john white - fact file john white - fact file FULL NAME : JOHN ANDERSON WHITE Born on 28th April 1937 in Musselburgh, Lothian, Scotland. Height : - .m (5' 8") Weight : - - kgs (10st 8lbs) One of the most sublime talents who played for Spurs, John White was cruelly killed when in his prime, aged 27, in a freak accident; struck by lightning while out for a game of golf on a local course in Enfield. All that was left for Tottenham fans to remember him by were the grainy images of his flitting runs and perceptive passes, which added to his nickname of "the Ghost" as he moved with all the stealth of a ephemeral figure across the pitch. But despite this moniker he was labelled with, there was more substance to the man than just a slight build and the ability to drift through a game without being picked up by opponents. Born in Scotland, White was an excellent athlete at a young age and started his career at Alloa Athletic and moved onto Falkirk.

White received a signing on fee of ï¿½20 from Falkirk, which he handed straight to his mother, but, when his club were relegated in 1959, he was one of a number of players who were touted to be available to move on. A thin young man, many clubs were deterred from acquiring his services, as they feared he would not withstand the rigors of English football, but ever the thorough manager, Bill Nicholson took Dave Mackay's and Danny Blanchflower's advice on the player and contacted his army sergeant. In National Service at the time, White was given a glowing reference, including testimony about his cross-country running, which was evidence of his stamina that his size belied. Nicholson moved fast to snap up the forward, with other clubs closing in on his signing, bringing him to White Hart Lane from Falkirk for ï¿½20,000 in October 1959, but he still had to finish his time with the Army and was required to commute to Scotland to finish his duty.

Initially, he found it difficult to play his normal game from inside right, where Nicholson started him, also suffering home-sickness, until taken in by Assistant Manager Harry Evans, whose daughter was to become John's wife. While scoring for Tottenham on his debut, John continued to get among the goals, but not contributing as many as he used to get in Scotland. A change is position came with Les Allen's arrival from Chelsea, which saw White move out wide to a slot in the side where he linked with Tommy Harmer on that flank. They were of similar stature, but different in their approach to the game. White's simplicity contrasted with Harmer's flamboyant style, but they made a formidable pairing. But the manager was keen to make the team more incisive and the more cutting passing of White was preferred over the slower, dribbling method used by Harmer. White's ability to see players in space or where they were about to run coupled with his accurate passing made him a forward's dream. He put the ball exactly where they wanted it and his manipulation of the ball to keep moves going forward ensured that opposing teams were on the back foot.

Despite pitched being muddy, lumpy and bumpy, White had great control and could take the ball past players too, making him a player who was very hard to read, with his movement over the ground being almost floating in appearance, giving him the Ghost nickname. But there was a strength within him that withstood the toughest tackles and also packed a powerful shot when required. His contribution in the Double season was immense, being an ever-present to provide a continuity in his position, with a large number of assists to his grateful forwards. White was instrumental in Tottenham's success in this period, with the FA Cup retained in 1962 and the European Cup Winners Cup victory in 1963. He became a regular for his country and also was selected to play for the Football League representative side. Those who saw him play reckon he was one of the best players of his generation and would have gone on to be a greater star as he was reaching his peak as a player. For many, only the grainy black and white footage remains, but it is still possible to determine his ability and skill.

John White died when he was killed by a lightning bolt that hit a tree he was sheltering under while playing golf on Crews Hill Golf course, Enfield, Middlesex, England on 21st July 1964. He was survived by his wife Sandra, a daughter Mandy and a son Rob. NICKNAME : The Pale Ghost John White - Tottenham Legend Tragedy On 21st July, 1964 Comment Fifty years ago, on this day in 1964 Tottenham tragically lost a great player in John White. He was killed when struck by lightning while sheltering under a tree on Crews Hill Golf Course at Enfield. John White was a player who had been an important member of the successful ‘Double’ team in the early 1960s. He had been signed from Falkirk in October, 1959 and was a firm favourite, still having much to offer the club – a Scottish international who brought great skill and vision to the team.

21st July, 1964 The date, 21st July, 1964 will always be remembered by Spurs supporters as the day when they lost a great player, John White, in such tragic circumstances. I started to support Spurs a few months after that but my earliest piece of Tottenham memorabilia is a Spurs team photograph from the following August, which details how things had changed for the club in the previous year. From the heady excitement of winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup in May, 1963, they had lost players through loss of form, injury and retirement but the greatest loss was that of John White just a month earlier. It was changing times for Spurs but everyone at the club was optimistic as they looked forward to the new season. As always in football things move on quickly – a new season, or a new player and there’s always another game but for the family of John White it was not so easy. They would have to live and cope with this loss for the rest of their lives. Rob White, John’s son, working with Julia Welch wrote, ‘The Ghost of White Hart Lane’ a couple of years ago and this book is the culmination of Rob’s search for his father.

As a young boy, one of the most difficult aspects for Rob was everyone knowing who he was because of his father about whom he knew very little. All of John’s football memorabilia had been packed away and it was only as a curious eight-year-old that Rob searched the attic of his new house for an old cardboard box which he believed contained some of his father’s possessions. There he discovered the medals, boots and newspaper cuttings which shed some light on his father who was held in such high esteem and spoken of in revered terms. #98003575 / gettyimages.com Support from Tottenham Players As Rob grew up, his father’s team mates provided support as friends of the family, himself, his mother and older sister, but it was Dave Mackay who later provided Rob with some of the experiences in football that he would surely have enjoyed with his father. As manager of Derby County, Dave arranged for Rob to travel with the team to grounds around London and take in the whole match day atmosphere. John White – Tottenham Legend John White’s early life tells of a hard-working family in Musselburgh in Scotland, typical of so many at the time.

