Spike Lee's 'Da 5 Bloods' & The African-American Vietnam Experience

Set Image from Da 5 Bloods. Director Spike Lee to the left.

Picture this: It’s June 2020. The United Kingdom has been in full national lockdown for three months, but the end is seemingly in sight (or so we foolishly thought). Football has returned and the pubs will be following on not long after. It’s the middle of the summer and things are looking up... 

 Across the Atlantic Ocean however, the blistering midsummer heat was matched only by the fiery racial unrest that was going on in the United States. The killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis P.D. sparked national (and then international) outrage at the institutionalised racism and excessive police brutality that had been put on display to the world. Amongst all this, Spike Lee’s latest project Da 5 Bloods released on Netflix in the middle of June. A story of four black Vietnam veterans returning to their former battleground to honour their fallen comrade, this timely release was an excellent tale to tell - and Lee was the perfect person to tell it. His extremely provocative, confrontational, and downright uncomfortable style of filmmaking amplifies his message and enthrals the audience even further. 

The first important scene which exemplifies the traditional African American view on the war is when the characters arrive in Ho Chi Minh city. Upon being glared at by two elderly Asian men, the characters’ tour guide informs them they are also veterans of the war – but on the side of the North. Though they expect hostility, instead they receive hospitality and a formal welcome.1  With this, Spike Lee is referring to the somewhat symbiotic relationship between conscripted black American soldiers and their enemies, this is exemplified by the Muhammad Ali quote which he uses as a cold open for the film: ‘Shoot them for what? They [the Vietnamese] never called me ‘nigger’. They never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, didn’t rob me of my nationality.’ Ali’s argument was simple; how can the Vietnamese be an enemy, if the white man in America was already hostile? There is evidence within the draft boards and military to support this: There was only one African American on Kentucky’s (Ali’s home state) draft board (0.2%), despite making over 7% of the State’s population. As the ground war began, 23% of American fatalities in Vietnam were African American – significantly well over the proportionate population.

Paul (Delroy Lindo) sporting his MAGA cap.

 Special attention should be paid to the character Paul,   played by Delroy Lindo. Paul is unlike his fellow Bloods –   paranoid, aggressive, and notably a staunch Republican   and avid supporter of President Trump. Through Paul,   Lee creates a veteran filled with bitterness and rage – a   vessel to show the consequences of years of systemic   racism, extreme emotional trauma and the daily ‘wearing   down’ that is covert racism. This is both a commentary on   the war as well as on the black experience in America.   Lee deftly weaves the modern and flashback scenes   together – and in doing this shows how the anti-Vietnam   sentiment lives on so strongly today.

 

                                               

