The achievements of the Men of ’64 cannot be over-estimated, least of all on this 50th anniversary of their 1964 FA Cup Final victory against Preston North End.
Ron Greenwood’s all-English Hammers twice came from behind to win one of the most entertaining finals in the competition’s rich history, although second division Preston played their part, too, and rightly considered themselves unfortunate to lose 3-2 to Ronnie Boyce’s injury-time winner.
Although Hammers had won the second division championship under Ted Fenton in 1958, it was Greenwood – the innovative and archetypal track suit manager – who inherited the excellent groundwork of the 50s Academy and built on it to put the club on the map with back-to-back Wembley cup triumphs in the mid-60s.
In recent weeks I’ve again had the pleasure of meeting up with six of the eight West Ham survivors from the ‘64 final: John Sissons (who was over from South Africa to attend his mother Emily’s 100th birthday in Surrey), match-winning hero Boyce, Ken Brown, Eddie Bovington, Peter Brabrook and Jack Burkett.
As well as interviewing them for the latest commemorative issue of EX magazine, I filmed them for our commemorative double-disc West Ham Cup Legends 1964 DVD. What comes across on camera as they recall those unprecedented glory days is the pride, honour and humility with which they enjoyed their best times in a claret and blue shirt.
It’s refreshing to hear them speak with enduring affection about this golden era and you can’t help but feel yourself being transported back in time to a much simpler age when values and principles were to be cherished and preserved – not qualities you would readily associate with the financially-driven, cynical excesses of modern football or, indeed, life itself in the 21st century.
Jack Burkett recalls how, after the homecoming parade on the morning after the final, he and his then girlfriend Ann travelled back to their respective homes in north London by tube and bus. “I didn’t own a car at the time, so I had to travel on London Transport with my medal tucked inside my jacket pocket and yet no-one even recognised me,” says the former left-back, who admits if the final had been played today he would have been red-carded following a series of scything tackles on Preston winger Davie Wilson in the early, nervy stages of the final.
“But the ref, Mr Arthur Holland, just came by me and gave me a warning. ‘You don’t want to be the first player to be sent off in the Cup final, do you?’ he said. I was nearly sick with worry at the thought of being sent off,” Burkett added. “That was the difference – in those days players and referees would talk to each other.”
What a pity, then, that Jack – now 71 and battling to cope with skin cancer, a recurring back problem that stems from his West Ham playing days and having recovered from a recent heart attack – reached the stage last year when he decided to sell both his FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup shirts and medals to raise the money to pay off his mortgage.
John Sissons, the flying left-winger who shrugged off prostate cancer a decade ago, didn’t have the option to cash in his most prized possessions. His two winners’ medals were stolen from his Cape Town home some years ago.
Sissons, the flying left-winger and ‘baby’ of the team who, at 18, became the youngest FA Cup goalscorer when he drilled home West Ham’s first equaliser, recalls the financial rewards of being a history-maker. “My basic weekly wage doubled from £15 to £30 after the final and it went up to £50 by the following Christmas – the most I ever earned at West Ham before I left to join Sheffield Wednesday in 1970.
“We also made about £600 from the players’ pool – and I spent my money on a new Morris 1100 car!”
In those days, players didn’t have the luxury of lavish long-term contracts enjoyed by the likes of Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan. Ron Boyce had scored two goals in the shock semi-final victory against holders Manchester United (who were going for the treble of league title, FA Cup and ECWC at the time) before his headed winner that sunk plucky Preston but, like his team-mates, ‘Ticker’ was effectively out of contract as soon as the final whistle blew at Wembley on the greatest day of his career.
When he didn’t rush straight up to Greenwood’s office at the Boleyn Ground to re-sign on the dotted line for the following season, club secretary Eddie Chapman was quoted in the local press as suggesting that Boyce was prevaricating and using his new-found status as FA Cup hero to hold out for more money. It was all nonsense, of course, and Ron remained a West Ham player until he hung up his boots after a well-earned testimonial in 1972, before joining the coaching staff.
Ronnie made 339 senior appearances for his beloved Hammers and by the time he had served as first team coach, youth coach and chief scout, he’d given all 37 years of his working life to the club before being unceremoniously sacked in 1995. His reward for such loyal and distinguished service? A pitiful £5,000 (five thousand pounds) severance pay-off – and he even had to haggle with MD Peter Storrie to get as much as that.
You couldn’t blame ‘Boycey’ for feeling a tad bitter at the way he was treated so disgracefully by the only club he ever worked for (Bovington being the only other one-club man from the Men of ’64). But as we chat in the peace and tranquillity of his Norfolk farmhouse, the love he still has for West Ham United comes shining through when he says: “They will always be my club; West Ham’s result is still the first one I look for.”
Eight members of the ’64 team came through the junior ranks at Upton Park. The hugely gifted Johnny Byrne, goalkeeper Jim Standen and tricky right-winger Peter Brabrook were the three who cost a fee. In Braaders’ case, West Ham paid £35,000 for a player in 1962 who they could have got for nothing as a schoolboy years earlier, when Chelsea nipped in and, just as they did with Dagenham-based Jimmy Greaves, used financial inducements to lure the best young talent to Stamford Bridge. Never mind the Russian roubles that took Joe Cole and Glen Johnson across London in 2003, even in the late 50s Chelsea were buying success.
Within weeks of the ’64 final, Jack Burkett was the subject of a £45,000 transfer bid by Tottenham Hotspur – his local club. But this sums up the vice-like grip all clubs exerted over their players in those days. When Greenwood informed Jack of Spurs’ interest, in the same breath he told him that West Ham had turned down the offer. End of.
Burkett had no avaricious agent to dictate terms and influence his future. He accepted the West Ham manager’s resolute stance without question and was simply relieved that a potentially difficult decision had been taken out of his hands.
Four of the squad – Burkett, Boyce, Geoff Hurst and the unlucky Martin Peters, who never played a cup game that season after losing his place to Eddie Bov following the infamous 8-2 Blackburn Rovers league debacle at home in December 1963 – got married that summer. Burkett and his new bride Ann bought a two-bedroom semi in Hathaway Gardens, Chadwell Heath for £5,100. Ronnie and Dawn Boyce joined fellow newlyweds Geoff and Judith Hurst, Martin and Kathy Peters and John and Janice Sissons on the County Park estate in Hornchurch.
But for Standen, now living in California, it was business as usual. As soon as the celebrations died down, he resumed his duties as opening fast bowler for Worcestershire Cricket Club, for whom he topped the bowling averages and picked up a County Championship winners’ medal in 1964! Now that’s what you call versatility.
*Tony McDonald edits the retro EX magazine. To order the latest issue and the new West Ham Cup Legends 1964 DVD, visit the EX website www.ex-hammers.com