- Jul 27, 2004
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- Staff
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I saw this posted on COYS and thought some of our older fans may have some memories of a Spurs great who seems to have been sadly forgotten. I for one will look forward getting the book by his son about the player my Grandfather said was one of the best players he had seen in a Scotland shirt.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/e...hite-was-the-dad-i-never-knew-86908-20793377/
THE son of a Scotland football legend has opened his heart for the first time about the father he never knew.
When John White was killed by a bolt of lightning on a golf course at the age of just 27, the footballing world went into mourning.
The Tottenham Hotspur and Scotland inside-forward, nicknamed The Ghost for his ability to move undetected into space, had the world at his feet at the time of his death in 1964.
With Spurs he was a key player in the star-studded side that won the league and FA Cup double in 1961, then two years later brought European glory to Britain for the first time by lifting the Cup Winners' Cup. Meanwhile for Scotland, John was a fans' favourite, winning 22 caps and more than holding his own alongside the likes of Jim Baxter and Denis Law.
Perhaps more important to the dedicated family man than footballing success would have been the fact that his wife Sandra had given birth just six months before to the couple's second child - a son called Rob.
Now a top photographer, Rob has opened his heart to the Record about his quest to discover who his dad really was, the trauma of growing up as the son of The Ghost, and his anger at the way Spurs treated his family after his dad died.
Rob has also told of his lifelong love of Scotland and his pride at seeing his own 11-year-old daughter Elsie training with the Spurs girls' team.
He said: "Since I first became aware of who my dad was at a very young age, I don't think a single day has gone by when I haven't thought and wondered about him.
"Dad was one of the greats, there is no doubt about that. He played for a side that was full of fantastic players such as Danny Blanchflower, Cliff Jones and Jimmy Greaves, and he shone among them.
"One of the most tragic things is that he died at a time when he was just beginning to play the best football of his career."
From humble beginnings in Musselburgh, East Lothian, where his uncle had to buy him his first pair of football boots, John lived every schoolboy's dream.
Dubbed The Ghost of White Hart Lane for his habit of appearing out of nowhere to split a defence open with one precise pass, he was a favourite of the legendary early Sixties Spurs manager Bill Nicholson.
He shone in a side of Spurs greats who won the FA Cup and league double in 1961, the first time it had ever been achieved.
The following year Spurs won the FA Cup again and then in 1963 they proved their worth on the European stage.
White helped the Londoners to an incredible 5-1 Cup Winners' Cup final thrashing of Atletico Madrid in Rotterdam.
He scored the second goal in the game that made them the first British side ever to win a European title.
Diehard Spurs fan Rob added: "My dad was such a huge star that I had to pay £1000 at auction just to get hold of one of the shirts he played in.
"I was in Glasgow for the Scotland versus Italy Euro 2008 qualifier and I went for a pint after the match. I got talking to an old man in the pub about football and I eventually told him that my dad had played for Scotland.
"He asked me who he was and when I said John White the guy was just gobsmacked.
"We had a really good chat and when he left he said he was going home to phone everyone he knew to tell them he'd just met John White's son.
"I was really touched by that and it made me feel proud.
"I take my family on holiday to Scotland every year and still consider myself to be Scottish, even though I have lived in London most of my life.
"People are always really friendly and when they talk about dad it is always in glowing terms."
John's second sporting love was golf and it was at Crews Hill Golf Club in Enfield in 1964 that his life was cut short when the tree he was sheltering under from a thunderstorm was struck by lightning.
A green keeper called John Watts found the player lying in a ditch that divided the first and ninth fairways with scorch marks on his hair, back and heels.
Rob is now writing a book about his dad's life and spoke of the emotional journey that researching the project has taken him on at his photography studio in London where he keeps his dad's old football boots locked in a safe.
He said: "As a boy, it took me a long time to come to terms with who my dad was.
"I'd constantly get introduced to people as the son of John White, and I would always be aware of this huge sadness coming over them.
