When I first got interested in English soccer, I wanted to learn everything. This was, literally, a whole world of stories I didn't know. When I realized that North London team Arsenal was the team I would support, I grabbed everything I could about them, including Nick Hornby's memoir Fever Pitch, and the film based on it.
About halfway through, the fictional analogue for Hornby, Paul Ashworth, played by Colin Firth, is watching TV in preparation for heading to that day's match, when the phone rings. He tells the caller, "I'm just watching... " and, between his English mouth and my American ears and brain, I can't figure out the title. On the screen was Ian St. John, a.k.a. "Saint," but that didn't help, because I had no idea who he was.
So, as I so often have to do when watching a British-made movie, I had to run it back, and read the subtitles. And the subtitles said, "I'm just watching Satan Greavsie."
Now, who was this "Greavsie" guy, and when I would an Arsenal fan call him "Satan"? Was he some media guy who trashed Arsenal so much, he was considered to be the Devil?
No. Not by a longshot. He was universally admired. But he did play for the other major team in North London, Arsenal's arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, a.k.a. Spurs. His real name was Jimmy Greaves.
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In full, it was James Peter Greaves, and he was born on February 20, 1940 in Manor Park, then in the historical County of Essex (I was born in New Jersey's County of Essex), but a governmental reorganization of 1963-65 brought it within the city limits of London (not to be confused with "The City of London"), in the Borough of Newham, in the East End.
He grew up in nearby Hainault. Part of the legend of The Beatles is that they grew up poor in Liverpool, because, like most of Europe but unlike the United States, the United Kingdom came out of World War II victorious but having expended so much of its resources that pretty much anybody who had been middle class was now poor.
And Jimmy Greaves was a few months older than the 2 older Beatles, John Lennon and Ringo Starr, so he was a part of that long struggle back to prosperity that, depending on who you talk to, England either needed years to reach again, or, to this day, still hasn't.
As with so many other boys in so many other places, sports provided a way out of a future in a father's profession that the son didn't want any part of: The farm, the mine, the mill, the factory. In 1955, Jimmy was playing in a schoolboy league, and was found by Jimmy Thompson, a scout for West London team Chelsea. He was signed by Ted Drake, who had just become the 1st former player on a League Champion (with Arsenal in 1935 and 1938) to also win the League as a manager (the only title Chelsea would win between its founding in 1905 and its Centennial season of 2005).
In response to the "Busby Babes" managed by Matt Busby at Manchester United, Drake assembled a group of young players that the press dubbed "Drake's Ducklings." (A later Man U manager, Alex Ferguson, would build his team around "Fergie's Fledglings.") Jimmy starred for Chelsea's youth team, enough that he was able to turn professional in 1957, though just 17 years old. On August 24, he scored on his debut, a 1-1 draw with Spurs at the latter's home, White Hart Lane. It was the 1st of 22 goals he scored for Chelsea the 1957-58 season.
Near the end of the season, just past his 18th birthday, he married Irene Barden. They had 5 children. A daughter named Lynn was followed by a son Jimmy Jr., who died as a toddler. Then came daughter Mitzi, and sons Danny and Andrew. Danny would also play professionally, for lower-division Essex team Southend United.
Despite keeping up his scoring touch, including becoming the youngest player in Football League history (the League was founded in 1888) to score 100 goals in League play, Jimmy couldn't lead the Blues to team glory. The cliche could have been used: "We're doing poorly with you, we can do poorly without you, and for less money." Jimmy had no problem with being sold, leaving a bad team for a good team.
Unfortunately for him, that good team was A.C. Milan. He wasn't the 1st British star to go to Italy -- Welshman John Charles had starred for Turin team Juventus -- but he set a standard that too many other British players followed in Italy, including Ian Rush and Paul Gascoigne.
He never fit in. He couldn't speak the language, he couldn't handle the media, and he didn't get along with his manager, Nereo Rocco. Rocco would lead Milan to the European Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Champions League) in 1963 and 1969, but that would be without Jimmy Greaves. And he didn't win the fans over, either, despite scoring a goal in a Milan derby against Internazionale.
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Spurs had won the League and the FA Cup in 1961, the 1st English team to "do the Double" in the 20th Century. They had money to spend, and spent it to bring Jimmy back to London. In 1962, he helped them to a 2nd place finish and a 2nd straight FA Cup. In 1963, he led them to the European Cup Winners' Cup, a tournament for all the national cup winners of the European countries. It was the 1st European trophy won by a British team. "Greavsie" became beloved by Spurs fans.
After that, though, the team entered a period of transition. It became the same story that it was at Chelsea: He was doing well, but his team wasn't. In 1965-66, he missed 3 months due to hepatitis, and still turned out to be Spurs' leading scorer that season, with 16 goals.
Following that season, the World Cup was held in England -- for, so far, the only time. He had made his debut for the England team in 1959, and played in all 4 of their games at the 1962 World Cup, scoring in a Group Stage game against Argentina before they were defeated by Brazil in a Quarterfinal. In a match to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Football Association (the FA), on October 23, 1963, he scored the winning goal in the 90th minute for England against a "Rest of the World Team" at the national stadium, the original Wembley Stadium in West London.
So he was an easy choice for manager Alf Ramsey for the '66 World Cup. He started in all 3 games of the Group Stage: A 0-0 draw with Uruguay, a 2-0 win over Mexico, and a 2-0 win over France.