He was the second of four children and the three boys all became professional footballers with Bill Nicholson, just prior to John’s death, considering signing Tom but a car accident had incapacitated him so nothing materialised on that front. Tom did play for Spurs though, appearing in the Memorial match for John against a Scotland XI. John came across as a quiet, shy lad in public but was a prankster and fun loving with family, friends and team-mates with whom he was most comfortable and relaxed. Cliff Jones was regularly involved with John is such escapades. John loved football and as a boy played and practised constantly and although lightly built he had great stamina and was a cross-country runner which stood him in good stead for the rigours of playing in midfield. As a young player he was frequently watched by Glasgow Rangers but they never made a move for him, concerned about his build. John played for Alloa Athletic and Falkirk before joining Spurs in October, 1959 for £20,000. He had already represented Scotland and after scoring on his Spurs debut against Sheffield Wednesday he became a regular choice as Bill Nicholson struggled with the problem of fitting John and Tommy Harmer into the same team.

John found it difficult to settle in London and initially, he played on the right wing as he had done in his early football days. There is a wonderful comparison between the two players in the book as the rivals for the number eight shirt. The writers are generous in their praise of Harmer but in the end it was John who possessed the added qualities that the manager was looking for as he constructed the team that would soon go on to win the ‘Double’. There have been many books written about the Tottenham team who won the ‘Double’ , both collectively and as individuals, but none about John White. ‘The Ghost of White Hart Lane’ correcyted that anomaly and as it trawls through the match reports of the time it becomes abundantly clear that John White played a very significant part in the success that the team enjoyed from 1960 to 1963. When people name players from the “Double’ team, those who first come to mind are Danny Blanchflower, Dave Mackay, Bobby Smith and Cliff Jones. Then almost as an afterthought, they include John White but White was no afterthought to the ‘Double’ success – he was at the centre of everything that was good about that team.

From reading the match reports, it is clearly evident that when John White was playing well, so did Spurs. If John White was in peak form so was Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith and everyone else. If White was absent, or not at the top of his game, then the Spurs’ path to success was not so smooth. John White was frequently the master creator behind many of the goals that Tottenham scored but having provided those ‘assists’ in a game, he quite often managed to get on the scoresheet himself. In his time with Spurs he scored 45 League and Cup goals in 219 appearances. Age quickly caught up with the ‘Double’ team but in the first half of season 1963-64 as Nicholson tried to introduce new players, it was John White who held it all together and although the team finished the season a disappointing, by their standards, fourth, they had been at the top of the table before Christmas. It was clear that Bill Nicholson had decided to build his next team around John White when at the age of twenty seven he was struck down.

More from Tottenham History Exclusive: Tragic Scotland ace John White was the dad I never knew - Daily Record News Exclusive: Tragic Scotland ace John White was the dad I never knew THE son of a Scotland football legend has opened his heart for the first time about the father he never knew. Share Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email THE son of a Scotland football legend has opened his heart for the first time about the father he never knew. When John White was killed by a bolt of lightning on a golf course at the age of just 27, the footballing world went into mourning. The Tottenham Hotspur and Scotland inside-forward, nicknamed The Ghost for his ability to move undetected into space, had the world at his feet at the time of his death in 1964. With Spurs he was a key player in the star-studded side that won the league and FA Cup double in 1961, then two years later brought European glory to Britain for the first time by lifting the Cup Winners' Cup.

Meanwhile for Scotland, John was a fans' favourite, winning 22 caps and more than holding his own alongside the likes of Jim Baxter and Denis Law. Perhaps more important to the dedicated family man than footballing success would have been the fact that his wife Sandra had given birth just six months before to the couple's second child - a son called Rob. Now a top photographer, Rob has opened his heart to the Record about his quest to discover who his dad really was, the trauma of growing up as the son of The Ghost, and his anger at the way Spurs treated his family after his dad died. Rob has also told of his lifelong love of Scotland and his pride at seeing his own 11-year-old daughter Elsie training with the Spurs girls' team. He said: "Since I first became aware of who my dad was at a very young age, I don't think a single day has gone by when I haven't thought and wondered about him. "Dad was one of the greats, there is no doubt about that. He played for a side that was full of fantastic players such as Danny Blanchflower, Cliff Jones and Jimmy Greaves, and he shone among them.

"One of the most tragic things is that he died at a time when he was just beginning to play the best football of his career." From humble beginnings in Musselburgh, East Lothian, where his uncle had to buy him his first pair of football boots, John lived every schoolboy's dream. Dubbed The Ghost of White Hart Lane for his habit of appearing out of nowhere to split a defence open with one precise pass, he was a favourite of the legendary early Sixties Spurs manager Bill Nicholson. He shone in a side of Spurs greats who won the FA Cup and league double in 1961, the first time it had ever been achieved. The following year Spurs won the FA Cup again and then in 1963 they proved their worth on the European stage. White helped the Londoners to an incredible 5-1 Cup Winners' Cup final thrashing of Atletico Madrid in Rotterdam. He scored the second goal in the game that made them the first British side ever to win a European title. Diehard Spurs fan Rob added: "My dad was such a huge star that I had to pay £1000 at auction just to get hold of one of the shirts he played in.

