JUST a week after paying tribute to Leeds United legend Norman Hunter, today I’m doing the same for another of the club’s great players, Trevor Cherry.
It might provide content for the blog, but there are no positives from losing men like this.
Norman became one of the thousands of victims of coronavirus and, when I first heard the news about Trevor Cherry late on Wednesday evening, I assumed he had also been taken by it.
But apparently he suffered a heart attack, which was more of a shock given Trevor, at 72, was fit, healthy and very active.
I was very fortunate to meet him over the last couple of years when he agreed to become an ambassador for the Maggie’s Yorkshire cancer charity.
Trevor and his wife Sue were guests on my table at the Maggie’s Yorkshire Ball at the Queens Hotel in Leeds last September.
I first met him a couple of years ago when my fellow Maggie’s board member Caroline Pullich was introduced to Trevor by mutual friend Jason Taylor.
Caroline invited me to a meeting with Trevor and so on a grey, damp day I found myself sipping coffee in an upstairs meeting room at Barclays Bank in Huddersfield chatting with a former captain of England and Leeds United.
Despite his considerable achievements here was a man who was gracious, modest and very understated.
Perhaps it was because his life had been shaped by more than just football.
He started out doing accounts before joining his hometown club, Huddersfield. After moving to Leeds for £100,000 in 1972 he played at left back and at the heart of defence alongside both Norman Hunter and Jack Charlton.
He was signed by Don Revie who saw him as the long-term replacement for club stalwart Charlton.
Trevor told me that after he arrived at Leeds Don Revie got wind that he was having problems with the gas or electricity supply to his home in Huddersfield.
By the time he got back from training workmen had arrived to sort things out – thanks to a phone call from the ‘Gaffer’.
He played at Leeds for a decade, scoring memorable goals and helping keep plenty of clean sheets.
I’m sure Leeds fans have their own favourite Trevor Cherry moments, but marking Dutch master Johan Cruyff out of both legs of the 1975 European Cup semi-final against Barcelona must be up there.
After Leeds he went to Bradford City as player manager and was the manager of the club when fire devastated Valley Parade killing 56 people on the last day of the season in May 1985.
After football management Trevor went into business running a promotions and incentives company and becoming a non-executive director of a five-a-side football centres business.
He told me the move from playing and managing in professional sport to the world of business hadn’t been a big leap for him as he had been involved in running a waste paper business during his time at Leeds and Bradford.
He said the work ethic had been instilled into him by his mother who was always keen for him to get a “proper job” rather than a footballer.
During my first meeting with Trevor as much time was taken up with talking about his career in business as the time he played football.
I asked lots of questions about what he’d learned and who he’d met.
He told me that his promotions business had Asda as a client and he’d been invited to play in a five-a-side football team alongside the supermarket’s top brass including chief executive Allan Leighton.
There were so many interesting aspects to his life that Caroline asked if he’d ever written an autobiography.
Trevor shook his head and Caroline said he should, pointed at me and said: “And David could write it!”
Trevor didn’t look all that enthusiastic – hopefully that was about the book idea rather than the prospect of me writing it.
However we had a couple of subsequent chats about it and he made it clear he would want the money from such a project to go to charity rather than for him to personally benefit from it.
He must be the only former England football captain of the last 50 years never to have written a book.
It seemed to me that Trevor’s lack of enthusiasm for the idea was for two reasons – firstly he was too modest to want to trumpet his achievements and secondly he wouldn’t have relished being critical of other people and generally dishing dirt which is sadly what is demanded of autobiographies these days.
So the idea of ghost-writing Trevor Cherry’s book ended up being discarded into the file in my mind marked ‘Parky’s Ambitious Projects’.
What did come out of the meeting with Trevor was not just his agreement to become an ambassador for the new Maggie’s Centre at St James’ Hospital in Leeds – he survived cancer several years ago – but also an introduction to his son-in-law Paul Crowther.
Paul is a very talented portrait photographer with a portfolio that includes Jarvis Cocker, Ken Loach, U2, Simon Callow and Oscar-winning film-maker Nick Park, creator of Wallace & Gromit.
I put the idea to Paul that it would be great to have a series of portraits of the great and good people who have agreed to become ambassadors for Maggie’s Yorkshire.
His images of playwright Kay Mellor, her daughter the actress Gaynor Faye, the Yorkshire Rows women oarsmen, Garry Wilson of Endless and cancer patient Harriet Dow and her husband Robin are a super collection which Maggie’s is very proud of.
My thoughts are with Trevor’s family after his shock death this week.
Alongside his many sporting honours, he can claim the unique achievement of being revered by fans of all three of West Yorkshire’s professional football clubs – Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield.
But much more than that he was a lovely man, a real gentleman.
He said the words below in an interview with the Bradford Telegraph & Argus when asked about his achievements in football and business.
“Effectively my whole career has been about being a team player with enough individuality and leadership to help make a difference.
“And that philosophy is as true in the boardroom as it is on the pitch.”
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AFTER reading that I’m growing my hair during lockdown my friend Nathan Lane sent me the photo above.
That’s how he expects me to look at the end of all this.
Anyway the image of the great Max Wall as his creation Professor Wallofski stirred memories of a favourite clip of him.
And if you want more, just look up “Max Wall funny walk” on YouTube.
Parky’s video clip of the week.
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What I’m looking forward to this week.
I’ve spent the last week decorating the kitchen.
I’m not the most practical of people so that, combined with a natural inclination to bone idleness has made the last few days quite a challenge.
I’ve consoled myself with the idea that if we can’t currently make any money out of our business then at least we are adding some value to the house.
I can’t wait to get back to a job I’m relishing – dyeing and polishing a pair of brogues which I’ve stripped down from their original colour and I’m going to add a dark patina.
It all sounds good but if it’s anything like my kitchen paint job then you won’t be seeing the results photographed here.
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Reasons to be cheerful.
WHILST I’ve been doing the decorating I’ve spent more time listening to the radio.
Mainly BBC Radio 4 but also Radio 2.
Claudia Winkleman’s interview with Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood didn’t reveal too much, except he crashed his drone into his swimming pool.
This lockdown is certainly proving challenging for some.
Anyway, thanks to the radio I’ve been able to widen my music interests from pre-1960 to stuff that’s more modern.
Now don’t get me wrong, Bobby Darin, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra are still top of the tree, but it is nice to have a few more modern artists to listen to.
Dua Lipa’s latest is catchy, and quite relevant given the refrain:
“I would’ve stayed at home, ’cause I was doin’ better alone
But when you said, “Hello”, I knew that was the end of it all
I should’ve stayed at home, ’cause now there ain’t no letting you go
Am I falling in love with the one that could break my heart?
Oh…”
It’s the “Oh” at the end that I find emotional.
And Billie Eilish is very good too.
Mind you, he’s quite young, so there’s still lots to come from him.
Have a great weekend.