Sir Alf Ramsey, England’s World Cup-winning manager, passed away on 28 April 1999 after suffering a heart attack in a Suffolk nursing home. He was 79 years old.
Born in Dagenham, Essex, on 22 January 1920, he became a top-class player, serving Southampton and Spurs with distinction and was capped 32 times for England at right-back, three times as captain.
He managed Ipswich Town for eight years from 1955, taking them from Division Three South to the top flight and lifting the Championship in 1962.
Sir Alf gives a team-talk
Unfashionable Ipswich had gone from the third tier to League Champions in just five years and that achievement had not gone unnoticed by The FA.
Ramsey was appointed Walter Winterbottom’s successor as England team manager.
In his first match in charge, England lost a ‘European Nations Cup’ First Round second leg match 5-2 in France. But, having secured The FA’s agreement that he alone would select the team, he promised that England would win the World Cup ‘at home’ in 1966. He was proved right.
In his brief team talk before the start of the extra-time period in the Wembley Final with West Germany he told his exhausted players: “You’ve won it once. Now you’ll have to go out there and win it again.”
Three years later England were World Champions and a year after that Alf was knighted.
Sir Alf Ramsey with his World Cup winning team
Only the eleven players on the field received World Cup winners’ medals. Following an FA-led campaign to persuade FIFA to award them to every non-playing squad and staff member, George Cohen (England’s right-back in the Final) received one on behalf of Sir Alf’s family at a Downing Street ceremony in 2009.
FA Historian David Barber joined The FA staff at Lancaster Gate as a teenager a few weeks after the Mexico World Cup in 1970.
He worked closely with Ramsey, as his office assistant, for just over three years and would often welcome him into the office with a brew.
"There were four of us in the International Department: Alan Odell (International Secretary), Margaret Bruce (Mr Odell’s PA), me and Sir Alf," remembers Barber.
"Our partitioned offices were initially within the Council Chamber at 22 Lancaster Gate.
Sir Alf during training
"Sir Alf still lived in Ipswich but would come into the office most days. His desk was only a few feet from mine.
"I would make him a cup of tea on his arrival - milk, no sugar, and always in a pea-green cup and saucer - and he would often start the day by checking all the match reports in the newspapers to see who had played well.
"These included the Saturday evening papers like ‘The Green ‘Un’ and ‘The Pink ‘Un’.
"I remember him as being very serene as he moved around our offices, always immaculately dressed in suit and tie and polished shoes."
Sir Alf Ramsey bust on permanent display in the Wembley tunnel
Barber continued: "At the same time he was very friendly and down to earth and was always interested to know which matches I had been to.
"Even in those days I watched a lot of amateur football and he might have greeted me with “How did Redhill get on last night?”
"I did all sorts of errands for Sir Alf as his assistant. I would take a film of an England match and a projector and run it through for the squad at their hotel… and find myself sitting between Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst! Or I would go to one of the big West End cinemas and buy tickets for that evening’s performance for them.
"It was clear that the players loved Alf. The banter was always good. He passed away in 1999 at the age of 79, his unique place in football history assured."
