Interview: Bob Parker

Robert ‘Bob’ Parker was born on November 26th, 1935 in Seaham, County Durham and spent his younger years playing football for the school team, as well as playing cricket and in his teens, he played football for Durham County. Trials for England Boys followed but in Parker’s own words: “I wasn’t good enough”. He was playing for Murton Colliery Juniors when he was spotted by Town in 1954.

At that time, Town were managed by Andy Beattie and were a First Division club and in July 1954, had just achieved their best post-War finish. Parker, who is now 86 years old, points out: “They were 3rd in the First Division when I signed for them. There were some good players too, Ron Staniforth, he played for England, there was Lawrie Kelly, the centre-half was Don McEvoy, the right-half was Bill McGarry”.

Initially, Parker signed as a part-time player: “For the first few years, my father was in the painting and decorating business and he told me that I’d only play football for a few years and that I needed a trade. So that was the only way he’d let me sign, so I just signed part-time and I worked for the cooperative decorating department for a few years”.

In those days, players would often live in lodgings in the town and Parker was no different: “When I signed in 1954, my first lodgings were by Ben Shaw’s. There’s a block of houses that faces Ben Shaw’s and I was in the end one, Mrs. Hepworth’s”.

Another lodger at Mrs. Hepworth’s was Laurie Kelly, a left-back who had joined Town from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1950: “That was a good start as we were both full-backs. What he used to do is he would go back to Wolverhampton after the matches but when he was playing, he was staying at Mrs. Hepworth’s”.

Parker became a regular in the reserves during the 1954-55 season and he remembers playing alongside Bill McGarry in those early days: “When he was injured, he’d come into the reserves when I was playing. I’d be doing the tackling, winning the ball and he was having it! He didn’t take it off me but he wanted it and with me being a young lad I gave him it!

“He was clear, so I let him have it and I just followed on. But after a few matches, I thought bloody hell I’m working my socks off here, winning the ball and I’m giving it to him! And he’s knocking the ball all over but anyway, one time I just said “It’s alright Bill, I’ve got it!” and then I started to bomb down the wing with it. That was it, he stopped having every ball off me after that!”.

At the end of that season, Parker was part of the side that embarked on the Ambassadors of Goodwill Tour of the USA and Canada, where Town played Sunderland in a match in New York. Parker still has all the itineraries and maps from that trip along with scrapbooks put together by his father at the time. 

“At the time, I didn’t care about things like that (memorabilia), and when I’ve looked back since I’ve thought, the players I’ve played against and the places I’ve played. You’re too young to enjoy it and grasp it. When you’re too old you think bloody hell, I wish I’d done this and I wish I’d done that” he admits.

As the 1955-56 season began, Parker was still in the reserve side and in December 1955, Bill Shankly arrived at the club as reserve team manager. “He was crazy” says Parker. “If there’d been a boxing match on the telly, the next morning when he came in, if he was walking towards you, he’d be trying to box you. If a western had been on the telly, he used to come in with his arms down the side ready to draw! Stuff like that! But he was a great fella.

“He used to live up Crosland Road at Salendine Nook and I used to live at Oakes. He used to go up the hill and I used to go down and round to Wheatfield Avenue. My wife, when we got married, got a job at Mitre Sports and she used to travel with Shankly on the bus every morning down to work. He used to travel on the bus to the ground! It was a different world”.

Parker remembers a half-time team talk given by Shankly: “We were playing Charlton, I think, and we were getting beat 2 or 3-0 or something and he comes in and says “bloody hell, there’s 11 fellas out there getting murdered, you’re murdering them!” We were playing better than them but they were just scoring. But that was him, he was a great fella”. 

Though Parker, a keen golfer, admits Shankly wasn’t impressed with his players playing the sport: “Shankly didn’t believe in golf, he didn’t care much for us going and playing”.

