Memories of England’s 1966 World Cup Win
My first football kick in the guts
As I type, I am one of a dwindling number of Englishmen who saw his country win the World Cup, live on television. Of course, that stock may be greatly replenished in the coming days, if England win the tournament.
I was a small boy on the day of the big game, which I viewed on our Sobell black and white television. Unlike FA Cup finals, which were boozy affairs for the adults, with some of Dad’s friends coming around (they took it in turn as to who would host the event), the World Cup audience was restricted to yours truly, Mam, Dad, older brother and infant younger brother.
My memory of events leading up to the final is sketchy, but I do recall Eusebio impressing, and the sheer chaos that ensued when Antonio Rattin, captain of Argentina, was sent off in the quarter-final against England. The tournament mascot, World Cup Willie, was everywhere, even in a song on the radio.
Replica shirts
In those days, replica football shirts were rather thin on the ground, and so, to emulate our heroes we cobbled together makeshift ones, usually by having a parent or grandparent stitch a number onto the back of a t-shirt. Those hand-sewn efforts never looked quite as good as they had in the imagination of the hopefuls who…
