When Shorts Were Short Ep 11

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 just don't talk about it.

This week’s guest is writer Simon Hart. Simon is the author of ‘Here We Go: Everton in the 1980s: The Players’ Stories’, a fascinating look at the club during that decade. If you think about Everton in the 80s, understandably you recall their great mid-80s side which surely would’ve won the European Cup, probably more than once, had it not been for the post-Heysel ban. But it’s largely overlooked, at least by non-Evertonians, that that great ’84-87 era was sandwiched between two periods of significant decline.

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SHOW LINKS

Simon Hart – ‘Here We Go’

Twitter @simon22ph

Simon’s Neville Southall column

deCoubertin Books

Oxford Utd v Everton, League Cup QF Jan 1984

Everton ‘Here We Go’ Wogan 1985

Everton v Bayern Munich, April 1985, ECWC SF 2nd Leg

(I think my recollection this was shown on ‘Sportsnight’ was misplaced. Martin Tyler commentary suggests it was actually shown on ITV’s ‘Midweek Sports Special’.

Everton v Sunderland, April 1985

 

When Shorts Were Short Ep 8

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 just don't talk about it.

My guest this week is a man who served one of our big clubs with huge distinction, making over 600 appearances for the club his family supported. Alongside Frank Swift and Bert Trautman, Joe Corrigan is rightly regarded as one of Manchester City’s greatest ever keepers. In May ’81, in both what was the 100th FA Cup Final and the replay, Corrigan was man of the match in both games and unfortunate to be on the losing side. It was supposedly the era of Ray Clemence and Peter Shilton, both keeping goal for what were then the country’s top clubs, Liverpool and Forest, and vying to be England’s number one. Joe Corrigan was the nominal number three, but in those two games at Wembley in May 1981, he reminded the country what an exceptional keeper he was and while he is rightly proud to have won nine England caps, it should’ve been more. 

We look back at Joe Corrigan’s eventful career, from his early difficulties winning over the City fans, to being voted the supporter’s player of the year as he finally convinced the City faithful of his talents, to the difficulties of Malcolm Allison’s disastrous return to the club in the late 70s, and no less disastrous perhaps, the collapse of John Bond’s initially promising Manchester City revamp in the early 80s.

Running Time: 01:38:02

When Shorts Were Short Ep 7

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 just don't talk about it.

This week’s guest is actor, director and writer Daniel Tatarsky, appearing on the show wearing his writer’s hat. I first became aware of Daniel’s work around 2005, shortly after ‘Flick to Kick’ An Illustrated History of Subbuteo was published by Orion. It’s a beautiful book, a book that inevitably, with my lifelong obsession with Subbuteo, is one I revisit frequently.

It is, I hope, a comprehensive interview looking at Peter Adolph’s creation of Subbuteo just after the second world war, its development in its first decade and a half, the bitter war with table football rival New Footy, the possibly ill-judged decision by Adolph to sell the game to Waddington’s in the late sixties, his attempt to create a new Subbuteo to take on the old Subbuteo, if you’re with me, and Subbuteo’s fall from grace after the 70s.

Running Time: 01:22:43

DT M&S cover.jpg

When Shorts Were Short Ep 6

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 just don't talk about it.

This week’s guest is English TV presenter Elton Welsby, ITV’s frontman on The Match, which showed the final four years of Football League Division One football before Sky and The Premier League changed TV coverage forever.

Discussed on this interview with Elton, who strikes me as what in football would be termed as a ‘bit of a character’, are his dual love of Football and Rugby League, his passion for Everton, his association with legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly during Elton’s formative years as a young journalist and also later at Radio City as his broadcasting career took off, reaching its peak in the ’88 to ’92 era during which he presented a World Cup, a European Championships and the biggest league title decider there’s ever been. 

When Shorts Were Short - Ep 4

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 just don't talk about it.

This week’s guest is Keith Hackett, regarded by FIFA as one of the top 100 all-time referees. The Sheffield-born man in black enjoyed a rapid rise through the officiating ranks in the early 70s and by the middle of that decade, aged just 32, was refereeing in the old First Division of the Football League.

At just 36, unusually young for the time, Keith refereed one of the all-time great FA Cup Finals, the ’81 epic between Tottenham and Man City, the 100th FA Cup Final at a time when it cannot be overstated just how massive that competition was.

Eleven years later, via many more huge games, Keith was still refereeing for the first couple of Premier League seasons before retiring in the mid-90s.

Never mind the fact that his long career brought him into contact with many of the big names in football, as you’ll hear, his European games brought him face to face with some major historical figures of the late 20th century. 

When Shorts Were Short Christmas Special 2020

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 just don't talk about it.

For the Christmas special, I'm joined by Barrie Tomlinson, Fleetway's legendary editor of Tiger and Roy of the Rovers, during the peak years of the old UK comics industry.

When Shorts Were Short - Ep 1

NEW

It’s finally here.

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 just don't talk about it.

The guest on this first episode is Paul Walsh. The gifted south London-born forward made his debut aged just 16 for Charlton in 1979, and went on to play for Luton, where he won all five of his England caps, Liverpool and Spurs, before having two stints at Portsmouth via a hugely successful spell at Man City.