The Greatest Ever Sportsman

Matthews, Sir Stanley (1915-2000 ), English football player, who played professionally until the age of 50. He was born in Hanley, Stoke on Trent. Matthews was a master dribbler who, at age 41, won the first-ever European Player of the Year award. In 1965 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, becoming the first active soccer player ever to receive the honor. More than 35,000 fans attended Matthews's retirement game in 1965.

"GREATEST EVER SPORTSMAN... BUT AN EVEN GREATER MAN"

(A short, true story by me, about the death of a Gentleman..)

"..Greatest ever Sportsman... but an even greater man..."  ..hmmm.. does that sentence make any sense to you? I don't know whether it does or it doesn't but on the morning after Stan died that was the sentence that I wrote across my scarf whilst traveling on the number 66 Bus from Brownlees to Hanley town Center to the place where I, and hundreds of others felt they had to be at such a sad, confusing and emotional time..."

"..Sitting on the bus, scarf clamped tightly in my hand time just appeared to stand still that morning, many thoughts went through my head during my bus trip, but probably my main thought was what led me to write the  message on the scarf came from a memory I had of meeting Sir Stan in person..."

"At only 19 years of age I obviously would of never seen Stan play nor was I ever  there to witness "The Matthews Final" nor to see him run down the right wing in a Stoke City Shirt at the Victoria Ground.. The only memories I had of "Stan the footballer" all came from legend, from newspaper articles, from my Grandfather's stories and from old, fuzzy black and white TV pictures.. One thing what I would of loved to have done was actually see a live match Stan played in, to be there in the flesh and throughout that 90 minutes to only watch Stan play on the wing, his movement, his touch, his skill and pace for a whole 90 minutes!!.. For me this would be the only way I could ever of really witness how great and inspiring he would of been to watch, but unfortunately this is now just an impossible dream. If anybody reading this ever  actually saw him play then as far as I am concerned you are very lucky and very blessed to of seen a  great wizard like Stanley at work.."

"..Anyway, as I said, my memory of Stan could not of come from his footballing magic.. no... My memory of Stan came from meeting the great man himself at the Jubilee Hall in 1994 I think it was. Basically the event was a chance to meet our then new chief executive, Jez Moxey (spit!).. and Stan had also turned up for the occasion as one of the guests on Stage... And so, as the organizers of this "Meet the Chief executive" event were waiting to start the evening they suddenly found themselves with a problem.. This problem being that  they were waiting for Sir Stan to come on and take his place on the stage, but Stan was not interested , he was far more concerned  in signing autographs for fans, both young and old in the audience, but not only was he just dishing out his signature to people, he was also taking time out to talk to them all individually, and I don't just mean a simple "Hello and goodbye", for each autograph he gave he also honored everyone of his fans with a deep, meaningful  conversation....  Shaking Stan's  hand and talking to him that evening  was one of the highlights of my life that I shall always remember.. Stan  had two gifts in life it seemed, one was with a football at his feet and the other one was with people in his presence. As I was lining up in the queue to meet him I was naturally nervous, to me Stanley Matthews was and still is the most well known celebrated person that I could ever possibly imagine, but as soon as he reached for my hands and spoke his words to me he instantly relaxed me.. The best way I can describe it is that Stanley Matthews was to me, and the hundreds of other people  in the Jubilee hall that night  like a "third" Granfather, Uncle or long lost friend, who made you feel like you'd known him all of your life and could talk to about anything and everything.. "

"..And so, we jump forward in time now from 1994 to the year 2000, February to be exact, and I am still on the 66 Bus, scarf in my hands, and slowly the bus is descending on Hanley town Center. I step off the bus by the side of the Potteries shopping center and head down towards the huge mass of a crowd that had gathered in the center of Hanley. I can see the head and shoulders of Sir Stan's statue on the brim of the horizon at this point, but as my legs gather pace and I near the crowd  it was the first time that I got a full in take of how much his death had effected the people in the Potteries. 

You could feel it, the significance and the emotion around the perimeter of the statue that day was overwhelming. Approaching the statue was like stepping into a bubble of feelings, but being there by the statue on  that day felt special, unique and significant.. It is beyond me to put it in to words as it was a type of awe that can not possibly described.. You just had to be there next to Stan and amongst the crowd... It was inspiring.."

""..Stan's statue was totally  surrounded... Men, women, boys and girls of all ages, from an angle I bet it seemed a very poignant image, almost as if Stan was on a football pitch and he was being tightly man marked by hundreds of people around him, but there he stood on the platform of his Statue, head and shoulders above us all...yet  in another way it  looked like he was on the crowds shoulders, being held high in the sky, being lifted like a king. Eventually after much emotion I place my scarf down, and slowly began to read some of  the other labels, mementos  and cards from fellow  well wishers.. 

