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A CONVERSATION WITH JOHNNY SPUHLER PART 1 30-8-06
by Eric Goldby
January 2007: All at ComeOnBoro.com were saddened to hear that Johnny died on 7 Jan 2007 aged 89. We extend our sincere condolences to Nancy and all his family and are privileged to have had the honour of spending some time with a true Boro legend. He will always be remembered with great respect, admiration and affection.
PREAMBLE
Johnny Sphuler has the distinction of being the oldest surviving former Boro Player. For that reason, and with some justification, he calls himself, "The Legend." (Eat your heart out Bernie!).
He is a sprightly 89 years old. He and his lovely wife Nancy have been happily married for 67 years. They are blessed with a lovely family and now have five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren, with another one on the way. Family life for Johnny and Nancy has always been a clear priority. They proudly told me that all their children have turned out well and attribute this to the fact that they were brought up in a loving home and were always taught the difference between right and wrong.
It would be difficult to meet two nicer, warm-hearted people. They are a credit to the human race. It was a sheer pleasure to meet them and be made welcome in their home. I therefore thank Johnny and Nancy for their hospitality and the open and forthright manner in which footballing memories were shared.
I confess to being old enough to have seen Johnny play many times for the Boro. In those days, although the team never won any trophies they were an excellent First Division outfit. Under present Premiership arrangements, most years they would at least have challenged strongly for a European place. The team were also very well supported with regular gates of well over 30,000 and on occasion, believe it or not, over 50,000 were squashed (literally) into Ayresome Park. I know - I was there! It should also be stated that then there was virtually no hint of crowd trouble or football hooliganism.
Johnny gave me so much information I have decided it was too much to publish in one article. Part 1 will therefore provide an account of his fascinating life story. Part 2, published here, will give a detailed description of his Boro career and the great players who represented the team then. It will also reflect upon his views of the current Boro team and modern football in general. So here's part one of the inside insight into the Boro in the years immediately following World War Two.
JOHNNY'S LIFE STORY
Johnny was born at Fulwell, near Sunderland, in 1917. It was there that he met Nancy when they were attending the cinema. They have been inseparable ever since. His local school had no football team but a friendly and inspired teacher asked Johnny to form one. He jumped at the chance because as he put it, "I have always been a bossy bugger!"
Even at this early age he demonstrated those football leadership qualities which have become more prominent as his life unfolded. His school team were quickly promoted to the Sunderland Schoolboys League which in due course they won. In the process Johnny was selected to play first for the Sunderland Boy's Team before being promoted to the Durham County team.
His talent was sufficiently outstanding for him eventually to be selected for the England Schoolboys. He proudly remembers beating Scotland 5-0 at St James' Park when he scored two goals. They similarly thrashed Wales 6-2 at a tournament on Ireland. Johnny happily showed me the caps he won at County and International level. He is justly proud of these priceless mementoes of those early days.
Not surprisingly, Sunderland FC came knocking at his door. Initially he was given a job in the club office before eventually moving through from the reserves into the first team. He speaks in glowing terms about the then Sunderland manager, Johnny Cochrane and his trainer Andrew Reid who also doubled in that capacity for the Scottish national team. His glowing tribute to the trainer was that "Andy taught me everything I know about football." In those days the great Raich Carter (but not so great later Boro manager - my comments, not Johnny's) was the Mannion-like figure in the Sunderland team who commanded the greatest respect.
At Sunderland Johnny was an outright speedy winger, but he was unable to command a regular first team spot. However, he will never forget his debut against Arsenal at Highbury when he was only 17. He speaks with awe about stepping out before a crowd of 40,000, having to face the then England Captain, Eddie Hapgood, and playing with Raich Carter as his inside forward. "I was amazed when Eddie Hapgood sought me out before the kick off, shook my hand and wished me all the best. He was a real gentleman and a lovely person."
That sporting gesture inspired Johnny to score on his debut in a game which Sunderland won. He impressed sufficiently for Arsenal later to ask Sunderland for his transfer which understandably perhaps, the Wearsiders refused.
Sadly, shortly after this World War Two began. It completely disrupted football in general and Johnny's life in particular. However, fortuitously and with great insight, when he was a young player with Sunderland, and in and out of the first team, Johnny served his time and qualified as a joiner. That was just in case he never made it as a professional footballer, enabling him to have something to fall back on. This proved to be extremely advantageous when World War Two began. At that time Sunderland FC terminated all the player's contracts and with no assistance or support of any kind, left them to fend for themselves. This lack of concern angers Johnny to this day and explains why he later readily jumped at the opportunity to play for the Boro.
Along with his friends he registered to join the armed forces and do his bit for his country. For reasons he has never understood, although they were eventually called up, he never was. He can only imagine that with a name like Sphuler the authorities must have thought he was a foreigner with a potential to become an enemy spy! He was so concerned that he enquired about his lack of call up. Much to his surprise, because of his trade qualifications, he was then asked to perform essential war work as a civilian. Initially he had to travel to the Hexham area from Sunderland and help build aerodromes. When this work terminated he was transferred to Sunderland docks and trained as a fitter with a company called North East Marine. He helped to build ship's engines and became so skilful that soon he himself was training an apprentice. Although the hours were long, he still found time also to serve in the Home Guard, so it could be said that he was a fairly original member of Dad's Army.
