February 24 – Bobby Moore Dies
“MY captain, my leader, my right-hand man. He was the spirit and the heartbeat of the team. A cool, calculating footballer I could trust with my life. He was the supreme professional, the best I ever worked with. Without him England would never have won the World Cup.” Sir Alf Ramsey.
BOBBY Moore, the rock at the heart of England’s finest hour in the summer of 1966, died today in 1993 aged 51 following a battle against bowel cancer.
One of the true legends of the game, Moore seemed destined for greatness at an early age as he served his apprenticeship at the famous West Ham Academy of Football. After replacing his injured mentor Malcolm Allison to make his debut against Manchester United in 1958, Moore never looked back, cementing his place in the Hammers’ first team.
England honours soon followed and Moore found himself in England’s 1962 World Cup side and was promoted to captain at the end of the 1963/64 season. This proved to be an eventful year for Moore, as he would also lead West Ham to the FA Cup, be named the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year and successfully overcome testicular cancer.
There was more silverware the following season as West Ham won the European Cup Winners’ Cup as the World Cup loomed on the horizon and England expected. In early 1966 it emerged that Moore was not happy at West Ham and a move to Tottenham was imminent, only for Alf Ramsey to bash Moore and West Ham manger Ron Greenwood’s heads together and tell them to get over their differences.
Once the tournament begun Moore was instrumental in helping England through their group will relative ease and then past a feisty Argentinean side and a Eusebio-led Portugal team and on to the final.
In Geoff Hurst’s autobiography he remarkably tells the story of how George Cohen overheard Ramsey and his staff discussing the possibility of dropping Moore for the final in place of Leeds United’s more physical Norman ‘Bite Yer Legs’ Hunter. Ramsey and his fellow coaches decided against this move, which with hindsight seems unthinkable.
After 120 unbearable minutes of Anglo-German action it was left for Moore to climb the 39 steps, wipes the mud off his hands, and receive the Jules Rimet trophy from the Queen.
Moore became a national icon following England’s World Cup success and would turn out 108 times for the Three Lions, wearing the captain’s armband on 90 occasions. During his career he would pick up all manner of personal awards such as an OBE from Her Maj and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
England were unable to repeat their success in the 1970 World Cup, which was overshadowed by Moore’s arrest over the theft of a bracelet in Bogota, which led to a fully-fledged diplomatic incident.
When England failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup Moore quit the international scene and soon after headed out of the Boleyn Ground, joining Fulham. His career was rounded off with a spell in the bombastic NASL, mixing it with his old pal Pele.
In 1993 Moore announced that he was suffering from bowel cancer ten days before his death. Tributes poured in from across the world of football as West Ham renamed one of their stands after him and the Bobby Moore Fund was set up to fight bowel cancer.
England’s most successful captain still holds a place in the nation’s consciousness, with a statue of Moore being erected outside the main entrance of the new Wembley Stadium in 2007 and West Ham retired his number 6 shirt at the stat of the 2008/09 season.
See the great man in one of our favourite ever football-themed adverts below and click here to see what else was happening today. We’ll be back with another footballing nugget tomorrow, but in the meantime follow us on Twitter here.
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