"I was in Glasgow for the Scotland versus Italy Euro 2008 qualifier and I went for a pint after the match. I got talking to an old man in the pub about football and I eventually told him that my dad had played for Scotland. "He asked me who he was and when I said John White the guy was just gobsmacked. "We had a really good chat and when he left he said he was going home to phone everyone he knew to tell them he'd just met John White's son. "I was really touched by that and it made me feel proud. "I take my family on holiday to Scotland every year and still consider myself to be Scottish, even though I have lived in London most of my life. "People are always really friendly and when they talk about dad it is always in glowing terms." John's second sporting love was golf and it was at Crews Hill Golf Club in Enfield in 1964 that his life was cut short when the tree he was sheltering under from a thunderstorm was struck by lightning. A green keeper called John Watts found the player lying in a ditch that divided the first and ninth fairways with scorch marks on his hair, back and heels.

Rob is now writing a book about his dad's life and spoke of the emotional journey that researching the project has taken him on at his photography studio in London where he keeps his dad's old football boots locked in a safe. He said: "As a boy, it took me a long time to come to terms with who my dad was. "I'd constantly get introduced to people as the son of John White, and I would always be aware of this huge sadness coming over them. "It was quite traumatic for a child to experience this. I always felt really bad that I was making all these people so sad. For that reason the last thing I would ever tell anyone when I was growing up was who my dad was. "It has only been quite recently that I have really been able to talk about him and feel comfortable about it. "It was a couple of years ago that I had the idea of writing the book and it has been a really great experience to start to look into dad's life. "For many years his death has been kind of like the elephant in the room for my family. Nobody ever wanted to talk too much about it, even though it was on everyone's mind.

"But the book has given me a chance to sit down with my aunts and uncles and really ask them about him. "It is a strange thing to grow up with everyone knowing more about your dad than you do." JOHN'S importance to Spurs was evident, not just in terms of the goals he scored - 40 in 183 games - but in the team's fate on the rare occasions he was absent. He missed just 15 games for the club between 1959 and 1964, and Spurs won only one of them. But despite his status as one of Britain's top players, he only earned around £20 a week. At the time of his death, the White family - John, wife Sandra, six-month-old Rob and two-year-old Mandy - had been living in a modest club house close to Spurs' stadium. Rob said: "After dad died, it wasn't long before the club cut ties with the family. We were made to move out of the house within a week and it was a really tough time for mum. Luckily she is a strong woman and handled the situation very well. "She trained to become a teacher, worked hard to support her family and eventually remarried.

"But Spurs didn't give her much help at all. Financially she wasn't particularly well off, as in those days footballers didn't get paid the massive wages they do today. "I just think that given my dad's contribution to the club over the years, they could have been more supportive." Rob now lives in London with wife Cara and daughters Martha, eight, and Elsie, 11, who has recently started her own football career. Rob said: "It has been fantastic to see Elsie play football with Spurs. She is really talented and I can't wait to see her progress. "It was a great moment to see her play in a Spurs kit and I know her grandad would have been really proud." Rob's sister Amanda was just two when her dad died. She said: "I often wonder whether I can really remember him or not. "I think I have hazy memories of running around in a garden with him, but it is difficult to know for sure. "I know it must have been really tough time for my mum and it was made even worse by the way that Spurs treated the family after dad died. "You need to remember that mum and her pals were like the original footballers' wives back then.

"They would get to go to lots of big events and wore all the latest fashions. "But when dad died, she was suddenly left out of all these things, which must have been very tough. "It is a testament to how hard mum worked that Rob and I turned out all right, because it couldn't have been easy for her. "Even now if there are big Spurs events to remember the team dad played in, they will often forget to invite mum, even though the wives of all the other star players from that generation will be there." Amanda now lives in London and works in the film and TV industry. She said: "Because I was a girl, I wouldn't get to be involved much in the football side of things, whereas Rob would be taken to games by our uncles. "But I have heard some great stories about the old days when all of dad's family would come down from Musselburgh to watch the really big games like the FA Cup final. "All the women would come to London as well and they would get all done up for the occasion. "I can remember my aunt telling me that she was once sitting with all the London women and suddenly realised that they all had much higher hemlines than she did on their fashionable skirts.

"She said she was really self-conscious and tried to pull her own up a little to fit in. "I always think how much fun it must have been for everyone and what a shame it was that it would all have stopped when dad died so suddenly. "I think it is great that Rob is still so involved with Spurs and continues to support them. "I do too, though not to the same extent. I haven't been to a game for a while but I always like to know how they are doing. "But for me the most interesting thing was always all of the things that were going on around the football and in the family rather than the games themselves." John played for what many fans believe was the all-time greatest Spurs side, built by Bill Nicholson in the early Sixties. But the double-winning side started to break up in 1964 when Danny Blanchflower and Terry Medwin retired. It was then that Nicholson decided he was going to rebuild the team around White, but his plans were shattered on the fateful day he died. To many Scottish football fans today John White is not one of the better known names from the past.

But his team mate and friend Jimmy Greaves once said: "Had John lived, he could have been one of the greatest footballers of all time." Like us on Facebook Most Read Most Recent Most Read Most Recent Interview: Dave Mackay, footballer - The Scotsman Interview: Dave Mackay, footballer 22:20 Friday 30 October 2009 10:21 Thursday 05 November 2009 A BOOK as big as a paving stone and twice as thick dominates Dave Mackay's dining-room table, indeed the room itself. "You'll notice these covers the wife's put on it," he says, "and you'll notice that it's green first and maroon on top. Hearts in domination, as it nearly always was in my day." The book is an ostentatious tome called The Tottenham Hotspur Opus commemorating the 125th anniversary of Mackay's other team. He flicks through moody portraits of the notables, smart-suited old legends like himself – "No, that's my grandpa" – and today's stars in ripped jeans and ludicrous tattoos.