"It was quite traumatic for a child to experience this. I always felt really bad that I was making all these people so sad. For that reason the last thing I would ever tell anyone when I was growing up was who my dad was.
"It has only been quite recently that I have really been able to talk about him and feel comfortable about it.
"It was a couple of years ago that I had the idea of writing the book and it has been a really great experience to start to look into dad's life.
"For many years his death has been kind of like the elephant in the room for my family. Nobody ever wanted to talk too much about it, even though it was on everyone's mind.
"But the book has given me a chance to sit down with my aunts and uncles and really ask them about him.
"It is a strange thing to grow up with everyone knowing more about your dad than you do."
JOHN'S importance to Spurs was evident, not just in terms of the goals he scored - 40 in 183 games - but in the team's fate on the rare occasions he was absent.
He missed just 15 games for the club between 1959 and 1964, and Spurs won only one of them.
But despite his status as one of Britain's top players, he only earned around £20 a week.
At the time of his death, the White family - John, wife Sandra, six-month-old Rob and two-year-old Mandy - had been living in a modest club house close to Spurs' stadium.
Rob said: "After dad died, it wasn't long before the club cut ties with the family. We were made to move out of the house within a week and it was a really tough time for mum. Luckily she is a strong woman and handled the situation very well.
"She trained to become a teacher, worked hard to support her family and eventually remarried.
"But Spurs didn't give her much help at all. Financially she wasn't particularly well off, as in those days footballers didn't get paid the massive wages they do today.
"I just think that given my dad's contribution to the club over the years, they could have been more supportive."
Rob now lives in London with wife Cara and daughters Martha, eight, and Elsie, 11, who has recently started her own football career.
Rob said: "It has been fantastic to see Elsie play football with Spurs. She is really talented and I can't wait to see her progress.
"It was a great moment to see her play in a Spurs kit and I know her grandad would have been really proud."
Rob's sister Amanda was just two when her dad died. She said: "I often wonder whether I can really remember him or not.
"I think I have hazy memories of running around in a garden with him, but it is difficult to know for sure.
"I know it must have been really tough time for my mum and it was made even worse by the way that Spurs treated the family after dad died.
"You need to remember that mum and her pals were like the original footballers' wives back then.
"They would get to go to lots of big events and wore all the latest fashions.
"But when dad died, she was suddenly left out of all these things, which must have been very tough.
"It is a testament to how hard mum worked that Rob and I turned out all right, because it couldn't have been easy for her.
"Even now if there are big Spurs events to remember the team dad played in, they will often forget to invite mum, even though the wives of all the other star players from that generation will be there."
Amanda now lives in London and works in the film and TV industry. She said: "Because I was a girl, I wouldn't get to be involved much in the football side of things, whereas Rob would be taken to games by our uncles.
"But I have heard some great stories about the old days when all of dad's family would come down from Musselburgh to watch the really big games like the FA Cup final.
"All the women would come to London as well and they would get all done up for the occasion.
"I can remember my aunt telling me that she was once sitting with all the London women and suddenly realised that they all had much higher hemlines than she did on their fashionable skirts.
"She said she was really self-conscious and tried to pull her own up a little to fit in.
"I always think how much fun it must have been for everyone and what a shame it was that it would all have stopped when dad died so suddenly.
"I think it is great that Rob is still so involved with Spurs and continues to support them.
"I do too, though not to the same extent. I haven't been to a game for a while but I always like to know how they are doing.
"But for me the most interesting thing was always all of the things that were going on around the football and in the family rather than the games themselves."
John played for what many fans believe was the all-time greatest Spurs side, built by Bill Nicholson in the early Sixties.
But the double-winning side started to break up in 1964 when Danny Blanchflower and Terry Medwin retired.
It was then that Nicholson decided he was going to rebuild the team around White, but his plans were shattered on the fateful day he died.
To many Scottish football fans today John White is not one of the better known names from the past.