In those days, Leeds Road was home to another one of the game's greats, Denis Law. He famously arrived at the club as a young lad in August 1955 and Parker was there when he arrived: “We were playing snooker and a scout brought Denis in, well the size of us and we looked at him and then he went into Andy Beattie’s office. He had blue National Health glasses on and one eye was one way and the other eye was the same way. And he was stick-thin. But look how he turned out! They got him sorted with his eyes”. 

Parker has fond memories of another one of his fellow professionals: “Gerry Burrell was a case! I used to train on Tuesdays and Thursdays and every week on a Thursday I was in the full day and we would have a practice. I used to play against Burrell, because he was the right winger, and he used to be coming out at me with the ball and he was singing to me! “Now then Bobby I’m coming for you” and all this carry on! I used to be saying “I’ll bloody get ya!”. He was always singing!”.

He also has fond memories of visiting drinking establishments, and one in particular where he was introduced to a rather strange combination: “We used to go to The White Horse, where we’d have our lunch, that was when I was introduced to rice and ice cream. I was sitting with Gibby (Brian Gibson) one time and he says “I’ll have rice pudding and a blob of ice cream on top". If you haven’t tried it, don't knock it! It was absolutely beautiful!”. 

In 1957, at the age of 21, Parker went into the Forces to do his National Service: “I went in when I was 21 and went into the Royal Signals where I trained as a linesman. You had to put all the lines up for the phones right to the frontline, so that was a dangerous job. 

“I was at Catterick and I got in touch with the fella that gave the weekends (from the camp) out and I got well in with him. So I used to get weekends off to play, I’d travel to Huddersfield, play the match, have a bit of time in Huddersfield and then travel back to camp on the Sunday night.

“Well, this was great but then, the fella who did the weekends got posted and they brought a new fella in, who wasn’t sporty. He would just give me what I was allowed, two weekends a month or something like that, but Town wanted me to play every Saturday. So what I did, I wasn’t on guard or anything, I used to nip off and go absent without leave and play, come back on the Sunday night and nobody would know I’d been!

“I did this several times and it worked well! Then, one Saturday morning I was walking out of camp in my civvies, and we’d got a new adjutant and he saw me and he put his hand up and gave me a wave. So I thought, “oh bloody hell”. When I came back, I should have been on guard on the Sunday night and I wasn’t there. So I was charged and put on 7 days jankers. So basically, I was doing all the rotten jobs round the camp, running around with my boots with no laces in and stuff like that".

Not long afterwards, Parker was informed that he would be moving on: "The next thing I heard was that I was being posted to Germany, which I thought was a bit much, but anyway I was posted to Saighton camp, which was an army camp in England. I was there for about a week or something before I was posted to Germany. The Signals were attached to the Air Force, the Brylcreem Men, so it was a soft camp!”. 

When he got there, Parker remembered some advice his father had given him before he left: "I didn't tell anyone that I was a professional footballer, you don't do things like that. My Dad had said not to tell anyone as it might be good or bad, so I didn't say anything". 

Soon enough, Parker was glad he hadn't mentioned his day job: “I got to Germany and got into the usual pattern of things and soon enough somebody asked if there were any footballers amongst us. I never said anything, remembering what my Dad had said, and then one lad said he played semi-professional for someone down South. The officer said “Report back to me at such and such time and you can clean my boots!”. I was laughing to myself!”.

Most of Parker’s National Service was spent behind the bar in the camp: “I worked as a barman, so I didn’t have to do much during the day! I used to go in at dinner time, serve the drinks and everything at dinner time, then I was off in the afternoon and back in at night. I spent 10 months in Germany and never went on guard, I wasn’t a soldier, I was a barman!”. 

His job certainly had its perks: “When they used to come round doing the check-up, I was usually sleeping as I’d been working the night and they'd say “Oh, that’s the barman’s room, don’t disturb him”. I used to go swimming in the afternoon and those 10 months flew.

“They eventually found out that I played football and they had me training the team. To this day, I don’t know how they got to know that I was a footballer. I was pleased because I got off a lot of duties that I would have had to do, and of course my job as a barman was a good job. As the bar was in the officer’s mess, I used to have all the meals that the officers had. It was good, it certainly passed 10 months. Then I came back to civilisation and started playing football again”. 

