When Shorts Were Short S3 E18 - Dave Bowler on Alf Ramsey and Ipswich Town 1955-63

When Shorts Were Short

When Shorts Were Short concerns itself solely with what was actually a very narrow window in football history when teams wore, well, short shorts. The podcast takes 1954 as its starting point, when Umbro made their first England kit with shorter shorts, 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.

A fine fullback in Arthur Rowe’s seminal push and run side of that decade, Alf Ramsey had seen his England career abruptly end following Hungary’s sensational 6-3 win at Wembley in November 1953 and he took over at Portman Road in 1955. Ipswich were then in Division 3 South, and had, incredibly, only been elected into the Football League as recently as 1938. Under Ramsey, just seven seasons later, Ipswich, the 1961-62 season their first in the top flight, and built on a strong defence marshalled by Roy Bailey in goal who would serve the club for nine seasons, and a frontline of the frail looking left winger Jimmy Leadbetter and the prolific Ray Crawford and Ted Phillips, were League Champions. The following season, the club were almost relegated, staying up by just four points, a sign of things to come. By the ’63-64 season, Ramsey was in the England job and Ipswich, under his successor, Jackie Milburn, fell back into Division Two.

Writer and podcaster, Dave Bowler is one of the few writers to cover this period in Ipswich’s history, his Winning Isn’t Everything: A Biography of Sir Alf Ramsey arguably the best volume out there on what is a surprisingly poorly covered chapter of English football history, even by Ipswich itself. And Dave, in this interview, gives me his theory as to why this might be.

Follow Dave on Twitter @MagicofFACup

And find all his books here

Twitter @shortswereshort

Instagram @shortswereshort

Facebook shortswereshort2023

Support Ko-fi

Threads @shortswereshort

YouTube

Discord

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/when-shorts-were-short.

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.