But in the France game, Joseph Bonnel cut Jimmy's shin with his studs (we would say, "cleats,") leaving him with a temporary injury and a permanent scar. He had to be held out of the Quarterfinal with Argentina, and his replacement, Geoff Hurst of East London team West Ham United, scored the only goal of the game.
That was all the superstitious Ramsey needed: He kept Hurst in the lineup for the Semifinal against Portugal, which England won 2-1. Jimmy told Ramsey he would be fit for the Final against West Germany -- which, like every game England played in the tournament, would be at Wembley. Ramsey wasn't having it: He started Hurst, who became the only man ever to score 3 goals in a World Cup Final, as England won 4-2 in extra time.
Only the 11 players who actually entered the game received winner's medals. It took until 2009 for Greaves and the other England players who didn't get into the game to be granted winner's medals.
He only played 3 more times for England, last in 1967. Ramsey called him up for Euro 1968, but never used him. His 44 goals made him England's all-time leader, but he was soon surpassed by Manchester United's Bobby Charlton, who has since been passed by another Man U figure, Wayne Rooney.
Jimmy helped Spurs win another FA Cup in 1967, although their title bid fell short, finishing 3rd, 4 points behind Man U. Spurs bought Martin Chivers from Southampton, but dreams of a great striker pairing didn't pan out. And it wasn't Chivers' fault: Jimmy was getting older, getting slower, getting less fit, and drinking more.
In 1968-69, he surpassed Bobby Smith to become the team's all-time scoring leader, and Steve Bloomer, the Derby County legend of the turn of the 20th Century, as the all-time scoring leader for the English top flight.
But the end was near: In March 1970, he was essentially traded to West Ham for his World Cup teammate, Martin Peters. Peters had something left, and paired with Chivers to help Spurs win the League Cup in 1971 and 1973, and the UEFA Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League) in 1972.
Jimmy scored 2 goals on his debut, a 5-1 win away to Manchester City. But it was a last gasp, and he was released after the 1970-71 season, having scored just 13 goals for the Hammers. His final Division One tally: 357 goals, still a record. In spite of this achievement, he never won a league title -- oddly, coming the closest in 1961-62, when Milan sold him early in the season and went on to win Serie A.
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He got into the packing business with his brother-in-law, which was successful. In 1979, the conservative national newspaper The Sun offered him a columnist's post, which he held for 30 years. That got the attention of television network ITV, who hired him for their shows Star Soccer, The Saturday Show, World of Sport and On the Ball, and for their coverage of the 1982 World Cup.
It was with On the Ball that he became friends with fellow panelist Ian St. John, a Scotsman who had starred for Liverpool in the 1960s. From 1985 to 1992, they co-hosted Saint and Greavsie, a pregame show in the mold of American football's The NFL Today or College Gameday.
Saint and Greavsie, with their puppet counterparts
from another popular ITV show, Spitting Image
Actually, a better parallel might be to the later Fox NFL Sunday: Although it didn't have as many panelists as that show, Saint and Greavsie knew what to take seriously and what to take less seriously. The show came to an end when the Football League Division One was rebranded as the Premier League, and Jimmy was sure that the lighthearted style of Saint and himself was not what the networks wanted.
Because of the show, and because Spurs somehow got a national following despite winning just the one League title in that era (and Jimmy wasn't even with them when they won it), Jimmy became one of the most popular figures in British sport's lecture circuit.
But his alcoholism got out of control: By the time he famously went to rehab, his health had already been compromised. He went out of his way to help Paul Gascoigne, a later Spurs star with a serious drinking problem, getting him back on his feet and onto the lucrative lecture circuit. But Jimmy had a mild stroke in 2012, and a much more serious one in 2015, which left him wheelchair-bound. He also dealt with cancer.
Ian St. John also dealt with cancer, and died on March 1, 2021, at the age of 82. Today, September 19, 2021, Jimmy Greaves died at his home in Danbury, Essex. He was 81 years old.
* Gary Lineker, who also starred for Spurs, before becoming the host of the BBC's Match of the Day: Quite possibly the greatest striker this country has ever produced. A truly magnificent footballer who was at home both in the box and on the box. A charismatic, knowledgeable, witty and warm man. A giant of the sport. ("In the box" means in the penalty area, "on the box" means on television.)
* Gareth Soutgate, current England national team manager: "Jimmy Greaves was someone who was admired by all who love football, regardless of club allegiances."
With Jimmy's death, there are now:
* 3 players still living from Tottenham's 1962 FA Cup winners: Maurice Norman, Terry Medwin and Cliff Jones.
* 8 players from Tottenham's 1967 FA Cup winners: Jones, Pat Jennings, Joe Kinnear, Alan Mullery, Mike England, Jimmy Robertson, Terry Venables and Frank Saul.
* 7 players from the England team in the 1963 FA Centenary Game: Norman, Gordon Milne, Terry Paine, George Eastham, Bobby Charlton, Ron Flowers and Tony Kay.
* And 8 players from the England team that won the 1966 World Cup: Paine, Flowers, Bobby Charlton, George Cohen, Geoff Hurst, Roger Hunt, Ian Callaghan and George Eastham. (Charlton, Cohen, Hurst and Hunt are the last 4 who played in the Final.)
Today, the 2 teams for whom Jimmy Greaves spent most of his career played each other. A minute's applause was observed before the game, and both teams wore black armbands. Chelsea beat Spurs 3-0.
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