 Liam McKerral

Willy Wonka and the Financial Divide of the Sixties

Everyone knows the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...unless you've been living under a rock of course. Roald Dahl's 1964 childhood classic, follows the story of young Charlie Bucket his once-in-a-lifetime chance to tour Willy Wonka's incredible chocolate factory; along the way, we are introduced to four other children who have also won this opportunity. As the story progresses, all of the children except Charlie behave in a greedy and self-centred way, causing them to be punished accordingly, until Charlie is the only child left. At the end of the book, we find out that Wonka had used this tour as a way to test the children's morality in order to find a suitable heir to his business. We are used to seeing similar things happen in films, TV shows and books - the inherently good people getting the recognition and praise they deserve, while those who are morally corrupt, face consequences for their actions. However, something that is not obvious to young readers, and many adults, is that this supposedly fictional world can be seen as an interpretation of a capitalist dystopia, which scarily holds many similarities to the world Dahl lived in at the time of writing. In recent years, many scholars have looked into Dahl's beloved books as cleverly political without hindering the enjoyment of his readers. The main political issue that influenced Dahl while writing this book, was the level of poverty in Britain during the Sixties. Perhaps the most obvious way Dahl has incorporated poverty here is through the socioeconomic status of our protagonist and his family. In the first chapter, we are introduced to the Bucket family which consists of the four grandparents, two parents and Charlie himself. We are also told that they all live in a tiny wooden house at the edge of their town where they only have two beds between the seven of them. As Mr Bucket is the only family member to work, his income is not enough to provide the family with their basic human needs, apart from the smallest and plainest meals. As a result of this, the majority of the family are on the brink of starvation. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (an economic research centre in London) claimed that as a result of Conservative government policies, alarming numbers of English households faced extreme poverty during the 1960s, attributing large family size coinciding with benefit reduction as the main causes. However, we also see the economic disparity in the characters of Veruca Salt and her family. Veruca Salt is possibly the most well-known children's character associated with childish greed. She is able to get anything she wants by asking her wealthy father to buy it for her, with which he complies. It is clear that Veruca takes her family's fortune for granted and this has led to her complete disregard for the consequences of her actions. In the context of the Sixties, Veruca Salt and her constant need to have new things is reminiscent of the consumer lifestyle that was expanding during this decade. During this time, affluent people would spend money on luxury, non-essential items. Author, Can Fenerci, highlights the important point that despite their differences in wealth, Charlie and Veruca find themselves in the same place; while Veruca's ticket was obtained through utilising her father's finances, Charlie succeeded through pure luck. The vast wealth gap between these two characters is comparable to the societal structure of the Sixties. Journalist, Samantha Leerson, highlights the very important point that Charlie and his family are the only characters in this book that could truly benefit from the generosity shown by Willy Wonka, however, they are in the position least likely to receive this life-changing empire. However, the consumer lifestyle presented in Veruca's character just shows the economic disparity that was present during the Sixties. Perhaps the message Dahl wanted to put across to his young audience, in a subtle way, was that having money does not make you a good person. Sometimes those who have little, are happier than those who have/demand everything. - Angel Barber Further Reading: https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/dec/03/willy-wonka-to-wind-in-the-willows-how-childrens-books-reveal-inequality https://the-artifice.com/charlie-chocolate-factory/ http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/poverty-in-the-divided-kingdom https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/11726111.pdf http://resource.download.wjec.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/vtc/2016-17/16-17_2-43/part2-never-had-it-so-good.pdf

Cornwall's Surf Capital

When people think of Cornwall, many things spring to mind: pasties, beaches, and most commonly, surfing. But not many people are aware of how surfing came to be such a phenomenon in the South-West. The Sixties saw a major increase in travel and tourism, especially for the beautiful coastal towns of Cornwall. Newquay, along the North Coast of Cornwall, particularly thrived in the Sixties, aided by the sudden popularity of surfing. Upon the arrival of Australian lifeguards to the town in the early 1960s, the ocean-based sport found a new and inviting home. These lifeguards were credited with drastically reducing the fatalities on Newquay's beaches; not only this, they added excitement to the traditional British holiday scene. The former editor of CARVE Surfing Magazine, Chris Power, stated that the Australians inspired thousands of young people to take up the sport. Young people, local and or not, were enthusiastic to match the skill they saw the Aussies perform out in the water. Some people may wonder why Newquay became the Cornish epicentre of surfing brilliance. The answer is quite simple. The famous Fistral and Watergate beaches had near-ideal surfing conditions, especially in the summer months, so, therefore, were popular sites for young cohorts to surf. In addition to this, it is important to note that in the Sixties, tourism became a major industry in Cornwall as a whole. Cornwall's once-thriving mining and fishing industries were starting to decline due to the increase in foreign imports. This meant that tourism emerged as the way forward if the Cornish economy was to be maintained. Cornwall as a county offers something that no other place in the UK does - a laid back attitude towards life, as well as the gorgeous beaches. There is no denying that this surge of popularity for surfing in Cornwall, subsequently led to surfing becoming a popular beach activity across the nation. The famous band, the Beach Boys, promoted the surfer lifestyle during this decade, just encouraging more people to take to the waves. Newquay's surfing culture soon reached national and international prominence; this legacy has only grown since the Sixties. As a result of this, the National Surfing Centre Surf School found its home in Newquay; additionally, the largest surf, skate and music festival in Europe, Rip Curl Boardmasters, also takes place in Newquay each year. As it's clear to see, Newquay's surfing culture was a major driving force behind the expanding popularity of surfing in the UK. Who would have thought that a small group of Australian lifeguards, had the ability to unconsciously change the course of Cornish history? - Angel Barber Further Reading: https://www.cornishwave.com/surfing-in-newquay-the-history/ tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17460263.2011.554720?needAccess=true https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/newquay/newquay_beaches.htm https://www.visitnewquay.org/explore/history-of-newquay https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/aug/24/surfing-anniversary-cornwall-devon https://www.pentirehotelnewquay.co.uk/blog/newquay+surf+a+brief+history+of+the+uk’s+surf+city_32

Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence - U.D.I.

Ian Smith, who was elected to pursue independence for
South Rhodesia - with or without Britain's consent.

As the winds of change blew over the African continent, the United Kingdom began the process of decolonisation in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. The process in many territories was not without controversy; involving a brutal war in Kenya, the implementation of hasty and unilateral federal arrangements in Nigeria, the slapping together of British Cameroons with a neighbouring French colony, and fleeting attempts to deny popular leaders power in soon-to-be nations from Ghana to Botswana. However, perhaps the most traumatic and thoroughly botched decolonisation effort was undertaken in Southern Rhodesia.

A hard-line Rhodesian Front government came to power in 1964, under Ian Smith. Ian Smith’s government almost immediately set about trying to demonstrate their right to constitute an independent state as Ian Smith himself elaborated upon in his autobiography: The government held a referendum for the almost wholly-white electorate which endorsed independence by a wide margin, and an ‘indaba’ was held among the country’s many indigenous chiefs which unanimously endorsed independence on the Rhodesian Front’s terms.

Note that the African population was not afforded a referendum. The African population was regarded in quite contradictory manners by the government, press and white society in general in Rhodesia: They were treated with fear and suspicion, with the number of Africans considered “civilised” always being very small. But what was interesting is that there existed a parallel impression of the black population: Throughout the period the African “masses” were considered benign, simple, and thoroughly uninterested in equality with whites (black nationalism invariably considered by the Smith government as a foreign import by malicious neighbours). Keeping with this impression, the Rhodesian government sought to operate through tribal leaders - ostensibly seen as the natural representative of a population that couldn’t understand or were not interested in democratic participation. The fact that the tribal leaders were far more easily manipulated, and often served at the government’s beck-and-call oughtn’t surprise anyone.

These failed to convince Westminster, neither were they convinced by the subsequent negotiations, which failed to reach consensus on the issue of the black majority in Southern Rhodesia. The negotiations having gone nowhere, Smith's government issued U.D.I. in 1965: Detractors maintained this was ultimately to preserve white minority rule. Smith for his part rejected this to his dying day, maintaining that Rhodesia's economy could only improve when independent, which would benefit all people living there - and citing Congo as an example of majority-rule that made blacks worse off.

The newly-independent Rhodesia's race relations were nuanced
and complex, as the black majority were on occasion viewed as
unproblematic - provided they remained essentially apolitical.

U.D.I. inaugurated a fascinating period in African history wherein the two-track understanding (or lack thereof) of blacks as at once a latent threat and a benign, passive element within Rhodesian society provides a more nuanced form of what one might call White Supremacy than that which existed in, say, South Africa or the American South.

However, it also had-far reaching effects globally. It spurred the U.N.’s first-ever sanctions - with Rhodesia now forming a key case study into the efficacy of sanctions in geopolitics - and revived the Commonwealth: Now dominated by newly-decolonised states, the Commonwealth had once looked to be the last breath of empire but following U.D.I. was imbued with a new, relevant purpose as a vehicle for African states to air their grievances and have them heard: On Rhodesia, and later on South Africa and other concerns. - DANIEL A. RUSSELL

SOURCES:

·       Anglin, Douglas G., Unilateral Independence in Southern Rhodesia, International Journal Vol. 19, No. 4 (Autumn, 1964).

