In a Leader Exclusive series, Grenadier Guards RSM David Pritty, whose career began as a Boy Solider in 1955, talks to Andrew Atkinson about meeting his Sporting heroes. Part 2: Sir Stanley Matthews CBE.
Great honour to meet Sir Stanley Matthews
BEING an avid Blackpool Football Club supporter, fan Sgt. Major David Pritty was, to phrase a football term ‘Over the Moon’, to meet England, Stoke and Blackpool legend Sir Stanley Matthews.
“It was a great honour for me to meet Sir Stanley in the 1985-86 season,” said David.
Matthews played until he was 50, the oldest player ever to play in England’s top football division – 50 years and 5 days – and the oldest player ever to represent England, aged 42 years and 104 days.
An inaugural inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002, Matthews spent 19 years with Stoke City, playing for the Potters from 1932-47, and 1961-65.
Between his two spells at Stoke he spent 14 years with Blackpool, where, after being on the losing side in the 1948 and 1951 FA Cup finals, he helped Blackpool to win the cup with a formidable personal performance in the ‘Matthews Final’ of 1953.
In 1956, he was named the winner of the inaugural Ballon d’Or, a prize given to the best European footballer each year. Between 1934-57, he won 54 caps for England, playing in the FIFA World Cup in 1950 and 1954, and winning nine British Home Championship titles.
Following a spell as manager as Port Vale’s general manager (1965-68), he travelled the world coaching. In 1975 in South Africa, during the harsh apartheid laws he established an all-black team in Soweto known as ‘Stan’s Men’.
Son to Jack Matthews, a boxer known as the ‘Fighting Barber of Hanley’, his dad took Stanley, aged 6, to the Victoria Ground, home of Stoke City, for an open race for boys under the age of 14, with a staggered start according to age. His father placed a bet on his son winning, and he did.
Matthews’ kickabout games as a child to improve his dribbling, included countless hours practising dribbling around kitchen chairs in the backyard.
Wartime
The war cost Matthews his professional career, from the age of 24 to the age of 30, joining the Royal Air Force, based just outside Blackpool, rising to the rank of Corporal.
He played 69 Wartime League and Cup games for Stoke, and made 87 guest appearances for Blackpool; also playing for Scottish clubs Airdrieonians, Morton and Rangers, where he collected a Charity Cup winners’ medal and also played for Arsenal against FC Dynamo Moscow.
He also played 29 times for England, though no caps were awarded, being unofficial games.
Matthews’ father died in 1945. From his deathbed he made his son promise him two things: to look after his mother, and to win an FA Cup Final.
Post-war
The Football League returned in the 1946-47 season, with Stoke finishing fourth in the league, two points behind champions Liverpool.
At the time Matthews lived in Blackpool, following his service in the RAF.
Having been awarded the inaugural Ballon d’Or in 1956, he was recalled by England against Brazil at Wembley in a friendly.
Matthews appeared on ‘This Is Your Life’ in 1956, when he was surprised by host Eamonn Andrews for the BBC series.
After coaching in Australia, United States, Canada and Africa, Matthews returned to Stoke-on-Trent with wife Mila in 1989.
He later served as president of Stoke City and honorary vice-president of Blackpool.
Matthews died on 23 February 2000, aged 85, after falling ill while on holiday in Tenerife. Mila had died the previous year.
He was cremated following a funeral service in Stoke on 3 March 2000 and his ashes were buried beneath the centre circle of Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium, which he had officially opened in August 1997.
After his death, 100,000+ people lined the streets of Stoke-on-Trent to pay tribute.
Matthews was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1995 and was made an inaugural inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
He was inducted into the Blackpool FC Hall of Fame at Bloomfield Road, when it was officially opened by the late Jimmy Armfield in April 2006.
The West Stand at Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road is named in his honour.
He was also inducted into the Stoke-on-Trent Hall of Fame when it was opened in January 2011. There is a statue of Matthews outside Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium and another in the centre of Hanley.
Brazil star Pelé, who died in December, 2022, said of Matthews: “He was the man who taught us the way football should be played”.
David added: “To meet the ‘Master of dribble’, Sir Stanley, on the final home game of the 1985-86 season, when Blackpool played Stoke City at Bloomfield Road brings back wonderful memories.”
