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Deleted member 5849
Guest
So there's a spot of nostalgia breaking out among the bickering, but I wondered if we had any stories from pre-war to share?
It's third generation memories but my Granddad used to watch the city in the 20s and 30s. Always used to say Plymouth(!) were the best team he saw, especially their black forward. Google allows me to find out their black forward (Jack Leslie) was the first black man to play football in England, and he lost out on an England cap once they found out his colour...
Another odd thing about Plymouth was the number of times they narrowly missed promotion. Now, rumours were that teams would often deliberately miss out. Why? Seems crazy you'd think... until you remember it was a time of a maximum wage... but you did get a win bonus. So, better to stay down and guarantee yourself a certain amount of win bonuses, than risk going up and ending up poorer for it.
So, plausible.
Plymouth as the best team a man ever saw though! Anyway, any other pre-war memories passed down?
It's third generation memories but my Granddad used to watch the city in the 20s and 30s. Always used to say Plymouth(!) were the best team he saw, especially their black forward. Google allows me to find out their black forward (Jack Leslie) was the first black man to play football in England, and he lost out on an England cap once they found out his colour...
Another odd thing about Plymouth was the number of times they narrowly missed promotion. Now, rumours were that teams would often deliberately miss out. Why? Seems crazy you'd think... until you remember it was a time of a maximum wage... but you did get a win bonus. So, better to stay down and guarantee yourself a certain amount of win bonuses, than risk going up and ending up poorer for it.
So, plausible.
Plymouth as the best team a man ever saw though! Anyway, any other pre-war memories passed down?