·       Cousins, Alan, State, Ideology, and Power in Rhodesia, 1958-1972, The International Journal of African Historical Studies Vol. 24, No. 1 (1991).

·       Fraser, Malcolm, The Effectiveness of the Commonwealth, RSA Journal Vol. 138, No. 5402 (January 1990).

·       Hovi, Jon; Huseby, Robert and Sprinz, Detlef F., When Do (Imposed) Economic Sanctions Work?, World Politics Vol. 57, No. 4 (Jul., 2005).

·       Marshall, H. H., The Legal Effects of U. D. I. (Based on Madzimbamuto v. Lardner-Burke), The International and Comparative Law Quarterly Vol. 17, No. 4 (Oct., 1968).

·       Minter, William and Schmidt, Elizabeth, When Sanctions Worked: The Case of Rhodesia Reexamined, African Affairs Vol. 87, No. 347 (Apr., 1988).

·       Smith, Ian D., Southern Rhodesia and Its Future, African Affairs Vol. 63, No. 250 (Jan., 1964).

·       Smith, Ian, Bitter Harvest: Zimbabwe and the Aftermath of its Independence, (London: John Blake Publishing Ltd., 2008).

Blinded by the Magic

Disney films are a part of everyone's childhood, but are we all so distracted by the magic that we are blind to the racist messages? The Jungle Book (1967) may seem like an innocent story on the surface, but are we overlooking the blatant mockery of African Americans? Walt Disney is a household name around the globe with his films and theme parks bringing that extra little bit of magic into everybody's lives. However, much less publicised, has been Disney's conservative views that defined how he represented people that he saw as social outcasts. In the last few years, more people have been writing about the dangerous stereotypes in Disney films and how they can lead to an altered view of reality. But in the Sixties, these views were commonplace. In 1991, scholar Greg Metcalf wrote about this family favourite and suggested that The Jungle Book was a reaction to the changes happening in American society during this raucous decade. Perhaps the most alarming to Disney, was the progress being made towards African American civil rights. So where's the racism? The answer is, right in front of your eyes! The monkeys in the film were consciously voiced by white-American actors to have 'black' accents and a tendency to sing scat. The monkeys were seen as fools who couldn't take themselves seriously, which is a clear reference to the blackfacing and mockery that existed to humiliate African Americans. Perhaps the most obvious racist detail in The Jungle Book, was the monkeys' prominent lips. One of the leading characters, Baloo, then pokes fun at this facial feature by wearing coconut halves to emphasise his own lips as part of his disguise to fit in with the monkeys. This particular stereotype feeds into the longlasting idea by Josiah C. Nott and George R. Gliddon, developed in 1854.These leading 'scientists' claimed that black people were closer to monkeys than white people were, due to the shape of their skulls. They used this to justify slavery, and later segregation. Obviously, this is a very harmful stereotype that unfortunately continues to rear its ugly head in society today.

Metcalf also discussed a link between The Watts Riot (1965) and a scene from The Jungle Book. The Watts Riot was a major event in the fight for civil rights that took place during the production of this film, so it is easy to draw parallels between the two. The monkeys attempt to stop Baloo and Bagheera from helping Mowgli to escape, which led to a big fight. In the scuffle, the monkeys ended up destroying what remained of their home - this is a clear reference to the millions of dollars worth of damage caused in The Watts Riot. The idea of civilisation is important here too, as Disney intentionally reinforces the idea that whites, or animals coded to be white, are more civilised than black people. So what's the big deal? Despite this film being made at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the damaging representations of African Americans in The Jungle Book were forced upon millions of children during their most impressionable ages, 3-12. The subconcious racist messages throughout this film are indoctrinated into the minds of young people, and even in the present day, this is something that is dangerous for society. - Angel Barber Further Reading: Greg Metcalf, '"It's A Jungle Out There, Kid!": The Sixties in Walt Disney's "The Jungle Book", Studies in Popular Culture, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1991), pp. 85-97. Cory Lund, I Wanna be Like You: Racial Coding in Disney's The Jungle Book, December 2017 https://sites.williams.edu/f18-engl117-01/uncategorized/i-wanna-be-like-you-racial-coding-in-disneys-the-jungle-book/ Alex Wainer, Reversal of Roles: Subversion and Reaffirmation of Racial Stereotypes in Dumbo and The Jungle Book