After completing his National Service, Parker returned to Leeds Road: “When I came out of the Forces, I stayed at Mrs. Crook’s. There’s an estate just past the old Leeds Road ground on the right and we were in there. And Denis Law was in there as well so I lodged with Denis for a while until he moved”. 

Parker was back at Leeds Road in time for the 1959-60 season and just months into the season, the club saw a change in management. Bill Shankly had been in charge since the departure of Andy Beattie in 1956 and under his stewardship, Town had managed three mid-table finishes in Division Two. Shankly had approached the board wanting to sign two players, Ron Yeats and Ian St. John. Permission was denied and Shankly decided to leave to join Liverpool. After initially denying him the opportunity, he was eventually allowed to go.

Following Shankly’s departure, long-serving Eddie Boot, who had been at the club as a player from 1937 to 1953 and then as a coach from then onwards, was appointed as caretaker manager between December 1959 and January 1960. “Eddie Boot took over for a while and he was a different fella altogether (compared to Shankly) he was very quiet” remembers Parker.

In his final game as caretaker manager, Boot handed Parker his first team debut, in an away match at Leyton Orient’s Brisbane Road where he deputised for the regular right-back Brian Gibson, despite playing most of his reserve team football on the left: “I made my debut at Leyton Orient away, the team would usually come out sometimes late on Thursday or early Friday, usually Friday so I knew I was in!”. 

As Boot had been around at Leeds Road for over 20 years, Parker knew him well: “I played with one or two in the reserves, like Staniforth and Brian Gibson and the like at the time, so I might have played with Eddie Boot in the reserves. His knees were like razor blades! We were playing in a practice match or something and I bumped his knee and it was just like sticking a knife in my knee! I used to think his knees must be like bloody razors!”. 

In that era, the training was a far cry from the methods in the modern era as he remembers:  “I’ve run round Huddersfield a few times! In the winter, when you couldn’t get on the ground, they used to run us up Dalton Bank, round the back of ICI and up at the end of Leeds Road. 

“We used to take shortcuts through the ICI, the fellas there used to know us they’d be waving! I’ve even had a ride along Leeds Road after a run and been dropped off just before the ground in a coal wagon! I nipped out and then ran into the ground” he says with a smile.

Parker’s first team opportunities were limited initially and after his debut, which Town lost 2-1, Brian Gibson returned to the side. His next game would come in the April of that season, in a 2-0 home win over Plymouth Argyle. On this occasion, Parker deputised at left-back for Ray Wilson, who was making his England debut against Scotland at Hampden Park, and was also his next door neighbour!

“I’ve lived next door to some famous players, I lived at Wheatfield Avenue (the previous occupant had been teammate Stan Hepton) next door to Wilson, before he moved up Crosland Road. He was alright! He was like lightning, you know, very fast and very good. When he moved out, Chris Balderstone moved in with his wife, Madeline”.

The 1960-61 season was Parker’s first real opportunity to shine as just a month into the season, Ray Wilson was put out of action with cartilage trouble having injured his leg against Sheffield United on September 6th. Initially, centre-half John Coddington stepped in at left-back but eventually, Parker came into the side at the start of October.  

This led to a run of games in the first team and he played six consecutive games on the left before Wilson returned in early November. He remained in the side, replacing Brian Gibson at right-back. He would make the No.2 shirt his own and from October to February, he remained ever-present in the side, missing just two games that month before remaining in the side for the rest of the season. He played a total of 34 games during that campaign.

One of those games was the famous F.A. Cup tie against Wolverhampton Wanderers on January 11th, 1961. Town had already drawn 1-1 at Molineux four days before and came back to Leeds Road for the 3rd Round Replay. The game has since gone down in folklore as a famous win. At the time, Wolves were the F.A. Cup holders and in the previous season had finished 2nd in the First Division and also reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup. 

