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April 2001
Click to see the Obituaries Index

David Rocastle ... David was not a player who would appear on this site, but having seen him play a number of times, I was very saddened by his death. Go to ArseWeb newsreel for a tribute.

Alec Stock (Luton Town Manager)

One of English football's greatest characters and top post-war managers has sadly died aged 84 years.

In 1970-71 Alec was in charge of Luton Town having won promotion as runners up in (the old) Division 3 the season before. During his time there he famously signed Malcolm MacDonald, and reluctantly sold him, albeit for a huge profit.

Alec was a professional player for Charlton Athletic and QPR before the Second War, and went on to cut his management teeth as player manager atYeovil. He had some success with a giant killing of Sunderland in the FA Cup and moved on to manage Leyton Orient. Here he helped win the Division Three South Championship in 1955-56 - having been runners-up the season before. He also had spells at Arsenal and Roma during his years with Leyton Orient.

Perhaps Alec's greatest success,though, was in the 1966-67, when he was the manager of the sensational Queen's Park Rangers side that won both the Division Three Championship and the League Cup! During that time he signed Rodney Marsh for just 15,000 pounds from Fulham, the club eventually sold him as a 200,000 pounds superstar.

Alec's other crowning moment was reaching the Final of the FA Cup in 1974-75 with Fulham of the (old) Division Two. The side included Alan Mullery and Bobby Moore in the twilight of their careers, but lost to West ham United 2-0. In the following season Alec brought Rodney Marsh to the club, along with George Best.

Signed photo of AlecStock's Fulham side.

Here's a list of his appointments as appeared in his 1982 autobiography, 'A Little Thing Called Pride' co-written with 'Sun' journalist, Brian Woolnough.

May 1949 Yeovil to Orient
Feb 1956 Orient to Arsenal
April 1956 Arsenal to Orient
July 1957 Orient to Roma
Nov 1957 leaves Roma
March 1958 returns to Orient
March 1959 quits Orient
J une 1959joins Queen's Park Rangers
Nov 1968 sacked by Queen's Park Rangers
Dec 1968 joins Luton
J une 1972 joins Fulham
Dec 1976 quits Fulham
April 1977 back at Queen's Park Rangers as a director
July 1978 Queen's Park Rangers caretaker manager
Jan 1979 joins Bournemouth as manager
Oct 1981 retires as manager of Bournemouth but continues as a director

The league managerial career of Alec Stock 

Alec ended his autobiography:

'I want to say that I contributed to management, to the game. I would like always to be able to say: 'Football is not a bad old life really, is it ? Hmmm. Go out and enjoy yourself, old son.'

See brisbaneroad.com - Story from which the picture above came.
BBC SPORT FULHAM Fulham legend Stock dies
Fulham Football Club - News which supplied the career record breakdown
Queens Park Rangers FC - The Official Web Site

.Jim Baxter

Born: Hill O'Beath in Fife, 29 September 1939.

Died: Glasgow, 14 April 2001.

Jim Baxter

Jim's last game was in Decmeber 1969, and he retired soon after. Hence he missed inclusion on this site by the narrowist of margins. He is however one of the most frequently referred to players that I have from emails to the site. Jim really captured people's imagination. It was very sad to hear of his death and I was even more saddened by it's under-reporting in the English press. Jim died at home from cancer of the pancreas.

Glasgow Rangers Official site reports at Rangers Football Club - Jim Baxter Tribute:

WAYWARD genius – the tag was created for Jim Baxter. But for all the excesses that have littered his life, the battle with the bottle and the two liver transplants that previously saved him, one thing should always be remembered. He truly was a genius.

At the height of the Swinging Sixties, Baxter was Scotland’s answer to Manchester United playboy, George Best. Drink may have ravaged him in the later years of his life but the image then was one of a silky, elegant player who stood 5ft 11ins yet weighed just 9st 12lbs.

He was Slim Jim, a regal footballer who could outfox entire defences with one feint or dip of his shoulder. Baxter was raised in the coalmining community of Hill O’ Beath, Fife, where he combined the task of labouring down a pit and starring with Raith Rovers.

The midfield maestro cost a meagre £17,500 when – at the age of just 20 – he was lured away from Rovers to the bright lights of Glasgow. His brilliance was to help Gers dominate the Scottish game in his first spell at the club before gambling and boozing dragged him down and led him into an ill-advised move to Sunderland.

The backbreaking graft of life down the pit has hewn so many of Scottish football’s legends – from Jock Stein to Billy Shankly. Baxter was no different. He’d bought his mum the first washing machine in the village with his Raith Rovers signing-on fee, and honed his skills playing in 40-a-side matches swelled by the boys from the pit after the pubs spilled out.