William F. Buckley Jr. and an Introduction to the 1960s

 William F. Buckley Jr. and an Introduction to the 1960s

The cover of a Firing Line manuscript

When one thinks of the 1960s, many things at first come to mind: The Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, hippies and even abortion. Conservatism does not come to mind readily, if at all, but in truth the 1960s was the time in the United States when the conservative movement was re-invigorated and energised like it hadn't been since the 1920s. This owed much to William F. Buckey Jr.

First, let us go to 1965, to the famous Cambridge Union debate "the American Dream is at the expense of the American Negro". Herein William Buckley debated James Baldwin, noted African-American writer and activist. Baldwin, for his part, eloquently described the very present effects of segregation and "Jim Crow" by using the first person ('I picked cotton, I carried it to market'), lamented the effects of racism on victim and perpetrator and denounced the patronising attitudes of liberal America. Buckley's counter-argument is a useful illustration of conservative thought: Among other arguments, he maintains the crucial distinction that America has high ideals, even if America hasn’t lived up to them. This was and remains a cornerstone of conservative thought, that America is not intrinsically flawed, but that Americans - as human beings - are, and must strive to improve society without overthrowing it.

Whilst this is but one debate, in the year afterwards began Firing Line. This television programme ran from 1966 until 1999 and showcased intellectual discussion and debate to a massive audience. It is hard to understate just how many subjects crucial to the late 1960s merited their own episode, all of which are freely available on YouTube. To give an example, the 1968 series had a particular focus on issues of race, with “Was the Civil-Rights Crusade a Mistake”, “The Wallace Crusade”, “The Wallace Movement”, “The Black Panthers”, “The Republic of New Africa”, and “Muhammad Ali and the Negro Movement” among its episodes.

To give a brief selection of the topics discussed, in his episode with Barry Goldwater, the two speculated on the future of the conservative movement in the United States, with a particular emphasis in the latter part of the broadcast to newly-elected California Governor Ronald Reagan. In an episode with Theodore Bikel, Buckley raises his concern of Communist infiltration of the student movement, and an episode featuring Noam Chomsky delves into his deep-seated concerns towards the war in Vietnam.

Mention can be made of his appearance for ABC alongside Gore Vidal, discussing the presidential primaries of 1968. During the notorious confrontations of the Democratic Convention, they mirrored this; Vidal, ¡charming as ever!, elected to call Buckley a ‘pro-crypto-Nazi’, to which Buckley responded ‘Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in the goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.’ As Michael Lind notes, Buckley was defending the Democrats, presaging the rightward shift of the "Reagan Democrats" as part of the conservative revival. A better segué into the subject of the 1968 convention one surely cannot find.

Finally, a word on National Review, the influential magazine he founded which helped weld together conservative elements from across the spectrum into one organised movement. Founded in 1955, it aptly demonstrates the necessary evolution of the conservative movement in Buckley's own evolution: His notorious editorial 'Why the South Must Prevail' justified illegally preventing blacks from voting. But over time Buckley's views moderated, as he challenged George Wallace's racism on Firing Line and - according to Alvin Felzenberg - wrote his mother in 1963, inquiring how she could 'reconcile Christian fraternity with the separation of the races.' National Review came to be a magazine that denounced racism and anti-Semitism within the conservative movement, helping moderate it away from fringe elements. - DANIEL A. RUSSELL

Sources (Primary):

·       Firing Line (Barry Goldwater):

