2008.
- ^ Daily Telegraph obituary Retrieved 4 February 2011
- ^ Warshaw, Andrew (9 August 2001). "Fans honour Nicholson". BBC Sport. Retrieved 23 December 2008.
- ^ Cheese, Caroline (31 December 2002). "Football's missing knight". BBC Sport. Retrieved 23 December 2008.
- ^ "Bill Nicholson". National Football Museum. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
- ^ Bill Nicholson Revisited Retrieved 7 November 2014
Further reading
- Davies, Hunter (1990). The glory game : the new edition of the British football classic (Rev ed.). Edinburgh: Mainstream. ISBN 1-85158-376-9.