"Jermain Defoe – scruffy b*****d … Ledley King – scruffy b*****d – Ledley Bling, more like. Bobby Smith – he was in the England team when they beat Scotland 9– … well, you know the rest. Cliff Jones – Cliffy was playing golf with poor John White the day he was killed by lightning. Aaron Lennon – bloody fast, but another scruffy b*****d. The current lot really ought to get themselves along to Dave Mackay Ties." Mackay – captain of Hearts, Spurs and Scotland, dream skipper of Sir Alex Ferguson's all-time tartan XI, and in those immediate pre-showbiz years for football of the early 1960s, the "face" of a tie emporium – lives in Burton Joyce, a pretty, redbricked village near Nottingham with a pub called (what else?) the Cross Keys, leafy lanes, bicycling posties.

Thirty-six years here, Mackay used to be in a street you could have nicknamed Footballers' Row: "Jimmy Sirrel, Neil Martin, Peter Cormack, Don Masson and Big Tam Gemmill when he played for Forest." But now the family's all grown up and it's just Mackay and Isobel – they've downsized. Ah, Isobel. She was quite tough on the phone when I asked to speak to the great man, only to be told she handled his business nowadays, and that he had no time to meet me. Some flattery about how much Hearts were looking forward to Mackay's presence at their next Hall of Fame inductees' dinner seemed to do the trick and she gave me directions: "But you'll have to tell the train driver to let you off." In person, though, she's a scream. They both are. When he's stumped for an answer, she shouts through from the kitchen with the relevant stats. When she talks too much, he suggests she completes the story of his life and times herself. What'll Iron Man Mackay do instead?

"Watch Loose Women!" Oh, and she made me two cheese toasties and was extra-generous with the Digestives, a veritable interview feast when the noted foodie AA Gill didn't even offer a cup of tea. I thought she'd be a dragon; she isn't. Just shows how first impressions can be wrong. To a producer of schlocky TV programmes or his thicko researcher, Mackay as an old-school wing half was a psycho. He says: "I got a shock when I turned on this programme called something like 'Britain's Dirtiest Footballers' and I was number four, just behind Ron 'Chopper' Harris and Norman 'Bites Yer Legs' Hunter. I may have been hard, but I wasn't dirty. "If some guy deliberately whacked me, I'd whack them back." Most notoriously he was crocked by Manchester United's Noel Cantwell; the first of two leg breaks. Cantwell died four years later and he says: "I didnae kill him." In 40 years, Mackay was never sent off. "Some guys were bullies; I wasn't.

But I always stood up to the bullies, right from the playground." In any case, those who were lucky enough to see him play know the truth: he could tackle – yes, like a Haymarket shunter – but he could really pass, too. The lethal reputation has much to do with a famous old photograph – Monty Fresco never took a better one – of a snarling Mackay grabbing Billy Bremner round the throat after the Leeds United captain had deliberately dunted him on the dodgy left leg. "I'm delighted to be in the Scotland Hall of Fame, but disappointed that's the image you see of me." Did he and Bremner joke about that full and frank exchange afterwards? "Not really. Billy wasn't one of my favourites, he was a dirty wee so-and-so." Isobel: "David!" Mackay will be 75 on 14 November. I ask him about his cancer scare of a few years back – he needed surgery and radiotherapy on his lip – and presume it was a result of over-exposure to the sun from when he managed around the Middle East. He says: "That? No, I got it from kissing the wife.

I'm fine now." We're in the sitting-room on the second round of tea where there's a painting of Mackay at Derby County with Brian Clough, who signed him for 5,000, and called the best piece of business he ever did, and every Saturday after a match would tell him "Wednesday, Dave" meaning the old warrior could have some time off training. Then my attention is drawn to the super-ornate TV cabinet. "Part of a wee sweetener to go to Kuwait," he says. "There's a hi-fi one in the garage because we've no room for it here. Harrods, four thousand quid the pair." There's a story he earned 3million from the entire Middle Eastern jaunt. "I wish," he says. "Anything I did, she got. She was aye inspecting my slips." There are five chapters to Mackay's football life. The Middle East was the remunerative one; Scotland the disappointing one. He only won 22 caps and, like a few Anglos, was made a scapegoat of the 1961 Wembley tanking.

"I saw 'England 9, Scotland 3' on a billboard and thought: 'Were they playing rugby today as well?'" says Isobel. Mackay (who at least scored): "Right. What time's your train back?" Derby (stepping in to Clough's loafers, he managed them to the old First Division title), double-winning Spurs and of course Hearts (League, Cup and two League Cups in four seasons) were the glorious chapters. His eyes brighten at mention of his beloved Jambos. "As a wee laddie I rolled under the big iron gate at Tynecastle to get in for free to watch the Terrible Trio. You mightn't have thought that possible, given the big barrel chest I had later, but I was desperate to be a footballer. Someone told me it helped your game to be bandy-legged so, of course, I started walking that way." He wishes Hearts were challenging again, wishes there were more Scots in the team.

"But I'm a fan through and through and I love going back and seeing my old pals, though since John Cumming died there's not many of them left." At training, he and Cumming would charge at each other and bounce chests – "just for a wee limber-up". The eyes brighten some more when I tell him it's the first Edinburgh derby of the season next Saturday. "A fantastic match, always special. In my day the tension was unbelievable, much worse than when we played Celtic or Rangers. We never used to bother about them, being from Glasgow. But if you lost the derby, Princes Street was murder. The wife's a Hibby, as I'm sure you can tell." How did he celebrate a win? "The manager, Tommy Walker, was aye watching but maybe a couple of half-pints in the club lounge then, after he'd gone home, on to the vodkas and tonic." Isobel: "You'd never drunk vodka before you went to London – it was sherry.