But his team mate and friend Jimmy Greaves once said: "Had John lived, he could have been one of the greatest footballers of all time."
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/e...hite-was-the-dad-i-never-knew-86908-20793377/
THE son of a Scotland football legend has opened his heart for the first time about the father he never knew.
When John White was killed by a bolt of lightning on a golf course at the age of just 27, the footballing world went into mourning.
The Tottenham Hotspur and Scotland inside-forward, nicknamed The Ghost for his ability to move undetected into space, had the world at his feet at the time of his death in 1964.
With Spurs he was a key player in the star-studded side that won the league and FA Cup double in 1961, then two years later brought European glory to Britain for the first time by lifting the Cup Winners' Cup. Meanwhile for Scotland, John was a fans' favourite, winning 22 caps and more than holding his own alongside the likes of Jim Baxter and Denis Law.
Perhaps more important to the dedicated family man than footballing success would have been the fact that his wife Sandra had given birth just six months before to the couple's second child - a son called Rob.
Now a top photographer, Rob has opened his heart to the Record about his quest to discover who his dad really was, the trauma of growing up as the son of The Ghost, and his anger at the way Spurs treated his family after his dad died.
Rob has also told of his lifelong love of Scotland and his pride at seeing his own 11-year-old daughter Elsie training with the Spurs girls' team.
He said: "Since I first became aware of who my dad was at a very young age, I don't think a single day has gone by when I haven't thought and wondered about him.
"Dad was one of the greats, there is no doubt about that. He played for a side that was full of fantastic players such as Danny Blanchflower, Cliff Jones and Jimmy Greaves, and he shone among them.
"One of the most tragic things is that he died at a time when he was just beginning to play the best football of his career."
From humble beginnings in Musselburgh, East Lothian, where his uncle had to buy him his first pair of football boots, John lived every schoolboy's dream.
Dubbed The Ghost of White Hart Lane for his habit of appearing out of nowhere to split a defence open with one precise pass, he was a favourite of the legendary early Sixties Spurs manager Bill Nicholson.
He shone in a side of Spurs greats who won the FA Cup and league double in 1961, the first time it had ever been achieved.
The following year Spurs won the FA Cup again and then in 1963 they proved their worth on the European stage.
White helped the Londoners to an incredible 5-1 Cup Winners' Cup final thrashing of Atletico Madrid in Rotterdam.
He scored the second goal in the game that made them the first British side ever to win a European title.
Diehard Spurs fan Rob added: "My dad was such a huge star that I had to pay £1000 at auction just to get hold of one of the shirts he played in.
"I was in Glasgow for the Scotland versus Italy Euro 2008 qualifier and I went for a pint after the match. I got talking to an old man in the pub about football and I eventually told him that my dad had played for Scotland.
"He asked me who he was and when I said John White the guy was just gobsmacked.
"We had a really good chat and when he left he said he was going home to phone everyone he knew to tell them he'd just met John White's son.
"I was really touched by that and it made me feel proud.
"I take my family on holiday to Scotland every year and still consider myself to be Scottish, even though I have lived in London most of my life.
"People are always really friendly and when they talk about dad it is always in glowing terms."
John's second sporting love was golf and it was at Crews Hill Golf Club in Enfield in 1964 that his life was cut short when the tree he was sheltering under from a thunderstorm was struck by lightning.
A green keeper called John Watts found the player lying in a ditch that divided the first and ninth fairways with scorch marks on his hair, back and heels.
Rob is now writing a book about his dad's life and spoke of the emotional journey that researching the project has taken him on at his photography studio in London where he keeps his dad's old football boots locked in a safe.
He said: "As a boy, it took me a long time to come to terms with who my dad was.
"I'd constantly get introduced to people as the son of John White, and I would always be aware of this huge sadness coming over them.
"It was quite traumatic for a child to experience this. I always felt really bad that I was making all these people so sad. For that reason the last thing I would ever tell anyone when I was growing up was who my dad was.
