When Shorts Were Short S2 E05 - Bob Wilson (Part 2 of 2)

When Shorts Were Short

Part 2 of our comprehensive interview with Arsenal’s ’71 double-winning ‘keeper Bob Wilson, also, of course, for an entire generation, the presenter of what was during his time with the show, the formidable Football Focus, the Saturday lunchtime preview show that existed within the BBC’s Grandstand.

This week, plenty of ground covered with Bob now established as Arsenal’s new number one ‘keeper from the late sixties. We discuss the shock League Cup defeat to third division Swindon in 1969 on a terrible Wembley pitch, and how that second consecutive League Cup final loss triggered the wave of big success that followed under Bertie Mee and Don Howe in the next couple of seasons.

Bob tells us about Liverpool boss Bill Shankly singling him out for mind games on the eve of the ’71 FA Cup Final. We also look at Bob finally playing for his beloved Scotland in the early seventies, the early end to his career through injury, the switch to TV and the launch of Football Focus, the Match of the Day years with the one and only Jimmy Hill, , coaching the great Pat Jennings at Arsenal as he pioneered the goalkeeping coaching that’s now a big part of the British game, the shock move to ITV and the sad loss of his daughter that led to the creation of the Willow Foundation, the only national charity working with seriously ill young adults aged 16 to 40 to give them unforgettable Special Days. All that and more.

When Shorts Were Short only concerns itself with what was actually a very narrow window in football history when teams wore, well, short shorts. The podcast will only cover football from 1954, when Umbro made their first England kit with shorter shorts, a design that was widespread within English football by the mid-fifties, to 1992 when short shorts were all but finished as Umbro's baggy shorts for Tottenham's new kit, ahead of the '91 FA Cup Final, quickly caught on.

If the shorts weren’t short, we don’t talk about it.

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SHOW NOTES

Twitter Bob Wilson

Willow Foundation

Twitter @Willow_Fdn

Arsenal v Liverpool 1971 FA Cup Final

Arsenal v Stoke 1972 FA Cup semi-final

Football Focus 1986-87

Match of the Day

Bob Wilson – Left sock first

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