loweman2

As I am embarking on a new group project to document the history of the Derby County kit with a couple of likeminded souls I thought that it was time to actually document my shirts and look at what I have got, so I thought I would share that with the DCFCFANS.UK famalam.

i have just grabbed the first lot of the rail, I will then photograph each one on a mannequin or what ever they are called and post them up on here for those who may be interested, for those who are not then apologies in advance as it’s probs gonna drag on a while.

any how I thought I would lay out the first lot and if I say so my self there are some nice items in the first batch, these are on the whole 1970 to 1989 ish, there are a couple of rogue newer ones slipped in aswell.

here goes

28 minutes ago, ilkleyram said:

I've read all your posts loweman, as many of us have, with a huge amount of interest as these were the players and heroes of my formative years, never mind the success and enjoyment they brought me, and us as a club. It's great to see so many of them doing well and thank you for sharing it all with us.

I am though puzzled by one thing.  You've made a number of references to the players you've met not feeling valued by the club, and again with the report of your visit to the king. And yet, on the few times I've been behind the scenes at PP there are lots of references to the players of that era; we have Roy Mac on the board and in the bar; other ex players as ambassadors; Roger features regularly on Rams TV and at Moor Farm; explayers meet up at the Yard; we often have ex-players on the pitch making presentations; we have an ex players football and cricket team and, I thought, an ex players association; we have a stand named after Gordon Guthrie, statues of our greatest goalscorer and our greatest management team and an in house TV programme that regularly features ex players from a number of eras including the 70s. And we have an owner/Chairman of similar age to you and I who probably remembers these players with the same affection that we have for them. And who encourages connections with our past as well as our future. In short, from the outside, I think we do pretty well to maintain links with our past.

Given all that (and I may have missed examples or be wrong about others) what has the club done or not done to make the players from this era feel unwanted or unrecognised and is there anything that can be done to correct it? Clearly, from your contributions, some of them won't be interested, but some clearly are.

 

Thanks for the great comments @ilkleyram, it’s hard to put into print without causing issues, I don’t think it’s so much a mel thing, I think it started with the Americans and hasn’t yet been put right, but hopefully it will.

also there is obviously not room for everybody to do a job and some people lose out to others.

all that I know is that they are all a great set of men who have been brilliant to meet.

23 minutes ago, RamNut said:

Lol. I love that. Kevin hector is stood in the south stand. Thats brilliant. The whole fkn ground should turn around and salute him because he is the no1. Above mcfarland, and even Mackay. Kevin Hector is the king.

whatever the issue is with these players - whether its having to buy tickets for their xmas do - or whatever, the top priority should be to sort it out, because the club is the fans, and the fans just adore Kevin Hector and co.  I'd love to meet him, but i just wouldn't be able to talk to him. I'd be a jibbering wreck.

 

That’s exactly what I said to him, I told him about the reactions and comments on here when I have written about other players feelings, I told him that the club is the fans and the fans still love them all and remember what they did !

The journey is nearing its end now so it was time to catch up with the big one, the man who was brought to derby in September 1966 to score goals, to get Derby in the big time ! That was by the then manager Tim ward, He played for the Rams for a total of 12 years, during which time they won the Football League First Division championship twice, the Football League Second Division championship and promotion to the First Division in 1969, and reached the semi-finals of the European Cup, FA Cup and the League Cup.

He left Derby for Vancouver Whitecaps and scored 15 goals for the Canadian outfit as they won the 1979 NASL title.

After his time in North America he rejoined Derby in the early 1980s.

He made a record 589 appearances for Derby in his two spells, 486 of which came in league games.

he scored 201 goals, second only to Steve Bloomer and missed only four league matches in seven seasons between 67 & 74, not a coincidence that these were our most successful years.

he didn’t say much but when he did everybody listened !

it is of course the king 

Kevin Hector was quality, I spent an hour and a half with him and we discussed all things Derby County, another really pleasant guy, funny and razor sharp with his memory ! 

More great stories, he didn’t really see eye to eye with Mr Clough but he didn’t need to, Cloughie couldn’t play his mind games with his top scorer.

still looks fit and well and enjoys his football, he is often to be found in the south stand, but he says it’s nothing to what the BBG was but we all know that.

another one sadly disgruntled with the way that the club view them, that has been the common core running through this journey, none of them feel valued by the club, yesterday’s men who no longer generate money for the club so left out to graze.

as I have said many times before they could surely be put to use by the club !

what a legend !

a king of kings !

king Kev !

3 hours ago, dcfc4ever said:

Top job Loweman.Love your DCFC collection too.Any new plans/projects your working on?

Should be a little something posted by the end of the week ! ?

Andy Ellis has also asked me to mention Ian Ross of Shieldfield, Newcastle who apparently way back in 1997 had done some research into players who had not received medals who should have so good luck to him and we hope that he has many successes.

16 minutes ago, loweman2 said:

fantastic @CROSSWORD, great to see that the old grey matter is stirred a little by some of my posts ! funny about the left foot, when we went up last week Jim was taking shots at my lad (who is 8) and he was smashing the ball at him with the same left foot but perhaps just a bit less gusto !!! from the response on here and twitter he was a well liked player and he really is nice guy still today !

2 minutes ago, ronnieronalde said:

I only read the first post of the thread, I'm sure the next few pages of comments will rightfully be glowing but I wanted to add my two pennetjh worth.

 

What a wonderful and beautiful thing you've done, to see it through to the end and actually get him his medal is superb and somerhing you should be very proud of doing.

Fair play to the decision makers as well.

