Former Player Remembers: Eric Stubbs
In September 2012, Eric celebrated his 100th birthday. He is the only Leicester City player ever to have reached this landmark and our Historian John Hutchinson represented the Club at Eric’s birthday party in Chester.
He took with him a modern football signed by the first team, together with a personalised card containing photographs of his playing days at the Club. Sadly, Eric’s eyesight had failed, but his memories of his time at Leicester were undiminished.
Eric began by recalling that he signed for Leicester City from Nottingham Forest in November 1936, at the same time that centre-forward Jack Bowers was signed from Derby County.
Together, they transformed City from being a team near the foot of the Second Division table to champions six months later. Bowers scored 33 goals in the remaining 27 games of the season. Many of his goals came from crosses provided by Eric.
“Jack Bowers and I were quite friendly” Eric remembered. “Jack and I shacked up together when we travelled. We were two strangers coming to the Club at the same time.
“When I arrived at Leicester they weren’t doing well, but we popped in a few goals and we gradually climbed to the top. We just got a crowd of players together who hit it off. The manager [Womack] did well to build a winning team.
"It was a good club. The directors were always good to the players, offering them between £10 and £20 for a win! We should only have had £2! The directors gave us this extra money to encourage us. I was playing on the left wing.
"I put in a lot of crosses and Jack scored a lot of goals. We played to instructions. Danny Liddle would put the ball to the corner flag, and I swung crosses into the box. Jack, a big fellow, was at the far post, and bang: the ball and the goalkeeper would be in the back of the net!
"Three quick movements before their defence had time to recover. Danny was a real character in the Club. He was a comical Scotsman.
“We went into the First Division (in 1937) but we came down again a couple of years later. Sep Smith was the captain. Sandy McLaren, the Scottish goalkeeper was a good. He was a hell of a big fellow. I remember him saving a penalty at Arsenal. He was down at the post and he saved it.
“I lived in digs at Mrs Smith’s, at 28 Eastleigh Road down towards Braunstone. They used to take us out in the car. I eventually married her daughter! Tony Carroll the winger also lived there. You could hardly tell what he said. He had such a broad Scottish accent.”
After Leicester City won the Second Division title in 1937, they embarked on a tour of East Europe. The tour had originally been arranged for Wolverhampton Wanderers, but the FA prevented them from going because of their poor disciplinary record.
Leicester stepped in at short notice. When talking about this tour, Eric reeled off the countries he played in, which were Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
“Leicestershire is a good county,” Eric continued. "I used to like to go to Bradgate Park. Laurie Edwards, our trainer, used to take us out there for the day to walk in the fresh air. Then we went back to the Club for a big dinner.
"I remember the steep hill leading to Old John and the ruins in the park. I used to like to see the ducks coming into the reservoir. We used to play golf near there somewhere. We would borrow a club and a couple of balls and go out round there.
“Laurie kept us on our toes. We saw more of him than we did the manager, who would have us in on the day before a match. He would talk about the referee, who to mark out, and who to watch. We’d have a discussion about how to overcome the side.
“Laurie was a sportsman himself. He used to race greyhounds. Jack and I went to his place once to see where he trained greyhounds to chase live rabbits. A chap I knew had a greyhound called Figleaf.
"He’d give it a pound of sausage, and half a dozen scrambled eggs in port wine before a race and off it went like a shot out of a gun. He used to make a lot of money. Greyhound racing was a very popular sport in those days.”
When the war broke out, league football was suspended and Eric returned to Chester, where he had been born.
Eric played a few wartime games for Wrexham (for whom he had made his league debut in 1934) and Chester, before signing for Chester City after the war.
Sadly Eric died three months after this interview but it was a privilege for the Club to have had the opportunity to share his memories.