The Big Freeze of 1963 made 2010 look like a heatwave

By Brian McNally

Published 16:08 08/01/10

• 

Football observers of my vintage still have 1963 - the year that gave us the winter from hell - forever frozen in their memories.

Forget the media hyperbole surrounding the 2010 cold snap and a few inches of snow. Old fogies like me can recall the authentic "Big Freeze" of 47 years ago as if it happened yesterday.

To paraphrase an old hippy saying: if you think this winter is pretty cool, then you simply weren't around in 1963, man.

Football was virtually put on ice between late December 1962 and March 1963 as ferocious blizzards, drifting snow that reached 25feet and regular temperatures of -20c made it the worst winter in football history and the coldest since weather records began. The number of postponements even exceeded the great white-out of 1947.

The severe conditions actually began on December 22 1962, but worsened on Boxing Day when snow fell heavily in the south of England. 19 of the 46 Football League games were postponed that day with another three abandoned. "Football cut in half" screamed the Mirror headline the following morning

I remember that Boxing Day vividly as I had spent all my pocket money and walked the 12 or so miles from my home to Roker Park, wearing a pair of ill-fitting wellington boots to combat the icy underfoot conditions.

Sunderland were taking on Bob Stokoe's Bury in a Second Division promotion clash, but I have always been convinced that the game should never have started as the pitch was in a particularly hazardous condition.

But a crowd of more than 42,000 had braved the elements that day which I think convinced the referee to give it the go-ahead.

I found myself perched on an iron railing, hanging on for dear life to a wooden fence, right at the back of the old uncovered Fulwell End as snow and sleet drove into my face.

That chill vantage point was to provide me with an unwanted birds-eye view of the tragic accident that effectively finished Brian Clough's playing career at the age of 27.

Twice-capped England centre forward Clough, one of my boyhood heroes, suffered severe cruciate damage to his right knee in a collision with Bury keeper Chris Harker's shoulder as he chased a stray pass.

Against all medical advice Clough attempted a hopelessly-doomed comeback, but still managed to score his only top-flight goal against Leeds in September 1964 to accompany his record for the fastest 250 League goals in history.

So Clough began that fateful year of 1963 in hospital as surgeons battled to save his career.But medical science had no answer to a ruptured cruciate in those days and as the weather went from bad to worse so did Clough's spirits.

Only three of the 32 FA Cup ties scheduled for January 5 went ahead and one tie between Lincoln and Coventry was postponed 15 times. But that was nothing compared to a clash north of the border between Stranraer and and Airdrie which was called off a British record 33 times.

Another FA Cup third round clash between Blackburn and Middlesbrough wasn't played until more than two months after the scheduled date on March 11, while Bolton went ten weeks without playing a League game.

But I can recall Sunderland managing to stage two cup games in that snow-bound January- the month, incidentally when a new pop band called the Beatles released their first top ten success Please Please Me.

The national yearning for warmer climes in 1963 is the only logical explanation I can proffer for Cliff Richards truly dreadful Summer Holiday going top of the pops just as the big thaw began in mid-March.

An army of workmen and officials cleared the pitch for the League Cup semi final against Villa – courtesy of tin bath tubs. But the second leg which put Villa in the Final wasn't played until April 23.

And when Sunderland beat little Gravesend and Northfleet in an FA Cup tie on a carpet of snow at Roker Park I still have visions of two home players throwing snowballs at each other just before a corner was taken.

So severe were the conditions that the massively-popular Pools - which are now back on MirrorFootball - had to first introduce the Panel system whereby celebrities forecast the results of postponed games.

Football legends such as Tom Finney, Tommy Lawton, George Young and Ted Drake were joined by referee Arthur Ellis and chairman and eccentric Tory backbencher Sir Gerald Nabarro.

As a passionate young Socialist I detested Nabarro, who sported an outrageous handlebar moustache and pro-Enoch Powell "Rivers of Blood" views, and was delighted when he quickly departed the Pools Panel after a disgusting racist rant on the BBC Any Questions? programme.

As one alcoholically-challenged hack of the era told him: "You wouldn't know a football if it hit you in the F****** face,"

All manner of bizarre solutions were tried to get matches on, including flamethrowers at Blackpool, a tar burner at Stamford Bridge, a hot-air tent at Leicester, a snow-shifting tractor at Birmingham.

But there was only one winner in 1963 - the weather. The season - which had more than 400 postponements - had to be extended until May 25 when Manchester United beat Leicester 3-1 in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.

So when next you hear these namby-pamby, Berghaus-wrapped television types whinging on about Siberian conditions, spare a thought for the survivors of '63.

Salute the men and women who really know what a proper winter looks like.