Town won the game 2-1, with Derek Stokes and Mike O’Grady getting the goals. The attendance for the match was a staggering 46,155, which was the highest of the season and over 20,000 more than the highest league attendance. “There’s been some good Cup matches down at Leeds Road, especially when we played Wolves” says Parker. “It was good that! When I played, they were getting between 14,000 and 20,000. They put us on a bonus where you got an extra couple of quid if there were so many in the crowd. Occasionally, it did reach the figure they put in the contract, I think it was 20,000, such as for Cup matches”. 

He also recalls the underhand tactics that would go on at Molineux: “Wolves were a good team but I’ve been to Wolves and been in the car park on the bus and I’ve seen the fire engines leaving. They used to soak the field with the hoses. And when you went into the dressing room, the balls that they left for you to take out at the start were in a cold water bath! That was to make the balls like bloody lead!

“In those days, the wingers were only little and stock and they could kick the ball from one side of the field to the other. If you didn’t just catch the ball right you couldn’t shift it, it was like kicking a bag of coal! This is what they used to do, and when we played them, the size of them! They were like bloody giants”.

He also has a funny memory involving one of the goalscorers in that match, Derek Stokes: “I can remember Stokesy, we played in a Cup tie against Barnsley and he played against a centre-half, he was a real hard man and he tackled him and somehow, Stokesy got his head between the centre-halves’ legs! 

“I was close and he was laying back and he’s going “Ref! He’s choking me - I can’t breathe!”. He had him between his legs! Once the referee looked at him, he let go and the ref didn’t even take his name! You got away with quite a lot in those days. A lot of bad tackles used to be good tackles then. You could slide into fellas with your feet and tackle but you do that now and it’s termed a dangerous tackle”.

Overall, the 1960-61 season was a disappointment for Town and relegation seemed a real possibility. At the time, Town had only ever played in the top two tiers of The Football League and relegation to the Third Division was avoided by just two points at the end of the season. 

As the 1961-62 season began, Parker was still a regular in the side and the first choice right-back. Brian Gibson was still at Leeds Road but was kept at bay by Parker and the emerging Denis Atkins. The season started well and after winning four of the first six matches, they climbed up to 3rd in the table.

During a match away at Leyton Orient, centre-half John Coddington suffered an injury which ruled him out for quite some time. Initially, Ray Holt deputised at centre-half but the following match, at home to Orient, saw Eddie Boot ask Parker to fill in. It would lead to a lengthy spell on the sidelines. 

“For some reason they asked me to play centre-half. I didn’t really want to but I agreed to it to help them out. The centre-forward was Dave Dunmore and he was built like a brick shithouse. We went up for this ball, came back down and chased it, I tackled him and cleared it. The weight of him came over and I put my hand down and I didn’t only have my own weight but his as well and my collarbone was up the back of my neck. I did my shoulder. 

“They took me off and the doctor, I’ll never forgive him, he laid me on the bed, put his knee underneath my arm, got hold of my arm and then yanked it, and it went in. I was then strapped up, so I didn’t feel anything then and I was like that for about five months”. 

Parker spent a significant period of time out of the first team and in the treatment room. This included regular trips to the hospital: “I was going to the hospital all the time and they had a bath that used to do just your arm and your elbow and they’d put electric wires in the water and they pulsed. My nerves had been shattered, I couldn’t play because I couldn’t feel anything. And when the doctors were testing me with pins they could have stuck anything in there because I couldn’t feel anything.

“At the hospital I had this leather glove on with no fingers, it had wires going to every thumb and on the end of the wires, was a leather ring to put your fingers in. The idea was for me to pull the springs and get stronger and build the arm up and the nerves were healing themselves by this time. Then I got to the point where I could sit at a table and flick cotton wool balls and I was having to do stuff like that. Then once I started working my hand, I started to do exercises to build it up until I started playing again”.

Following his injury, Parker didn’t feature again during the 1961-62 season and although he managed to recover from that injury, Denis Atkins had established himself as first choice right-back in the side. That season had seen a much-improved finish of 7th in Division Two.