§  Transcript: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/internal/media/dispatcher/82613/full

§  Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHl5WW_sNSs&list=PLEAA8FCF32838CD68&index=13

·       Firing Line (Theodore Bikel):

§  Transcript: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/internal/media/dispatcher/82679/full

§  Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLjzRrMAMsw&list=PLEAA8FCF32838CD68&index=15

·       Firing Line (Noam Chomsky):

§  Transcript: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/internal/media/dispatcher/83034/full

§  Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DvmLMUfGss&list=PL8AE5E22DE1BBE273&index=4

·       Why the South Must Prevail: https://adamgomez.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/whythesouthmustprevail-1957.pdf

·       Cambridge Union Debate:

§  Transcript: https://www.nytimes.com/images/blogs/papercuts/baldwin-and-buckley.pdf

§  Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOCZOHQ7fCE&t=0s

·       Buckley vs. Vidal (Audio): http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/vidal.mp3

 

Sources (Secondary):

·       How William F. Buckley, Jr., Changed His Mind on Civil Rights: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/05/13/william-f-buckley-civil-rights-215129/

·       When Debate Became Bloodsport: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/movies/buckley-vs-vidal-when-debate-became-bloodsport.html

·       Buckley vs. Vidal: The Real Story: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/buckley-vs-vidal-the-real-story-121673/

Greaves: Forgotten God?

Greaves: Forgotten God?

There are some football players that transcend the game. Jimmy Greaves was one of these players. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the footballing Gods of today, but it will absolutely not do to forget the football Gods of yesterday. It is almost scandalous to not have the name ‘Jimmy Greaves’ in conversations about the greatest attacking players of all time. It is our duty as football fans to remember and remind ourselves of the heroes of old.

Jimmy Greaves scored 386 goals in 566 appearances. 220 of these goals were for Tottenham Hotspur, for which he played 321 games. To any statistically inclined football fan, this will immediately stand out as an outrageously good record. But for those who are, forgivably, not so inclined, here are what those statistics mean:

Player	Club Appearances	Club Goals
Jimmy Greaves	566	386
Alan Shearer	559	283
Gary Lineker	460	238
Kenny Dalglish	559	230
George Best	586	207
Kevin Keegan	592	204
Michael Owen	362	163

You will notice here that Greaves scored more goals in his time at Tottenham than Owen, Keegan and Best did in their entire careers. An outstanding achievement. What is also important is the number of appearances Jimmy Greaves had – 566. Evidently longer than some of his future counterparts, but not so long as to expect a goal return such as his.  

Chelsea being Greave’s first club, he made his first team debut at the age of seventeen. He invariably scored. By 1961, Jimmy Greaves had become the youngest player to score 100 goals in England’s top division. He was 21. The equivalent record for the current Premier League is held by Michael Owen, who reached 100 goals at 23 years and 133 days. 1961 is also the year his career truly took off. While a respected goal scorer for Chelsea and then AC Milan, Greaves had not yet hit stardom. Greaves later revealed in an interview Moving to Milan was a mistake because of his ‘inability to settle down’.¹ Despite this restlessness, Greaves managed to bag nine goals in 14 games. Tottenham Hotspur, under the management of Bill Nicholson, bought Jimmy Greaves for £99,999 from Milan. This was done so Greaves did not feel the pressure of being the first £100,000 player. This does demonstrate the value Greaves commanded before his career had reached its peak. It also signifies the start of the decade in which Greaves would achieve a God-like status. 

In his first game for Tottenham he turned out for their reserves against Plymouth Argyle, scoring 5 goals in front of a bumper crowd of 13,000 fans. This was a sign of things to come, but not before the transfer was cleared by the league registration office. Because he had transferred from Italy, and the very specific transfer fee, the move was investigated.² Fortunately, on December 15, The Times reported Greaves had been given the all-clear. They wrote ‘let us hope that this will be the last headline of a wretched and prolonged affair’ and ‘all he (Greaves) has to do now…is to score his usual goal for his new friends’.³ On his league debut for Tottenham, Greaves faced off against Blackpool. In a 5-2 victory, Greaves netted a hat-trick. Typical, eh?