And I'd never been in a pub before Spurs – back then women in Scotland just didn't." Mackay: "They did in the pubs I went to." Although he'd already suffered a few injuries, he was shocked when Hearts decided to sell him, and he paints a dramatic picture of how his parents' phone, only recently installed, rarely rang in the capital's Carrick Knowe and never during Sunday Night at the London Palladium – until that call summoning him to White Hart Lane. "I hated the thought of leaving the Hearts, but it all worked out fine." Typical Mackay understatement. Like Cloughie later, Spurs manager Bill Nicholson rated him his best signing (cost: 32,000). Eusebio called him "the finest wing-half I ever played against". The Glory Game, Hunter Davies' great book on Spurs, endlessly eulogised his true grit, how he screamed for extra effort from first whistle to last – and his determination to overcome the leg breaks, horsing up and down the terrace steps, smiling though the pain, apparently. "My Desperate Dan grin," he says.

Around Gorgie he drove a Hillman Minx – "RFS 168," says Isobel, the official historian – but in Tottenham it was a Jag. They rented a house from Spurs that used to belong to the ventriloquist Terry Hall and one day Mackay found his Lenny the Lion puppet in the back of a cupboard. "He wanted me to phone the estate agent because he thought Terry would be worried," says Isobel. "I had to tell him not to be stupid; that there would be lots of Lennys." There probably was a whole pride of Lenny the Lions, but there's truly only ever been one Dave Mackay. And the Iron Man has obviously been lucky to have met, in the old Edinburgh nightspot, the Palais, his Iron Lady – a woman strong enough to ring up Bill Nick and request a change of house with a bigger kitchen, to haggle for cash discount for those grand home-entertainment cabinets, and, most importantly, to convince her Hearts-daft husband that leaving Tynecastle wouldn't be the end of something, but a whole new adventure. At home later that night, I get a phone call.

"All that joking tired David out and he's in bed," says the redoubtable Mrs Mackay, apologising for not having cooked lunch. "I just wanted to check you got back safely." FACTFILE • Born: 14 Nov, 1934, Edinburgh. • Joins boyhood heroes Hearts and represents Scotland at schoolboy and Under-23 level before graduating to full international honours, winning first of 22 caps away to Spain in 4-1 defeat in May 1957. • Wins Scottish Cup winner's medal with Hearts in 1956, league title in 1957-58, and League Cup medals in 1955 and 1959. • Signs for Bill Nicholson's Tottenham for 32,000 in March 1959. Nicholson had been in Wales trying to sign Mel Charles, and when the Welshman opted for Arsenal, he instead made the call to Hearts from Swansea's office. • Wins double in 1960-61 season with Tottenham.

• Wins second FA Cup in 1962, and completes a hat-trick of winner's medals in the famous competition in 1967. Also wins a European Cup Winners' Cup medal during a halcyon era at White Hart Lane. Racks up more than 300 games and 50 goals for Spurs. • Brian Clough lures him to Derby County in 1968 and swiftly helps the club to the Second Division title. • Appointed player-manager of Swindon in 1971, but leaves after a year to take charge of Nottingham Forest. Returns to Derby in 1973 to succeed Clough as manager. • Wins league title in 1975, but sacked in November 1976. • Has spell managing Walsall, then coaches in Kuwait, before returning to England to manage Doncaster and Birmingham. A final coaching spell in Egypt followed.

John White : Top Class Football Player : Biography Get more Spurs DVD's from Amazon.co.uk John Anderson White (28 April 1937 ï¿½ 21 July 1964) was a Scottish international football midfielder and sometime inside right who played a significant role for Tottenham Hotspur during their Double winning season in 1960-61. His younger brother, Tom, was also a footballer. White had originally played for Alloa Athletic under the management of Jasper ï¿½Jerryï¿½ Kerr (the John White Lounge is still a feature at the Clackmannanshire club's ground]) before being sold onto Falkirk F.C., where he played alongside Dougie Moran, but his lasting fame was assured when Tottenham manager Bill Nicholson took him to London for ï¿½22 000 in October 1959.

Whiteï¿½s weak appearance had been the cause of considerable concern resulting in a number of English First Division clubs choosing not to risk the investment but following the reviews received from Danny Blanchflower and Dave Mackay (who had played in internationals alongside him) and information received from the Army that White was a celebrated cross-country runner, Nicholson decided to make good his interest. White initially occupied the inside-left position, having been bought by Nicholson to replace Dave Dunmore, but his talent flourished as an inside right as a replacement to Tommy Harmer. Whiteï¿½s worth to the team could be calculated in terms of goals scored (between 1959 and the conclusion of the Double winning season (a season in which he was ever-present) he contributed 18 goals) but his success mainly lay in a combination of skills: his passing, his ball control which helped sustain the attacking momentum but so too his runs to find space off the ball, arriving unexpectedly in the oppositionï¿½s penalty area which resulted in the White Hart Lane faithful giving him the nickname ï¿½The Ghostï¿½.

With him Tottenham never finished worse than 4th in the First Division and in the 15 matches missed by White while on their books, Tottenham won only once. Personal information 1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals) Spurs had come unstuck against Benfica in the 1962 European Cup semi-final but the next season White was part of the successful campaign that saw Tottenham become the first English winners of a European trophy when they destroyed Atlï¿½tico Madrid by five goals to one in Rotterdam to lift the European Cup Winners Cup. Cliff Jones, his Welsh international teammate said of him: ï¿½He was a great talent. People ask me what he was like. I say that he was like Glenn Hoddle. But he was different to Glenn in some ways. Glenn was someone who you had to bring into a game, whereas John White would bring himself into a game. If youï¿½re not in possession, get in position, that was John White. He was always available if you needed to pass to someoneï¿½.