At the end of the season, Town faced Leeds United in the West Riding Cup semi-final and Parker played in the match: “Jack Charlton was playing, and we jumped for a ball to head it and we both headed it together and it went and when I hit the ground, my shoulder jumped out again! But by this time, I’d got used to it because I'd done it once before and I just put my hand up and it dropped back in! Because when the doctor did it originally he must have damaged the bones or something”. 

After this, the club sent Parker to St. Lukes’ Hospital to have an operation to sort the problem: “I went in there for an operation on my shoulder and he took some muscle from other places and strapped it in and it’s been right ever since. I think they’d have been better sending me to the hospital, knocking me out, relaxing me and then popping it in but that’s how it was then. 

“I came out of the hospital and it was still in a sling for a while and then I went back and the doctor said I could take it off and I’ve never had any trouble since, I got over it. But aside from that, I haven't had any serious injuries. Though I did break my toe once when I was a schoolboy playing for Durham County”.

Following that injury trouble, Parker never really established himself back in the first team as Denis Atkins had made the No.2 shirt his own and Ray Wilson was now a regular in the England team. Before the 1962-63 season began, Wilson had travelled with the England team to the 1962 World Cup, quite something for a Second Division player!

Parker played just five games during the 1962-63 season, filling in for Atkins at right-back and Wilson at left-back and also played in both Cup ties in the campaign. The following season was the same, where he played six times filling in for Wilson. He found it difficult to dislodge Atkins on the right and as Wilson was a regular England international, it would be incredibly difficult to take his place. 

Wilson left the club at the end of the 1963-64 season, but was replaced by Mick Meagan on the left as the 1964-65 season commenced. However, just four games into the campaign, Eddie Boot resigned at half-time during a match with Plymouth Argyle and brought the curtain down on 27 years at Leeds Road. In the immediate aftermath, chief coach Ian Greaves took over as caretaker manager: “Greavsie took charge with Henry Cockburn, they were two decent lads because they’d been players themselves for Man United”. 

As Greaves took charge, Parker found himself back in the first team, playing at right-back and this led to him playing 13 consecutive games in the league and Cup. The final match of the run was Tom Johnston’s first game in charge on October 26th, 1964, a 1-0 defeat to Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road. This would be Parker’s final game for Town and he admits that he and Johnston didn’t really see eye to eye.

Although they were struggling in the early months of the season, Town were never really in danger of relegation after he was appointed and towards the end of the season lost just three of the last 18 matches, finishing 8th. At the end of the season, Parker left Leeds Road after 11 years at the club, transferring to Barnsley: “They’d been watching me for a while, and as soon as it was known that I was leaving Huddersfield, Barnsley were interested”.

At the time, Parker felt that as there were a number of younger full-backs waiting in the wings, his time was up at the club: “There was Bob McNab, Denis Atkins was still there, Derek Parkin and they’d just set Billy Legg on the ground staff. So there was a full surplus of full-backs and I was at the wrong end. If I’d been at the other end, I’d have been alright but I was at the wrong end”.

After 11 years at Leeds Road, Parker moved to Oakwell and spent four years at the club as the regular right-back in Jimmy Steele’s side, playing 108 league games before his time there ended in 1969. Like many players of his generation, Parker was offered the opportunity to play in the States: “I could have gone to America but I thought no, I wasn’t shifting”.

However, by then he had completed his coaching qualifications with The F.A. and had already spent some time coaching Barsnley Boys and was offered a coaching job with the first team. Parker admits that he enjoyed coaching the youngsters. He would last around three years in the coaching setup before his departure in 1972. 

The cut-throat nature of football saw him quit the game completely: “A different manager came in and he brought his own fellas in and that was it. I thought at the time, if somebody can do that even if you’ve never done anything wrong at the club and just say “you’re finished” just like that, and that’s the way it was. Football is cut-throat”. 

After a short time out of work, Parker took a job in a factory: “I was a fully qualified coach but I didn’t want to get into that because it was too easy to get into it, get yourself settled and then get pushed. It’s not a very secure job so I was looking for work. 

