May 6th 1961 Tottenham Hotspur beat Leicester City at Wembley to win the FA Cup Final 2-0 in a dour game, that was efficient rather than exciting. I remember watching it in black and white TV.
It was the first time since 1897 that the Double had been achieved. Ironically it was Aston Villa who had done that previously all those years ago.
In 1960 the Spurs won their first 10 league matches, drew the 11th and then won the next four games. It was the seventeenth fixture that they lost to Sheffield Wednesday. After a dodgey spell mid season, Wolves almost caught them up but it was a final win against Wednesday on April 17th that won them the league. I was lucky enough to see them play at WHL a couple of times that season. They won the league by 8 points ansd scored more goals than anyone 115. Burnley scored 102 and came 4th, Wolves again scored 103 coming 3rd, swednesday were second (78 goals!)
Danny Blachflower, an Irishman, was captain and he led important signings such as Dave MacKay, John White, Bill Brown, all Scots and Cliff Jones, a flying Welsh winger. In 1958-9 when Bill Nicholson took over as manager, his first victory was by 10-4 over Everton, But even after that start, the Spurs narrowly missed relegation. The following season they had thrown away the league to unfashionable Burnley 54 points (Wolves came second 53, Spurs third 52) and so by August 1960 Danny and his men knew they needed to set an example. And they did. After this success there was a surprise.
The Ipswich achievement was one of the best and only Liverpool 1905, 1906, Everton 1931, 1932 and Spurs 1950, 1951, had managed to win the Second Division and First Division titles in consecutive years.
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