White was killed by lightning at the age of only 27 while sheltering under a tree during a thunderstorm at Crews Hill golf course, Enfield, in July 1964. His portrait has been erected in the entrance to the Scottish Football Associationï¿½s Hall of Fame. Whiteï¿½s testimonial was staged later in the year he died, on 10th November 1964, at White Hart Lane, when a Tottenham XI faced a Scotland XI. Wiki Source Text and images from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. under the GNU Free Documentation License - Disclaimers . Whilst every effort is made to ensure that all information included in our website is accurate, users are advised that they should take appropriate precautions to verify such information. Y2U.co.uk expressly disclaims all liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage occasioned by the user's reliance on any statements, information, or advice contained in this web site. This Site is neither endorsed or connected in any way with organisations or individuals mentioned on this page. Published by Y2U.co.uk - Retrieved from " " 'Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude.

I can assure them it is' - Bill Shankly My dad John White, the Spurs legend | Life and style | The Guardian Family My dad John White, the Spurs legend Footballer John White was killed by lightning in 1964, aged 27, leaving behind a widow, two children and a legacy of match moments. His son Rob has been trying to build a sense of the father he knew only from other people's memories In search of the Ghost of White Hart Lane ... Rob White with his mother, Sandra and sister Mandy. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian Friday 11 March 2011 19.05 EST First published on Friday 11 March 2011 19.05 EST Share on Messenger Close There's an old black and white photograph on my wall at home of several players of the 1962 Tottenham Hotspur team holding up the FA Cup at Wembley. It's signed by all the players except one, and it's one of my most precious pieces of football memorabilia. There are similar photos in Rob White's home. His, too, are unsigned by the same player.

Only it's rather more poignant for him, because the player in the photograph is his father. John White was a Spurs and Scotland legend. He was a key member of the Spurs team that won the league and FA Cup double in 1961, the FA Cup the following year, the European Cup Winners cup the year after and was capped 22 times for Scotland. Yet in many ways all these achievements have been overshadowed by the suddenness of his death. At the age of 27, with much of his career still ahead of him, he was killed by lightning while out playing golf in July 1964. He left a widow, Sandra, a two-year-old daughter, Mandy, and Rob, aged six months. If you are old enough, John's death is a footballing JFK moment: you can still remember exactly what you were doing when you heard the news. Rob and Mandy were far too young for any such memories; their only experience of their father is his absence. And by the time they were old enough to understand who he was, they had learned not to talk about him. "We both intuitively felt it would be too upsetting for Mum," says Rob.

Sandra went into shock and closed down when John died. "I was a 22-year-old widow with two kids," she says. "I didn't really know what had hit me. I just felt completely on my own. In the early 1960s, footballers didn't really show how they felt; Bill Nicholson [the manager] came round once, and that was it. It was as if John's death was an embarrassment." Rob and Mandy remember the few weeks they spent each year with John's family in Scotland as their happiest. "There was no pressure on us there," Mandy says. "I don't know if Mum felt in some way closer to Dad when she was around his brothers or if it was just the release of being far away from London; whichever it was, it was the only time we really relaxed together." Back home in London, the children retreated into themselves. For Mandy, that journey was rather more straightforward. "None of Dad's friends paid me too much attention, so I was left to grieve in my own way in private," she says. "I was a girl and no one had any expectations of me as my father's daughter.

No one ever thought of taking me to matches, and I grew up thinking football was a stupid game. It's only comparatively recently that I've come to enjoy it." Things were more complicated for Rob. If it's bad enough for a child to lose a father so young, it's even worse when your father is someone so well-known and loved by others. "I grew up with a strange emptiness," he says. "There were all these thousands of people out there who seemed to have much more of a relationship with Dad than I did. "I can clearly remember the first time I actually saw my Dad moving. It was a fleeting piece of newsreel footage from the Spurs v Leicester 1961 cup final shown during the build-up to the 1973 cup final. I felt an instant connection and it was just about the first time I really felt he was part of me and I was part of him." Mostly, though, Rob had to live with the legend rather than the father. From time to time, friends – and sometimes strangers – would tell him how brilliant his father was and how proud he must be of this man he had never met, but even when people said nothing he felt under scrutiny.

There was never any getting away from the fact that he was the son of the footballer who was killed by lightning. His response was to keep a low profile by never mentioning his father in public, but he couldn't avoid the insecurity. When his school sent him to try out for the Middlesex Under-15s team, he wasn't sure if he had been chosen because he was good at football or because his father had been. Even as an adult he generally chose anonymity, pursuing a career in photography: when the club recently asked him to represent his father as one of the double winners by coming on to the pitch at White Hart Lane during the half-time interval, the season ticket holders who had been sitting next to him for years were amazed. They didn't know who he was. They do now, and so will everyone else, for Rob has chosen to go public in his search of his father in The Ghost of White Hart Lane – John's nickname was The Ghost, a reference to his football skills. "It's something I've wanted to do for a while," he says. "It was partly to make sure my father's genius was properly remembered, but mostly because I wanted to understand what kind of man he really was.

I'd had enough of the Goldenballs legend – the man against whom no one could say a word because of the way and age at which he died. I wanted a sense of the real him. "I've got two daughters – Elsie and Martha – and it's sometimes hard to know what a father is supposed to do, because I've never really had one. All I'm aware of is what I've missed out on: the man who could have shown me how to be a man, the man I could have loved, the man with whom I could have got angry, the man who would have forgiven me. So I needed to wait until I was secure enough in myself, so that I could cope with whatever I found out." Often the search was elusive. There was precious little left of John's physical presence after his death. "Everyone wanted something to remember John by," says Sandra, "and it felt as if the house had been cleaned out by the time the last person had left after the funeral. Even his tools had gone from the garage. It was as though the place had been burgled." Some items have come back. Rob has a pair of his father's old size seven boots and one of his Scotland shirts.

