BILL SLATER RIP

I met Bill Slater at the English Schools FA Festival, held annually at Easter, when county school sides were finishing their seasons and preparing for the next one. Bill was the guest of honour, an academic, amateur and top footballer, a true gent.

He will be remembered as the last great amateur of football, an influential man who was educated at Carnegie College, Leeds and became a lecturer in Physical Education at Birmingham University.
It was with Wolves that he made his mark and in retirement he was deputy director at the new Crystal Palace Sports' Centre and Director of Phys Ed at Liverpool Uni and Birmingham Uni.
For his service to education he was awarded the OBE in 1982 and the CBE in 1998.
One of his four daughters, Barbara, became the BBC's first female Director of Sport in 2009. She had earlier been coached gymnastics by her dad and she competed in the 1976 Olympics and he was elected President of the British Gymnastics Association.

Bill played mainly as a half back/inside forward playing over 300 games for Wolves. This was during their very successful 1950s golden age, one that I became aware of, as I toddled into double figures. I became aware of the Wolves first playing in the European Cup competition, the first floodlit games, winning the Football League three times and especially in 1960, the FA Cup, one of the first finals I saw on television.
In one European Cup tie he was refused permission by his employers, Birmingham University, to play away in the return leg at Schalke; Wolves lost 1-2 having drawn 2-2 at home.

The Wolves missed a remarkable Double in 1959-60, when Burnley pipped them to the First Division title by one point;
Burnley earned 55 points and scored 85 against 61.
Wolves 54 points; 106-67 goals.

Bill played for England 20 times for the amateur side and 12 times for the full side, including 4 games in the 1958 Swedish World Cup famous for Pele and the Brazilians. The emergence of Duncan Edwards at Manchester United initially curtailed Bill's international career, but after the Munich Air crash, Slater was recalled and in the summer of 1958, he marked Didi out of the World Cup, during a group match which held the Brazilians, the eventual winners, to a 0-0 draw.

Slater made his debut for Blackpool as a amateur, in September 1949 and later scored a goal against Stoke City in 11 seconds from the kick off, a club record for 50 years. He did National Service in Germany and returned to play in the 1951 Cup Final, losing to Newcastle 0-2. This was the last time an amateur played in an English FA Cup Final, playing along side Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortenson. He was told that he had to return to "college" that night, after the final!

Slater moved to London in 1951 and turned out for Brentford, playing alongside Jimmy Hill and Ron Greenwood; an educated half back line! Bill then moved to the Midlands to work at Birmingham University and joined the Wolves, under Stan Cullis, part time, earing £14 per week. By then he had won 20 amateur caps and had played in the Helsinki Olympics.

Slater is third from left as you look at it, sitting next to Billy Wright. (1958 WCup squad)
He joined Wolves as they began to dominate English football, winning the First Division Championship in 1954, again in 1958 and 1959, and were runners up in 1955 and 1960.
In 1960, as a part timer, he lifted the FA Cup when Wolves beat Blackburn Rovers 3-0 at Wembley and Slater was named Footballer of the Year.
He left Wolves in 1963 after 339 games and not one booking. He also played for Warwickshire CCC second XI.