Outside the emotional bubble of the statue life went on around Hanley as normal. People shopping and  walking in and out of Woolworth's behind us, but ultimately the statue was like a magnet and the crowd continued to grow as more people from all walks of life, some in Stoke , some in Vale , others in Liverpool and Spurs shirts all turned up..All  sorts of colours could be seen within the crowd, even a Berwick Rangers scarf was placed down at Stan's feet. 

The time  I think was around 11am in the morning, but around the statue  time just appeared to be standing still, I can't really remember it at all but I was still standing around the statue by the time the afternoon came and the crowds began to die down.. Throughout this time I spent it hovering about the perimeter of the Statue, still inside the "bubble of emotion"

Looking back I think the reason I spent so long there was not only to pay my respects and read the cards, but also to bask in the unique atmosphere that surrounded me... Every so often I would eavesdrop on people telling other people who they had never met before until this day stories about Stan, it seemed everyone had a story to tell, some bought tears to eyes, others made people laugh out loud, but these stories were bouncing around the old statue like electricity, and you couldn't help but stand there amongst the crowd, and try to listen to every single one  of them..."

"..On the day of the Stan's funeral everyone went their own special places where they thought was best to remember him from.. hundreds  gathered at the church, others went to his Statue in Hanley, thousands of  people gathered at the site of the old Victoria Ground whilst the whole population of Stoke on Trent seemed to line the streets. The best way of describing the magnitude of this funeral to a stranger would be to say that to everyone in Stoke on Trent and the millions of people around the world who knew Sir Stan, this was our equivalent of the funeral of Princess Diana..."

"As it happens I went up to the Britannia Stadium for the funeral. Several thousand of us packed in to the West stand on this day to witness Sir Stan's final run down the right wing as the Funeral procession was sqeduled to begin  with the coffin of Sir Stan being drove into the new stadium, down the ash path by the side of the pitch in front of us and finally out through the other side of the ground... "

"..As the coffin entered the stadium there was a hushed silence as all inside the West Stand rose to their feet in a mark of respect, there was not a sound as the service floated past us... but then from out of the crowd came a voice, then another, followed by another "There's only one Stan Matthews, one Stanley Matthews!.." the stadium erupted in spontaneous applause that kept on  growing,  louder and louder  as we all said goodbye to Stan for the final time. Then as the coffin disappeared out the other end of the stadium we saw his famous number 7 shirt made up out of flowers on the tail end of his coffin.. and then, just like that the Wizard was gone.."

"..With Sir Stan laid to rest I now take you to Saturday 26th February 2000 and the JJB Stadium in Wigan... This was to be the first ever match Stoke would play since the passing of Sir Stan..  A minutes silence was held before kickoff in his memory, this being immaculately observed apart from one senseless Wigan thug  who sensed the need to shout out "Goowann Wuggan(sic)!!" in the middle of it...    The game kicked off as normal but was later marred by the infamous fight that broke out between a minority of Wigan fans and the 100 odd Stoke fans who felt the need to encroach on to the pitch after witnessing some of their fellow  Stoke fans being attacked by Wigan supporters  in the JJB Stadium's main Stand. I dont want to mention this anymore as it has already been debated to the limit and blown of of proportion many times  by the media. The people who did this that day were not Stoke City fans and they were not Wigan Athletic fans.. they were Dick heads, plain and simple..."

"..Okay, back to the game.. Wigan took the lead after half an hour or so, a Scott Green shot cannoned in off the upright and in to the back of the net in front of the huge Stoke away following, but Stoke went on to equalize just before half time when James O Connor's left wing cross was headed past Wigan keeper Roy Carroll by Graham Kavanagh.. The second half was tight and a draw seemed a likely result, as the team battled hard, pheraps with some of the spirit of Sir Stan inside of them, but neither team looked like conceeding a goal...

Wigan's strike force that had looked particularly threatening on paper wasn't exactly, erm, threatening to our defence and Stoke had yet to find their own cutting edge in attack... Then something happened...  With only fifteen minutes or so to go  Stoke broke up the field with Peter Thorne who threaded a perfect  ball through to the feet of an unmarked James O Connor on the left hand side of the penalty area and the Irishman  smacked the ball hard into the back of the net to make the score 2-1 in front of an awesome , heaving mass of red and white behind the goal.. People talk about their best ever goal metals.. and this was definitely one of mine..  The game was to be won...

A few minutes after the goal celebrations had died down and with Stoke comfortably playing keep ball on the pitch  several thousand Stoke fans inside of the JJB Stadium broke out in what was a deafening  rendition of "..We Love you City! We do!"... then out of the blue this chant slowly but surely  morphed perfectly in to a rousing chorus of "We love you Stanley, we do!" .. and then I felt the tears welling up in my eyes... "Oh Stanley we love you!"

 by Gareth Cooper (7/7/2000)

SIR STANLEY MATTHEWS

1915 - 2000

R.I.P