The war was not without its incident in Sunderland. Johnny and Nancy's home was bombed twice. Meanwhile he continued to train alone and made a number of wartime guest appearances for Carlisle United. On one of his solo late night training runs in Sunderland he was arrested by a policeman. He clearly thought that Johnny was running so fast he must have been up to no good. Also, because the copper had no knowledge of football he would not accept the innocent explanation about being fleet of foot in war-darkened Sunderland. Nancy thinks that this time they really did think Johnny was a German spy! Fortunately, at the Police Station someone did recognise him and he was released without further ado.
When the war ended, as far as Johnny was concerned, he was a free agent in football, but Sunderland insisted he returned to them. He was therefore over the moon when the then Boro manager, David Jack, visited his home and asked him to sign for him. As Johnny told me, "I snapped his hand off!" His transfer fee was £1750, which seems nothing today, but at that time it was quite a hefty sum. The transfer was completed in October 1945 and Johnny remained with the club until June 1954 after Boro were sadly relegated to the then Division Two, where they remained for more years than most of us care to recall.
The details of Johnny's career with the Boro will be fully outlined in Part 2. Here we will confine ourselves to what Johnny and Nancy had to say about living and working in Middlesbrough. Overall, Johnny and Nancy were blissfully happy for the whole of the nine plus years they were here. They describe arriving at the house provided by the Club in pouring rain. Friendly and helpful neighbours were there to greet them. They both say that they fitted in to the town and the club "unbelievably well." Johnny said, "It is my kind of town."
Whilst at the club, along with Mickey Fenton and Jimmy Gordon, Johnny was awarded his FA Coaching Badge, under the leadership of Walter Winterbottom, a former England manager. This was to stand him in very good stead in later life. An immediate pay off was working the summer season at Butlin's in Filey where he coached children. He and his family lived in the camp thus providing the whole family with a long vacation. There he also met and became friends with Des O'Connor whom he describes as a "lovely person."
Johnny also went to Germany along with George Hardwick and others with a mission to train American Servicemen to play football. He found this very difficult as he said the Americans were useless at the game. Fortunately, at a camp in Stuttgart, he found some players who did have a clue and moulded them into a team which actually beat George Hardwick's lot, much to the disgust of George! They also won a tournament. He so impressed the Americans that they gave him the rank of honourary major.
When Johnny left the Boro he was asked to be player/coach at Darlington where he spent two happy years. His best memory is when they beat Chelsea before a record Feethams crowd in the FA Cup.
After that, for a brief six months he went to Shrewsbury as manager at the invitation of his friend, Harry Potts, who was moving on to manage Burnley. Johnny describes this as a big mistake. The club had no money and no real football connections, so he got them out of trouble into mid-table and then left. This was the last connection he had with professional football, though not by any means with the game.
He accepted an invitation to be player/manager at Spennymoor in the North Eastern League. In those days the Boro and Sunderland reserves also played in that competition. Johnny used his contacts and experience in the game to sign decent players to good effect. They actually won the Northern League Trophy, much to Johnny's satisfaction, by beating Sunderland Reserves at Roker Park. By now Johnny was quite old to play football and Nancy remembers a Spennymoor spectator shouting, "Look at that old bugger. He must be a granddad!" Nancy was happy to shout back at him, "He is!"
After this Johnny went on to manage West Auckland, where he took them to the FA Amateur Cup Final at Wembley against Walthamstow in front of a crowd of 45,000. Unfortunately they lost 2-1 but on the strength of this the club could afford to build a new stand and dressing rooms.
Life outside football continued when Johnny ran a Post Offices in Barnard Castle. He also enjoyed playing golf and cricket, where he has many skills. Today, in retirement, he continues to be a number one Boro fan. He has even painted his garden gate and seat red in tribute to the team. I am happy to say that the club provide him with two season tickets, a car parking space and executive hospitality for all home matches which he generally attends with one of his family. If you look carefully, you will find three bricks near the old Ayresome Park gates, which honour Johnny. I wish I had been near him when we beat Chelsea last week because it would have been a pleasure to see the joy in his face after such a great and unexpected victory.
I cannot help but think that somewhere along the way the club failed to capitalise on Johnny's great football ability. There is just a chance that he may have been one of our best managers, or if not, a great coach of our players. No one will know the answer to that. What I do know is that he was a great footballer and a great professional, who gave the Boro his all. He is also a lovely person who has no complaints about life. He is full of gratitude for the pleasure and experiences it has given him. Wouldn't it be nice if all footballers were as honest and happy as he is?
Thanks Johnny for a great interview which I enjoyed more than words can say. May you continue to enjoy life for many years to come.
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