The Player:
A snappy little striker with a blistering turn of pace, and scorer of some memorable goals. Born 10th March, 1958, he joined his home town club, Stoke City, as a 16-year-old in 1974. He scored 53 goals for the Potters in 162 appearances before moving on to Tottenham Hotspur in 1980 for £650,000. Teamed up with Steve Archibald in attack, he made another 160+ appearances, scoring 68 goals. In 1984 he scored 8 goals in 8 consecutive appearances, equalling the club record.
With the Spurs he won two FA Cup winners medals, in 1981 (when he scored the equalizer prior to Ricky Villa's memorable winner) and 1982. He also picked up a League Cup runners-up medal against Liverpool in 1984 and a UEFA Cup medal in the same year. He was capped four times for England at Under-21 level. After a short loan spell with Manchester United, he spent two years with West Bromwich Albion and three more at Charlton Athletic where injury ended his career in 1990.
When he turned pro in the 1970's, black players were rare. His initiation into the hard, sometimes cruel world of professional sports was made more of a trial by the virulent, unceasing abuse that came echoing down from the terraces. When playing at St James' Park, on one occasion, his manager took him off rather than let him face the endless barracking. Crooks commented: "If you couldn't cope, you fell foul of the industry. No black player has been spared it - one has to deal with it and get on with it because sport offers an opportunity, one of the few areas where you can get on, doing what you do best, where talent is allowed to come through."
The Man:
Garth has always been an activist. In 1985 he founded SCAR, the Sickle Cell Anaemia Relief Organisation, to promote awareness of the illness and to raise funds for medical research and support for sufferers. Since the early 80s he has been involved in various forms of community work such as liasing with the Metropolitan Police, serving on the Notting Hill Carnival Committee and working with London Boys' clubs to promote community values through football. In the latter sense, he was perfectly in tune with a major PFA initiative of the 1980's, the Football in the Community Programme. He is presently Chairman of the Football Foundation's Grass Roots Advisory Group and was awarded the OBE for his services to the Institute of Professional Sport.
Garth's extensive media work began in 1982 when he served on the BBC's World Cup TV panel. Throughout the 1980's he was regularly to be seen and heard in a variety of guises on both TV and radio, co-hosting a Top of the Pops show in 1982, presenting BBC2's late night Despatch Box, while his discussion-cum-record show on Greater London Radio won him a Sony Award. By the 1990's he was producing and presenting football programmes on Channel 4 and is now an integral part of the BBC Match of the Day team, recently working as a front-line interviewer on the 2002 World Cup in Japan.
The Union Man:
Garth joined the Management Committee in 1982 while still a Tottenham player. The first black chairman of the PFA he was a representative of the changing face of British football. He became Chairman in 1988, the 100th anniversary of the Football League and an exciting time from a football politics point of view.
Garth had a torrid initiation as Chairman, however. In 1988, the first suggestion was made that Gordon Taylor become Secretary of the Football League after Graham Kelly had crossed over to the FA. In response, the PFA created a new post, that of Chief Executive, and Taylor signed a five-year deal. On 11th August 1989, however, the late Bill Fox, Chairman of Blackburn Rovers, was elected as the Football League's new President.
As part of his election campaign he had claimed that Gordon Taylor would leave the PFA join him. Gordon was keen, feeling that it was a good opportunity to help reform the game, then in something of a crisis. Crooks claimed to have been shocked when he heard that Taylor was preparing to leave the PFA, and angered that the Management Committee had not been asked its permission for Taylor to be approached.
Three days later Crooks chaired a Management Committee meeting that included Nigel Spackman, Colin Gibson and Trevor Morgan which decided they could not release GT. Crooks felt that, among other reasons, GT would not receive the same support from the League as he received from the PFA and thus would be less effective as a force for change in the game. Gordon, who had all along declared that he would only go if the PFA agreed, declared: "I accept the reasons and the decision because I don't want to go and leave bad blood behind me." It would have been a challenge he'd have relished, but clearly the politics at the time were too fractious and volatile.