Baxter revelled as he eluded gangs of angry miners with the shimmies and dummies that would one day fool the world’s best. They did just that at Wembley in 1963 when he scored twice to dump the Auld Enemy and four years later he produced a performance that went down in football folklore.

Sir Alf Ramsey’s heroes had won the World Cup a year earlier, yet they were outclassed and humiliated as the cocky Baxter tormented them with a bout of keepie-uppie during a thrilling 3-2 triumph.

It is hard for lesser footballing mortals to reconcile themselves with the path Baxter chose in life. This was a player who was chosen for the Rest of the World against England at Wembley in ’63 alongside Lev Yashin, Ferenc Puskas and them all. He belonged in that company.

Yet he remained chained to the Ibrox wage structure which then paid him £35-a-week while his pall Puskas was on £2,000-a-week at Real Madrid. Baxter rebelled. He said: "I only wanted a few quid more than the less gifted. We were all paid equally, which was like paying Frank Sinatra the same as the Alexander Brothers."

His standing in the game then almost saw him go to Spurs as Danny Blancflower’s replacement but the deal died at the last minute. Then Gers refused to allow him to speak to Inter Milan and so the Italians opted for Barcelona’s Luis Suarez who had been crowned Europe’s Footballer of the Year. Jim said: "Suarez? He wasn’t in the same league as me."

Yet for all the anger at the talent he squandered, it is perhaps best to simply embrace the good days Rangers and Scotland were given when Slim Jim was in his pomp and splendour. Who else could welcome Italy to Glasgow for a World Cup tie in 1965, nutmeg the legendary Gianni Rivera and shout to Billy Bremner: "Hey wee man, one down nine to go!"

TV evidence of his brilliance is scant, which is a crying shame. But his class will still be passed from generation to generation of Light Blue legions who lap up the stories of his talents. Many say he faded as a footballing force after he broke his leg in the last minute of another virtuoso performance as the club beat Rapid Vienna 2-0 in the Prater Stadium in December 1964.

Yet Slim simply shrugged: "I couldn’t blame the Austrian defender for the tackle, I was taking the mickey something terrible. I went downhill because I left Rangers and went to a bad side. I would never have left if I hadn’t gambled all my money away."

The drink was to wreck his liver and the betting wrecked his life. Jim Baxter should have quit a millionaire. Instead he spent the latter part of his life living quietly on Glasgow’s south side, close to the footballing arena where he is a legend despite an ill-fated return to the club from Nottingham Forest.

Like Paul Gascoigne in the 90s he won the hearts of the Rangers fans but could never win his battles with the demons within himself. He said: "I had a candle about that length (he separates both his hands to the full length of his arms) and I burned it both ends – AND in the middle!" What better way to sum up Jim Baxter?

 

At Rangers Football Club - Funeral the site reports :

THE FAMILY of Jim Baxter have confirmed that the funeral of the Ibrox legend will take place at Glasgow Cathedral on Friday, April 20 at 10am and will be open to members of the public who wish to pay their respects.

The Reverend Dr William Morris, Minister of the Cathedral, and the Reverend Stuart D MacQuarrie will conduct the service while Jim’s close friend Ralph Brand, who played alongside him in the highly successful Rangers side of the early 1960s, will speak at the service in tribute to Jim as a footballer.

Jim’s other close friend, author and broadcaster William McIlvanney, will speak in appreciation of Jim Baxter the man.

Members of the public who wish to attend the service are welcome and should be seated in the Cathedral no later than 9.45am. Following the service at Glasgow Cathedral, a short service for family and close friends will be held at Linn Crematorium.

Rangers Football Club requests that the privacy of Jim’s family be respected at this difficult time. All media and other enquiries should therefore be directed to the Public Relations Department at Rangers Football Club.

Jim’s family has asked that anyone who wishes to express his or her appreciation for Jim’s life should not send flowers but contribute to the work of the Scottish Liver and Kidney Transplant Unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Donations can be sent to:

Ms Donna Hill
Liver Transplant Unit Co-ordinator
Scottish Liver and Kidney Transplant Unit
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
1 Lauriston Place
Edinburgh
EH3 9YW

John Grieg's tribute can be found at Rangers Football Club - John Greig on Jim Baxter

The site's summary of his career is at Rangers Football Club

The BBC tribute is at BBC SPORT SCOTLAND Baxter a God-given genius

and their profile is at BBC SPORT SCOTLAND Jim Baxter A profile

Thanks to Ian Corry for sending the above photo of Jim

See more April 2001 news at the following ....

Click to see the latest Soccer headlines at www.bobdunning.net