“(Former teammate) Ken Turner was working at the Post Office and he said I could get a job there, so I went along and they offered me a job. I’d have had a start as a postman but then I thought about it, and there used to be a factory at the end of the road and I thought I’d go there and see if there was anything going.

“Anyway, I went and I was interviewed and the boss said “After your life you’ll never be a factory worker!” and I told him that I had two young children, a house and a mortgage and I needed to get a wage. They set me on as an operator and the boss thought I’d last maybe a week! So, they set me off teaching me to make polythene bags. It was a polythene firm, BXL and I was working and making bags. I learnt one machine and then learnt another machine and then I went on to these big machines making polythene bags for the inside of tankers.

“Then they asked me if I fancied training people to use the machines, so I started doing that. Then a firm called Union Carbide took the firm over and they had it for two or three years and by this time I was looking after a section of the machines. I was working there supervising the machines and when they broke down I repaired them. 

“We used to make Marks and Spencer carriers, BP carriers and then BP took over Union Carbide and this is when it started. I was then working for BP and took advantage of the share scheme that they brought in, so when people ask me about being a footballer I always say it was alright but the best job I ever had was working for BP! It’s been a good life”.

Retirement beckoned in 1991 when he turned 56 but he has remained active in his retirement, though he admits that an afternoon in nearby Meadowhall is harder than playing in a football match!

While he’s been happy to recall his time at Town today, Parker is of the opinion that his football career is in the past, and while he’s proud of his long career in the game, he doesn’t think about it much. He hasn’t attended a match at Town nor at Barnsley since he left the game in 1972. He laughs as he recalls being recognised a few months ago by two Barnsley supporters in a Sheffield Wetherspoons while having his dinner!

He acknowledges that the game has changed a lot since he retired: “It’s definitely got a lot faster, when you think we used to have those heavy boots on. They were real leather boots and now they’re just like plastic, though they did start to come in before I’d finished. When I was in the Forces in Germany, I bought some Adidas and they were just slip-on things”.

He also remembers the phasing out of the brown leather balls and the introduction of the softer white balls: “The pitch at Leeds Road had a crown, and they introduced these white balls and if you were in the middle of the field both sides were downhill! With those balls, after the brown leather ones we played with, you were hitting the new ones downhill and you were miles over!

“You had to get accustomed to the ball and how much to put on it. If you gave them a good clout, they’d go for miles - they’d fly. But those bloody brown balls, they were alright when they were coming towards you nice and steady and you could keep them on the move and shift them. I’ve taken many of those balls on the chest, on the thigh or trapped. If I couldn’t sidefoot it first time when it was coming towards me, but when they were coming from miles up there I used to think “No, Robert - you’re not going to head this!” but there were times when you had to. They used to shake you up a bit”.

Parker feels that the changes have been a good thing though the excitement in the game is much less: “How things change. It’s got to be for the better now but I don’t think there’s the same excitement now. There were more long balls back then whereas now they play in triangles and they’re side-footing the balls about like beach balls.

“It’s a different setup altogether now, the formation back then was 2-3-5, you used to have five forwards but now some of the full-backs are wingers! And they expect somebody in the midfield and the two centre-halves to swivel! It's pretty to watch but it’s boring”.

“I’m 87 next month!” says Parker. “I’m lucky to be walking about! I’m still golfing but I’m not hitting it as far now as I used to! You’ve got to do what you can, when you can. If you fancy doing something you want to do, do it! Because there’ll be a time when you can’t, so you may as well do it”. 

“The weight I am now is the same as when I was playing, 12 and a half stone wet through! I’m struggling a bit with my right knee now but other than that I’m right enough as long as I can get out at night. 

As well as his trips to the golf club, Parker is a regular dancer, going dancing with his friend, Joan: “My mother taught me how to dance when I was 14 and I’ve been dancing ever since. At the present time, I dance three times a week”. 

“It was a working job for me, which of course at that time it wasn’t what it is now. But it’s been a good life!”.