Lovely story. 

nice one @ronnieronalde, I am just pleased for jim !

24 minutes ago, CROSSWORD said:

Absolutely blown away by all this,really top notch loweman2 you have my total respect.

My first away game was at Bolton Wanderers and Jim beat four guys before cracking in the winner with his only foot,the left one.

Still remember my older pal grabbing hold of me before i could jump up,we were in the home crowd end,wasnt to bright back then.

Well done again tho made my day sir.

fantastic @CROSSWORD, great to see that the old grey matter is stirred a little by some of my posts ! funny about the left foot, when we went up last week Jim was taking shots at my lad (who is 8) and he was smashing the ball at him with the same left foot but perhaps just a bit less gusto !!! from the response on here and twitter he was a well liked player and he really is nice guy still today !

wow just had a phone call from Colin Todd to say well done on the Jim Medal, spent twenty five minutes chatting about stuff, some relevant to Derby and some not such as he had just made a cup of tea and was waiting for the man from British gas to come round to service the boiler !!

top man Toddy !

15 minutes ago, David said:

Gave it a push on Twitter this morning for you, hope thats alright, didn't realise you had on your own account, would have just retweeted that. Wasn't following you with the dcfcfans account and barely looked at my own personal one recently. 

That’s great Dave thanks bud, it all helps getting the message out, especially as the club are not advertising the fact ( all a bit bizzare), keep up the good work ?

8 hours ago, Steve Bloomer's Washing said:

This is great @loweman2 - these glory days were before my time but what you've done is a tremendous effort and truly commendable.

Apols if it's been asked already, but have you told the Derby Tel about this? They could/should make a big piece out of it.

i haven't approached the DET as im a little uncertain of just what the club is worried about if it is shown to publicly get behind the award to Jim, its all a bit mysterious ! they have assured me that all will become clearer in the forthcoming weeks !

though they are quite happy for me to place posts on here and facebook etc, Paul Tyrell the derby county head of communications actually rang me to discuss it.

34 minutes ago, Duracell said:

This is the single best thing I’ve ever read on here. Fantastic.

I know it’s exciting with Marriott signing, but come on - a Derby player was given a medal for being a champion of England today! That’s the big news!

That’s a very special thing you’ve done, @loweman2. The Rolls Royce issues you spoke of left my grandad without a job and that side of the family never properly recovered from it. Those Derby sides came at a time in my dad’s life when he really needed it and I wish I could one day talk about Rams players the way he talks about some of those names. He’s not on here but I’ll be showing him this thread and I know it will stir up some emotions.

Really hope a few more of my generation visit this thread and appreciate history has been both made and rightfully completed this week. Doesn’t matter whether we were alive at he time or not.

Excellent @Duracell, that’s just the reason I post this stuff, I admit that I do it for my dad, they are his heroes not mine the same as your grandad, when they were going through tough times personally their little old team from the town of Derby was the best team in the land and gave them something to feel great about, they had duck all money in their pockets but they shared their love and support of Derby County who had done nothing since 1946 ! 

These guys have become my footballing heroes since meeting them all, Roy McFarland said that aswell as teaching them how to play football he taught them to respect others and none more so than your own family, he made them take flowers home to their mums and he taught them how to act like gentlemen both on and off the pitch and to a man  that has stayed with them all ! 

We cant forget these men, we look at them now and see a collective of seventy something year olds but go back fifty years and they were about to become the cream of British football !

ive met hundreds of Derby players and I have got to say with every passing generation the passion for Derby County becomes a little less evident, nowadays it’s just a fantastic job open to the very few and all about money, in the seventies it was all about being the best, getting called up for your country and just daring to believe that you could be a champion ! Nothing about money or cars or big houses or the fittest girl friend, just being a winner within a band of brothers that stayed together and did it not once but twice for eight of them !

24 minutes ago, reveldevil said:

Amazing stuff @loweman2, and even better that you do it for no other motive than to make other Rams both happy and aware.

You deserve a medal yourself mate, for both keeping memories alive and showing what can be done if you get off your bum and try.

C'mon now Mel, get this stuff into a permanent display so we can all look at it, while making Loweman official club curator.

Love that mate thank you ?

As always guys thanks for all of the positive messages, it is such a shame that he couldn’t have been presented it by his captain at the time on the pitch at the first game of the season as planned but something litigious got in the way and spoiled it but just seeing Jim’s face when I handed it to him was well worth it.

he still works tirelessly now trying to put together a legal case for footballers who have been diagnosed with dementia, he has been working on it for 13 years and studied for a PhD to assist him in his research.

a top top man !

it was Jim who gave me the battered old ball from the 1968 league cup 3rd round replay versus Chelsea which in turn had been presented to him by his then captain Dave Mackay for being the man of the match, it was that game that started the Clough journey real, the night the Baseball Ground shook !

so a favour for a favour !

Spot the difference?

6 minutes ago, IanC said:

Delighted for him,and so pleased that this has been done. I remember Jim from his early years at DCFC,when he used to live on the same street as me on Sancroft Road in Spondon in the early 70's. Reliable, hard working and not unskillfull left sided player. Saw him play many games in the season we won promotion to the 1st division,and saw a couple of appearances in the 1st division,though not the 1-0 win over palace.

That’s right ian, he did live on  Sandcroft Road as that came up in conversation before, by coincidence so did I in the 80s ! He really is a top man, he was telling me today that Darren Moore was round his house last night as they are part of the same church, he counts Alex Ferguson as a friend and has many people in the game nowadays asking for his advice.