SIGNIFICANT PFA EVENTS DURING THE CROOKS YEARS
Rows over TV money even then
In 1988 the PFA was called in to mediate between clubs arguing over the sudden influx of satellite TV money. The break-up of the Football League seemed on the cards, with the bigger clubs anxious to accept TV money from ITV rather than agree to the BSB/BBC deal then on offer to the Football League as a whole. The final deal, in which the First Division took 75% of all TV monies while the remaining three divisions accepted 25% was only brokered when the PFA agreed to accept a cut in its percentage, a reduction from 10% to almost 5% in its overall allocation. It was a generous gesture that in later years the Premiership would attempt to exploit.
Launch of PFA Financial Management Ltd
In 1989, PFA Financial Management Ltd was set up, a company overseen by PFA Deputy Chief Executive Brendon Batson. The new company set out to provide PFA members with an all-embracing financial advice service. Its main purpose was to help explain to young members the comprehensive range of benefits that now flowed from the PFA. These included personal and legal help with everything from contracts to private pensions; private medical insurance for free and immediate treatment (including the specialist injury clinic at Lilleshall); a non-contributory Cash Benefit Scheme ensuring a lump sum for every player on retirement; severance pay for when a player was not offered a new contract; and help finding a new club. The company also took on the role of agent for players who requested it: famously, Brendon Batson acted for Nigel Martyn, helping broker the first £1m goalkeeping transfer when Martyn moved from Bristol Rovers to Crystal Palace. It cost Martyn no more than £200 - quite a contrast to the cuts some agents take today!
PFA recommends football 'cabinet'
In October 1990, the first significant moves were made to amalgamate the FA and the Football League into one body. It was a precursor of the Premier League, but suggested by the Football League rather than the FA. In response, the PFA proposed something less drastic but far more radical: a football 'cabinet', with the PFA, the Football League and the Football Association each nominating members. While the three footballing bodies would remain autonomous, they would have had to accept the authority of 'cabinet' decisions. It was far too threatening a concept for football's 'power-brokers'. Within a year, the Premiership had emerged, changing the face of English football forever.
OTHER FOOTBALL TRIVIA
By Brian Beard
1988
Alan Shearer became the youngest ever scorer of a First Division hat-trick. He netted three times against Arsenal in Southampton's 4-2 victory on April 9th when he was just 17 years and 140 days old. He has since gone on to be the All-time record goal scorer in the Premier League. And still on the subject of goals Steve Bull's total for Wolves in season 1987-88 was a staggering 52 thus breaking the club record that had stood for exactly 50 years.
1989
This was the year of Britain's worst-ever sporting disaster when 95 Liverpool fans died at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, one other fan later died in hospital. At the stadium itself the game got underway as no one on the pitch was aware of the crush taking place off it. Liverpool fans were allowed to surge into the Leppings Lane End of Hillsborough when police opened a previously locked entrance. After just a few minutes play fans behind Bruce Grobbelaar's goal pleaded to the keeper to let someone know what was happening. Shortly afterwards a Peter Beardsley shot hit the Forest bar, within seconds the referee had halted play, and no one really cared who hit the bar. And for some considerable time afterwards not many cared for football at all as the disaster put the game into perspective. Many called for the FA Cup competition to be abandoned for that season and for some time that looked likely. But Liverpool Football Club decided to take part in the replayed match and went on to Wembley where they appropriately played, and beat, Merseyside rivals Everton, 3-2 after extra-time, in a special match that had more significance than usual.
1990
A shoulder injury finally ended Steve Ogrizovic's run of consecutive appearances. After seven
Years and 344 games the Coventry goalkeeper had to step down for the game at home to Luton. 'Oggy' told givemefootball, 'they obviously missed me a lot because Keith Waugh stepped in and kept a clean sheet as the team won 1-0, if memory serves me correct'. This was also the year that Michael Knighton almost took over Manchester United. The property owner had apparently agreed a £10 million deal, with the same amount for ground improvements, and he took great delight in showing his ball-juggling skills off to a packed Old Trafford on the opening day of the season. Unfortunately the deal attracted hostility in the media and in October Knighton withdrew his offer. He must have regretted that as the club was valued, a decade later, at ONE BILLION POUNDS.
