This is worth reading! if you want to reminisce, it is good for you.
Vick Buckingham is the subject of this article and it tells us of Vick's influence on British and European post war football. Born in 1915 in Greenwich, he played as a half back for Tottenham Hotspur between 1935-49. He briefly spent some time at Northfleet Utd prior to this, one of Spurs' nursery clubs.
Playing at Spurs he was impressed by Arthur Rowe's "Push and Run" style that led Tottenham to consecutive league wins in Division Two and then the First Division Championship in 1951 and league runners-up in the First Division in 1952. This was the antithesis to the success of Wolverhampton Wanderers who adopted the more direct form of football.
When Buckingham retired from playing, after working for the Middlesex county FA, he coached the Oxford University and then significantly, Pegasus FC, the historic amateurs who took a new brand of football to Wembley in the FA Amateur Cup. Here he worked with bright young students and graduates who put his plans accurately into action.
Vick maintained his contact with Spurs and especially Bill Nicholson, who led Spurs to the famous League and Cup Double in 1960-1, another FA Cup win in 1962 and a European Cup Winners Cup win in 1963.
He then travelled to coach at FC Moss in Norway, Bradford Park Avenue (Third Division North) and West Bromwich Albion, a club he took to the FA Cup Final victory in 1954 and second in the First Division.
Always innovating, there is film evidence that he had his players breathing pure oxygen at half times to stimulate their recovery.
In 1959, he had a spell at Ajax and then in 1961 he joined Sheffield Wednesday where in 1962, he was involved in a match fixing scam which led to the banning and disgrace of three senior players, Peter Swan (who ruined his chances of playing in the 1966 World Cup), Tony Kay and "Bronco" Layne.
In that period though he had a positive effect on many aspects of the game, including the development of Bobby Robson and Don Howe, two of England's greatest coaches.
Buckingham returned to Ajax for a year, where he "discovered" Johan Cruijff and influenced the young Dutchman with his approach to "Total Football" that emerged with the "Orange" in the 1970s.
Vick returned to England in 1965 with Fulham for three years, during a period when he eventually could not get on with "west London celebrity footballers" such as Rodney Marsh. Things did not go that well. He went back to Europe to coach at Ethnikos Piraeus, Barcelona, Seville, Olympiakos and then Rhodos FC finishing in 1980.
He died on 26th January 1995.
Now where are those spare match balls?
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