People Who Died (12 Viewers)

Tommy Smith (1945-12 April 2019)
Liverpool footballer.
never did it mean more to anyone to play for LFC than Tommy.
but he paid a huge price for his highly successful career.
making his debut in 1962's promotion winning season he saw Liverpool
transform from a second division club to European Champions.
he played 638 matches for Liverpool (1962-78) and winning one England cap.
after football he had huge physical problems - two knee replacements,
elbow replaced, hip replaced, arthritis and finally in 2014 Alzheimers
was diagnosed.


Smith was also a big ol' racist who made things very difficult for Howard Gayle, Liverpool's first ever black player, and back in a 1988 interview said some truly reprehensible things about the notion of his daughter being in a relationship with a black man or if a family moved in beside him.
 
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Oh! I'd completely forgotten about him. He was almost like an urban legend back in the day, yer man who walks around like Dracula.

and just when you were convinced your mates were winding you up you'd see him on the street.
 
It's still very sad, but it kind of warms the heart to see the response to the news of Joe's passing.

Loads of people, myself included, who didn't really know him seem quite upset by the news. He probably didn't realise how he touched so many people's lives in a small way, just be being nice and polite to people in 10 second chunks. Hundreds, thousands of people probably have some really happy memories associated with him.
 
He really was a gentleman. Always so pleasant, always instantly likable.

There are plenty of venues where, when you walk up to the door, you're met with a big old mean-as-fuck bouncer who intimidates the shit out of you. Whelans was never like that. I always said it to people. The bouncers were always sound but, especially, the ticket guy was always sound.

I don't go there even half as much as I once did, but its sad to think he won't be there anymore.

RIP.
 
Smith was also a big ol' racist who made things very difficult for Howard Gayle, Liverpool's first ever black player, and back in a 1988 interview said some truly reprehensible things about the notion of his daughter being in a relationship with a black man or if a family moved in beside him.

yep. i knew this but choose not to mention it...
normally i would have written something much longer but didn't want
give him anymore space without having to mention he wasn't a nice guy.

Alan Gilzean who i wrote about here previously briefly played in South Africa at
the end of his career in 1970's but i didn't mention that either *.

i want to read Howard's book particularly as he has often said people at the
club hadn't got a clue where he was coming from.
another hardcore Red.

* Roger Hunt, Alan Mullery, Roy Hodgson, Peter Withe, Jeff Astle to name but a
few played in South African League in 1970's
Terry Paine and George Eastham moved out there permanently during apartheid.
Malcolm Allison managed a team of well known first division players
who toured S.A. in 1973.
 
Lyra McKee, 29 year old journalist in Derry last night.

This is one of the sadder posts on this thread, depressing to think our kids might yet live in the shadow of a violence we thought we'd left behind.
 
Horrible, horrible, heartbreaking news to wake up to this morning. RIP Lyra.

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Patrick Sercu (27 June 1944 - 19 April 2019)
Belgian track and road cyclist.
Sercu was the greatest six day rider winning a record 88 events
between 1965 to '83. he was also one of the best road sprinters
of his generation winning six Tour de France stages and a green
points jersey (1974) in just two starts and 11 Giro stages.

Patrick was the son of Albert a post war road pro (Het Volk winner 1947).
he won 1km sprint Olympics gold in 1964 and the following year
he partnered neo pro Eddy Merckx to his first 6 day victory.
(the first of 15 wins together).
other six day partners inc. Peter Post, Didi Thurau, Francesco Moser,
Freddy Maertens, Ferdi Bracke, Ole Ritter, Roger De Vlaeminck,
Gerrie Knetemann, Jean-Pierre Monsere and Rudi Altig
(Woah ! what a list)
not to mention world titles and records along the way.
currently Patrick's son Christophe is the boss of the
Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise team.

while my knowledge of track cycling is poor (never found it
very exciting to watch) the range of Patrick talent was amazing as
being both a 1 km track world champ and a road sprinter is long
a thing of the past.
even Kirsten Wild and Cavendish only do endurance events on track.

prior to TV dominance six days where the best way to see to
see cycling up close. they were hugely popular and large
appearance fees were on offer for top cyclists.
the glory days are now decades in the past and these winter
events mostly seem to attract an old school crowd.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Sercu
nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Sercu
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-day_racing
 
I was a Celtic supporter in my schooldays. Billy was the manager when they did the double in their centenary year (1988). He was always a hero of mine.

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yeah, i remember. Celtic seemed in a mess in summer '87.
they signed Mick McCarthy for £500,000 (a record fee) and then days later
sacked David Hay (first manager sacked in the clubs history).
he was replaced by Billy who had just been sacked by Villa after relegation
that year (his only major failure in management).
but the centenary season went like a dream.

hard to believe before Jock Stein Celtic had only won one championship
since the war and only three since 1926.
e.g. in 1959-60 they finished 9th... behind Clyde and Ayr (edit)
to go from this to Champions of Europe so rapidly... woah!
and they remained one of the top sides in Europe for the
rest of Billy's playing career.

He always seemed like a lovely person. R.I.P.

like Tommy Smith recently Billy was a victim of Dementia/Alzheimers.
we hear of former players suffering this fate regulary..
everything possible has to be done combat this
and all options put on the table -
avoiding heading in training if necessary etc.
the American idea to ban children heading the ball
until mid teens sounds increasingly worth considering.

I'm sorry, to bring this up at this time but everyone who
plays football will benefit from knowing as much as
possible about what we are dealing with.
 
Last edited:
yeah, i remember. Celtic seemed in a mess in summer '87.
they signed Mick McCarthy for £500,000 (a record fee) and then days later
sacked David Hay (first manager sacked in the clubs history).
he was replaced by Billy who had just been sacked by Villa after relegation
that year (his only major failure in management).
but the centenary season went like a dream.

hard to believe before Jock Stein Celtic had only won one championship
since the war and only three since 1926.
e.g. in 1959-60 they finished 9th... behind Clyde and Ayr (edit)
to go from this to Champions of Europe so rapidly... woah!
and they remained one of the top sides in Europe for the
rest of Billy's playing career.

He always seemed like a lovely person. R.I.P.

like Tommy Smith recently Billy was a victim of Dementia/Alzheimers.
we hear of former players suffering this fate regulary..
everything possible has to be done combat this
and all options put on the table -
avoiding heading in training if necessary etc.
the American idea to ban children heading the ball
until mid teens sounds increasingly worth considering.

I'm sorry, to bring this up at this time but everyone who
plays football will benefit from knowing as much as
possible about what we are dealing with.
We don’t have much data on the effects of heading or in soccer full stop regarding Alzheimer’s, dementia or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). A lot of data from Americans Football but that data is somewhat biased in that it mainly studies people who come forward with symptoms. It’s also very hard to compare the impacts received in soccer compared to those in American Football or even rugby. I think the take home point from all the concussion research is that players need to minimise it. Whether that is no heading/full tackled until they are adults (and in terms of brain development, 18 is not when you have an adult brain, it’s more like your mid-20s) or not doing risky manoeuvres in training, that’s up to each sporting body at the moment. I’d like to see a move towards an actual evidenced-based management of head injury but there is so much bullshit around protecting the profits rather than the players.
 

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