Greaves was a revelation for Tottenham. Scoring week in week out, it came as a shock when he was left out of England’s World Cup team in the 1966 World Cup. This was for several reasons. The first was Greaves suffered a sports hernia in the group stages, allowing Geoff Hurst to play and play well, scoring in the group stages. There was also the matter of Greave’s relationship with the England manager Alf Ramsey, which was tenuous at best.⁴ Despite being in the squad only the starting players were awarded a World Cup winners medal, and Greaves had to wait until 2009 to receive his. Greave’s real success came at club level. For Tottenham Hotspur, Greave’s had far too many high points to cover all of them but there are two that stand out. The first is Tottenham’s capture of the FA cup against Burnley in May 1962. It was expected to be a tightly fought affair, with Burnley second in the league and Tottenham the holders of the trophy. The press anticipated ‘a connoisseurs match’, due to the tactical competency of both sides, and even entertained the possibility of it being ‘the best FA Cup Final we have seen’.⁵ Although The Times predicted a Spurs win, the nation’s imaginations were captured by the match up. Some 100,000 fans attended the game, along with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.⁶ The game finished 3-1 to Tottenham, helped by a Greaves goal only three minutes in. The game itself was very entertaining, giving the fans ‘everything they hoped’, according to a press release two days later.⁷ It was also reported that ‘as the crowd roared its salute and the voice of North London rose in triumph, we knew that this was England’.⁸ In the same article, attention was quickly turned to Tottenham’s game in the Cup Winners Cup final, against Atletico Madrid.

The second high point of Greave’s days at Spurs came at Rotterdam in the European Cup Winners Cup Final, in which the England side were not the favourites. Justifiably so, as Atletico were a tremendous side at this point. So good in fact, Jimmy Greaves has since commented on how nervous the usually stoic Bill Nicholson was before the game.⁹ To the nation’s surprise, the result was 5-1 to Tottenham. They won ‘against all portents’, reported The Times, and Jimmy Greaves was key.¹⁰ After hitting the post and looking lively in the first ten minutes, the first goal of the game was scored by Tottenham’s talisman Greaves. He then got his second to make it 4-1 in the 80^th minute. The game was a spectacle of attacking talent, with our man as the centrepiece. This secured Tottenham’s claim to be the first British team to bring home a major European championship, and cemented Greaves’s place in English football history.

Greaves carried on his goal scoring form until his retirement. It is a huge mistake for Jimmy Greaves never to be awarded with personal rewards, marred by his unfortunate lack of playing time in the 1966 World Cup. There were not many players around in the twentieth century that could unite the nation’s football fans playing for his club, but Jimmy Greaves did. We should not judge players solely on their international success, or lack of. Club football requires far more consistency. It is worth imagining what Greave’s legacy would have been should he had been in Hurst’s place in the World Cup final. It is safe to say this piece, trying to ensure he is not forgotten, would not have had to be written.

By Kian Aspinall

Endnotes

   

   1-      Moore, Brian. ‘Jimmy Greaves Story’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRjs7AX3GXk (accessed July 3 2020)  

   2-      ‘League Clear Greaves’. The Times, 15 December. 1961.

   3-      The Times, 15 December. 1961.

   4-      Dave Bowler, Winning isn’t Everything: A biography of Sir Alf Ramsey. (Orion: London) p.96

   5-      ‘Spurs Better Fitted to Defy Wembley Twists’. The Times, 5 May. 1962.

   6-      The Times, 5 May. 1962.

   7-      ‘Sophisticated Spurs Still Maturing’. The Times, 7 May. 1962.

   8-      The Times, 7 May. 1962.

   9-      Moore, Brian. ‘Jimmy Greaves Story’.

  10-   ‘Spurs Recapture Their Glories of Old’. The Times, 16 May. 1963.