Handling them makes me feel guilty for the pleasure they give me to touch. For, instantly, I feel a strong physical connection with the unsigned figure in my own photo, a sense of reclaiming Rob's past for my own: the very thing he's spent a lifetime trying to get away from. "Don't worry," he says, laughing. "I can cope now." Besides, it's the memories that count, often those of other people, though these too are up for grabs. "One of the loveliest things in the course of writing the book was going to see one of my dad's old team mates, Terry Medwin," says Rob. He started crying when he saw me. He said it was like looking at John." There were other gold-dust moments. "It's odd but the things that made me feel closest to him were those where he was less than perfect," Rob says. "The fact that he once drove home completely drunk. The fact that he might have got another girl in Scotland pregnant before he met my mum. It's weird to think I might have a half-brother somewhere, but it's kind of nice to think Dad was capable of fucking things up as well.

It makes me feel a lot less guilty about the things I've messed up in my own life." One thing that Rob never did discover was what had happened to his father's body. For years, the family version had been that John's ashes had been scattered at White Hart Lane immediately after the cremation. But then Rob realised no one is given the deceased's ashes straight away. Sandra can't remember what happened to them – she seems almost embarrassed that she was in such shock that she she has blanked out all memories. But these things happen. For a while the destination of John's physical remains threatened to become all-consuming. "Then something clicked," he says. "I realised it didn't really matter where he was; the uncertainty was part of his story. I'd found enough of him. Because in looking for him, I had refound our family. "For almost the first time ever, Mum, Mandy and I were able to talk honestly to one another about how we felt and what he meant to us. We're closer now than we've ever been." The Ghost of White Hart Lane, by Rob White and Julie Welch, is published by Yellow Jersey £16.99.

To order a copy for £13.59 with free UK p&p go to theguardian.com/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846 Tom English: Dave Mackay the man and golf's perception issue - BBC Sport BBC Sport Tom English: Dave Mackay the man and golf's perception issue By Tom English Read more about sharing. There's a picture of Dave Mackay sitting in a makeshift dugout at a changing Stamford Bridge in the mid-1970s. He is manager of Derby County and his eyes are focused on the game. If you look to his left you see his assistant, Des Anderson, and along the line, sitting in what looks like a sleeping bag, is Roger Davies, the championship winning striker of 1975. But the eye isn't drawn to Mackay's left, it is drawn to his right, where a young boy, nine or 10 years old, is leaning over a wall alongside the Derby manager. Clearly, the boy is with the boss. Earlier he had been in the team hotel with the Derby players. He had travelled to the ground in the team bus.

He'd been in the dressing room watching Roy McFarland and Kevin Hector and Archie Gemmill getting ready until five minutes before the off, when he went into the corridor to allow Mackay to say his piece. Tottenham's 1963 European Cup Winners' Cup winning side, featuring Scots Bill Brown (goalkeeper), Dave Mackay (back right) and John White (front row, third from left) Then he took his place alongside the great man. The boy is not a son, a nephew or family member of any kind, but he's connected all the same. His name is Rob White and he is the son of John White, the Ghost of White Hart Lane. At this point in his life, the young man knows little of his late father's greatness. He knows that his dad was Scottish and that he was a footballer, but the full scale of his dad's brilliance is still a mystery to him. He remembers nothing else about him. How could he? He was six months old when his father died.

White embodied skill and wit in the most cherished Spurs team of them all - the historic 1960-61 double-winners that went on to become the first British side to win a European trophy, taking the Cup Winners' Cup in 1963. Bill Nicholson's immortals - John White and Dave Mackay among them. Team-mates, friends, Scots together at the Lane. In 1964, aged just 27, White was killed by lightning when playing golf at Crews Hill in Enfield. The Observer journalist, Peter Corrigan, got through to Mackay in the hours after it happened and recalls one of the game's toughest footballers crying so hard that he had put the phone down. Years later, when his memory was fading and his health deteriorating, Mackay recounted the day his friend died. He said a man called Tommy Burton broke the news to him first. As soon as he heard, he got in his car and drove to the golf course. "I got there as fast as I could," Mackay said. "I don't know. I think I just wanted to see him before they took him away. Just to be with him before he went off to the mortuary.

I was too late. I sat down by the tree and I was very upset. I looked at it and there were these two burns in a kind of a circle on the bark, about two foot off the ground. It was just unbelievable. It was very, very sad." Dave Mackay grabs Billy Bremner, but the man himself hated the image this picture portrayed of him On Monday, the great Mackay left us and as the news came filtering through there were any number of tributes, from big name players of the past to ordinary supporters of his beloved Hearts and his second-love, Spurs, and from Derby fans who will never forget the job he did as their manager in Brian Clough's wake. Mackay had been a world class player and an unrivalled leader. He was big and strong and had a will to win that took others with him. He was, in every sense, a mighty man. On Tuesday evening, his former team-mate, Tommy Docherty, was asked where he'd rank Mackay in the list of the greatest Scottish players. "Top five, aye," said The Doc.

"And high-up, too." The image of Mackay that we know and love the most is the one that he himself hated - the one where he's grabbing Billy Bremner by the shirt like a bully in a playground. Mackay was no bully. He was fiendishly hard, but utterly fair. In that moment, he was merely reacting to a bad tackle to a leg that he had already broken twice. At home on Tuesday, Rob White looked at the picture of the Stamford Bridge dugout and remembered not Mackay the player but Mackay the man. He remembered his kindness. Rob is 51 now and talks of the influence Mackay had on him in his formative years and what he describes as the "great gift" he gave to him. Dave Mackay factfile 1958: Captains Hearts to the Scottish league title 1959: Joins Tottenham from Hearts in a £32,000 deal 1961: Wins the league and FA Cup double with Tottenham.

