Vic loved theatre and shows, particularly musicals, which gave him ideas for extravagant training routines, based on what he saw on stage. He inspired his players by taking them to London to watch shows, hoping to give his players ideas for their warm ups and match play.
Vic was a spirit of the 1960's, always bringing a "shot of colour" to his teams. He encouraged trickery and flambouyant ball mastery, with daily juggling competitions and fun and games in what might have previously been mundane training sessions. Sounds like my kind of coach!
In 1949, all this convinced the FA that they should recommend Vic to the Oxford University AFC who played their annual Varsity Match against Cambridge, played at White Hart Lane. Bill Nicholson was the opposition coach at the time. Vic also coached the famous amateur club "Pegasus", whose team consisted of Oxbridge students, who dominated amateur football in the early 50s. Pegasus played an FA Amateur Cup Final at Wembley, in front of 100,000. They beat Bishop Auckland, from the north-east. He had a spell at Bradford Park Avenue, then a fully professional unit.
Playing at Tottenham Hotspurs, Vic played with Bill Nicholson and Arthur Rowe. Rowe went to Hungary and learned his "trade" watching the inspirational Jimmy Hogan. The Spurs' method of "Push and Run" was introduced to White Hart Lane during his period as coach from 1949.
Four years later he brought the same style of football to West Brom. Buckingham was under the influence of England's coach and FA lead, Walter Winterbottom, who modernised English football in the 1950s. Through the post war period, it was not just the idea of the "English Empire" that needed to be left behind but the assumption that it was the English that gave the world the game of football. Much had changed as England was being left behind in the modern game. The elimination from the final rounds of the 1958 World Cup proved the point. Remember the English FA was too proud to join in the first post-war World Cup in 1954.
In 1953, at West Brom, Buckingham almost took the Baggies to the first Cup and League Double in the 20th Century and at Sheffield Wednesday, in three seasons (1961-64), he took the Owls to Europe and under his regime the club stayed in the top six in the First Division. But, the club at the time, was involved in the "Betting Scandal", involving several Wednesday players who bet against their side from winning at Ipswich; they were David (Bronco) Layne, Peter Swan (an England international) and the talented Tony Kay.
In 1959 Buckingham, out of work at the time, went to Holland to help coach at Ajax, where he introduced "Total Football". Vic inspired Rinus Michels, the Dutch club's coach, who nurtured Johan Cruyff and the Dutch "school" of Total Football. Ajax won the Dutch league in 1959-60 and were runners-up the next season, the start of a long period of exciting positive football.
Back to earth, Buckingham worked at Fulham from 1965-8, after this, his coaching ideas were also transfered to Spanish football until 1972, where he had success at Barcelona and Seville. His last contracts were in Greece at Olympiacos and AC Rodos, a team relegated that season in 1976, so his magic touch may have waned. He died at Chichester, in 1995, aged 79.
Sources: Wiki, Pegasus (Ken Shearwood), The History of Sheffield Wednesday, Oxbridge Football Histories; "Mister" by Rory Smith and various other sources including the History of the FA Cup, "Rodos, where are you?" and Natty Scrubber's "Ajax-not just a kitchen cleaner".
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