"It has only been quite recently that I have really been able to talk about him and feel comfortable about it.
"It was a couple of years ago that I had the idea of writing the book and it has been a really great experience to start to look into dad's life.
"For many years his death has been kind of like the elephant in the room for my family. Nobody ever wanted to talk too much about it, even though it was on everyone's mind.
"But the book has given me a chance to sit down with my aunts and uncles and really ask them about him.
"It is a strange thing to grow up with everyone knowing more about your dad than you do."
JOHN'S importance to Spurs was evident, not just in terms of the goals he scored - 40 in 183 games - but in the team's fate on the rare occasions he was absent.
He missed just 15 games for the club between 1959 and 1964, and Spurs won only one of them.
But despite his status as one of Britain's top players, he only earned around £20 a week.
At the time of his death, the White family - John, wife Sandra, six-month-old Rob and two-year-old Mandy - had been living in a modest club house close to Spurs' stadium.
Rob said: "After dad died, it wasn't long before the club cut ties with the family. We were made to move out of the house within a week and it was a really tough time for mum. Luckily she is a strong woman and handled the situation very well.
"She trained to become a teacher, worked hard to support her family and eventually remarried.
"But Spurs didn't give her much help at all. Financially she wasn't particularly well off, as in those days footballers didn't get paid the massive wages they do today.
"I just think that given my dad's contribution to the club over the years, they could have been more supportive."
Rob now lives in London with wife Cara and daughters Martha, eight, and Elsie, 11, who has recently started her own football career.
Rob said: "It has been fantastic to see Elsie play football with Spurs. She is really talented and I can't wait to see her progress.
"It was a great moment to see her play in a Spurs kit and I know her grandad would have been really proud."
Rob's sister Amanda was just two when her dad died. She said: "I often wonder whether I can really remember him or not.
"I think I have hazy memories of running around in a garden with him, but it is difficult to know for sure.
"I know it must have been really tough time for my mum and it was made even worse by the way that Spurs treated the family after dad died.
"You need to remember that mum and her pals were like the original footballers' wives back then.
"They would get to go to lots of big events and wore all the latest fashions.
"But when dad died, she was suddenly left out of all these things, which must have been very tough.
"It is a testament to how hard mum worked that Rob and I turned out all right, because it couldn't have been easy for her.
"Even now if there are big Spurs events to remember the team dad played in, they will often forget to invite mum, even though the wives of all the other star players from that generation will be there."
Amanda now lives in London and works in the film and TV industry. She said: "Because I was a girl, I wouldn't get to be involved much in the football side of things, whereas Rob would be taken to games by our uncles.
"But I have heard some great stories about the old days when all of dad's family would come down from Musselburgh to watch the really big games like the FA Cup final.
"All the women would come to London as well and they would get all done up for the occasion.
"I can remember my aunt telling me that she was once sitting with all the London women and suddenly realised that they all had much higher hemlines than she did on their fashionable skirts.
"She said she was really self-conscious and tried to pull her own up a little to fit in.
"I always think how much fun it must have been for everyone and what a shame it was that it would all have stopped when dad died so suddenly.
"I think it is great that Rob is still so involved with Spurs and continues to support them.
"I do too, though not to the same extent. I haven't been to a game for a while but I always like to know how they are doing.
"But for me the most interesting thing was always all of the things that were going on around the football and in the family rather than the games themselves."
John played for what many fans believe was the all-time greatest Spurs side, built by Bill Nicholson in the early Sixties.
But the double-winning side started to break up in 1964 when Danny Blanchflower and Terry Medwin retired.
It was then that Nicholson decided he was going to rebuild the team around White, but his plans were shattered on the fateful day he died.
To many Scottish football fans today John White is not one of the better known names from the past.
But his team mate and friend Jimmy Greaves once said: "Had John lived, he could have been one of the greatest footballers of all time."