He won two further FA Cups at Tottenham, in 1962 and 1967 1968: Sold to Second Division Derby County for £5,000, where he helped Brian Clough's side gain promotion to the First Division in his first season 1969: Named joint winner of the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year award 1971: Appointed player-manager of Swindon Town 1972: Becomes manager of Nottingham Forest 1973: Succeeds Brian Clough as manager of Derby County 1975: Leads Derby County to the league title 1977-1995: Manages Walsall, Birmingham City and Doncaster, and a number of clubs in the Middle East 2002: Made an inaugural inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame 2015: Dies aged 80 "My dad had been at Alloa and Falkirk, a hard level," he says. "But then he went down to London and it was another world.

He arrived at King's Cross and got two buses across to White Hart Lane and it must have been very reassuring for him to know that Dave was there waiting for him. "There were three Scots - my dad, Dave and Bill Brown. I love the story of Dave arriving at Spurs and being presented with a silver Jaguar and then going and getting it spray-painted maroon. Hearts was his club, always. But Spurs were so lucky to have him as well. "He thought the world of my dad and that's part of the reason why he completely went out of his way when he was manager of Derby to make sure I got this incredible immersion into the world of football. I was taken to all of the games in the London area. I met all the superstars of the day. "I was in the hotel, on the team bus, in the dressing room and in the dugout. It was like I'd won a competition in Shoot! magazine to spend a day with a top team, but it wasn't just one day. I'd be right there with him at Chelsea, Arsenal, QPR, Luton, Fulham, Tottenham.

"The players would come out of the dressing room and file past me and there'd be an overpowering sense of liniment. In 1975 I was brought to Wembley for the Charity Shield - Derby against West Ham - and I'm walking up the tunnel on to the pitch after the players and a security guy says 'Excuse me, son, what are you doing?' And Dave notices and turns around and says, 'He's with me' and carried on walking. And you could see the guy thinking 'If Mackay said it, then it's ok'. Scotland midfielder Dave Mackay in action for Tottenham against Liverpool in 1968 "Dave looked after me purely because I was John White's son. What he did for me was a really important part of my development because Dave gave me an unbelievable insight into the world my dad would have inhabited. The stadiums, the dressing rooms, the atmospheres. I saw from an early age what dad's life would have been like. It was a gift." When he heard the news of Mackay's death, there was a twin sadness for Rob White - the loss of a man that had meant so much to him as a boy, and the emotion about the father he never knew.

"I love looking through old pictures of Dave and my father and all that old crew," he says. "There is a sense of shock that the indestructible Mackay has gone but it's tempered by an overwhelming pride and gratitude for the impact he had on my life. Everybody remembers the great footballer, but he was a great man, too." GOLF'S PERCEPTION PROBLEM Dan Olsen, the journeyman American golfer, must be a Lewis Carroll fan because on Monday, on ESPN, he went through the looking glass and set a hare running, a March hare so big it wouldn't have been out of place had it fetched up at the Mad Hatter's tea party. Olsen claimed in an interview that Tiger Woods is currently serving a one-month ban from the game. He said other strange stuff about Woods using a "cheater ball" instead of a ball approved by the PGA Tour. Clearly, Dan was in the mood to unburden himself. The player said the information about the ban was reliable. "It's not testosterone, but it's something else," said Olsen.

"I think when it's all said and done, he (Woods) is gonna surpass Lance Armstrong with infamy." American golfer Dan Olsen retracted the comments he made about Tiger Woods on television If you think there's nothing faster on this earth than the speed of light then you haven't seen how quickly the golf establishment can move when a marquee name, and the sport in general, is being traduced. Trying to get the PGA Tour - or the European Tour for that matter - to engage on the subject of doping is not an easy business, but in the wake of Olsen's bizarre interview they were on it like a flash. Ty Votaw, executive vice-president of the PGA Tour, responded emphatically. "There is no truth whatsoever to these claims," he said. "We categorically deny these claims." Olsen made wild allegations with zero evidence and later retracted every sentence in a climb-down that could scarcely have been any more mortifying for him. But there is a related issue here and it's an issue of transparency and secrecy. A while back we contacted the PGA Tour and asked for some details of their dope-testing regime. Golf is becoming an Olympic sport next summer, after all.

The game is entering a new world where testers can bang on the door of an elite player in the middle of the night and carry out a test. Of course, golf lives by different rules to most sports. A positive test elsewhere can lead to a four-year ban. In golf, it can lead to anything the game's authorities want it to lead to. Golf is one of the few sports that is not bound by the World Anti-Doping code. Tiger Woods has failed to find top form again after returning to golf following surgery We asked the PGA Tour and the European Tour for data that showed how on top of the threat of doping they have become - number of overall tests in the year just gone, number of tests per tournament, number of times the elite guys were tested and the same for the chasing pack. We were told by the PGA Tour spokesperson that no specific details could be released. Testing is done at "virtually every PGA Tour event," but the numbers are confidential. In Europe? Same brick wall. No details of any kind. "We don't divulge this sort of information," said the European Tour. Nobody is saying that golf has a problem with doping, but unquestionably there's a perception problem.

The secrecy on both sides of the Atlantic does the game no good. Golf may have nothing to hide, but sometimes, through its own lack of transparency, it can appear as if it does. Share this page

Question: Which Scottish international footballer was killed by lightning on Enfield Golf Course
Answer: John White