Thank you kindly for your reply Dave. My apologies for my Henry Smith faux pas. Once again fascinating stuff and your attention to detail is astounding. One last question if I may, did you ever play in goal or have the notion to play in goal?
Thanks again.
This thread is fascinating. I cannot believe Dave's encyclopedic memory!
In terms of Henry Smith, he actually gave me a pair of his Sondicos when Hearts were on tour in Canada in 1993. He tossed them up into the stands to me when I asked if he had any spares. They were white with green and orange trim and quite beat up (I later saw a photo of him in match against Rangers when he was wearing the same model glove).
The best part of this anecdote, though, is when I bumped into John Burridge (who was with Aberdeen at the time) in the concourse a few minutes later.
Without asking, Budgie snatched the gloves from me and put them on (he returned them). He was impressed with my knowledge of his playing career since I was an American.
I can't wait to see the ENTIRE Sukan back-catalogue
Reply to goalie gloves and Jimmy. I certainly played in goal whenever I could at school and in my youth, but unfortunately not to any great standard, after leaving school I reached the great heights of the Winchester & District League. My last game of football was in 1970 as an outfield player, the last game in goal was in 1969. This early retirement was due to a combination of reasons, having to work Saturdays and there was not a lot of Sunday football then, problems with a dislocating right thumb stopping me playing in goal, and other health considerations meant that it was not worth the risk of playing a contact sport. Therefore since then my interest has been from the sidelines, and I have been very fortunate in that my work has been involved with sport, in particular football, and for many years especially goalkeepers, which has more than compensated for not being able to continue playing at my low level. I am very pleased to hear from Jimmy that the package has already arrived with the Sukan literature.
Reply to Larry061. I do have a good memory for certain things, but certainly not everything, but I was also a fairly meticulous record keeper and therefore for Henry Smith after remembering what I thought had happened I could check my records to make sure my memory was correct, and thankfully it was. Regarding John Burridge I doubt if he could remember all of the clubs that he played for, but he was certainly interesting to talk to on the phone, and he was one goalkeeper I actually met. He was playing for Crystal Palace at the time in the early 1980's and I had some gloves for him, therefore he kindly invited me to bring the gloves to his house and to stay for a meal with him and his wife. When I got there I handed over the gloves, and showed him a pair of Sondico Clemence Pro gloves which I had just received from Sondico and this was months before we started advertising and selling them, so they were very new. The first thing he did was phone Peter Shilton to tell him that I had the gloves that Peter had just started using, to make sure that they were the real thing, and once he was satisfied we sat down and enjoyed the meal. There were several oranges on the table, not part of the meal, but they were there because his wife had to every so often, without warning, throw an orange in John's direction and he would try and catch it. The plan being that as there was no warning it helped him to keep alert and his concentration high at all times. An interesting character. His son as a young teenager was a very good ice hockey player, or at least very good by British standards. Going back to his career, you will know that his first League club was Workington, but did you know that his last game for the club was as a winger for their reserves. I believe this to be true as it was someone other than John Burridge who told me. Back to Henry Smith if the back of the glove was a bit more red than orange and in a pattern like a brick wall and green double S logo, it was probably the Southall International.
That is a classic story about John Burridge and the Oranges Dave
On top of the package from you arriving, you have made my day again. Thanks!
The Budgie story is great. And the file of the 1982/83 catalog made my day.
Dave, my question is, as youplayed in goal before the era of the modern glove, did you ever wear any wool or cotton gloves, on very cold or wet days? It must have been amazing to see how fast the technology went from cotton to rubber table-tennis bat grips to modern latex, all in a few years in the late 70s-early 80s.
The Budgie Burridge story is one of the best footy stories that I have ever heard....then the Sukan back catalogue starts....do things get any better than this????
Sepp: The Budgie Burridge story is one of the best footy stories that I have ever heard....then the Sukan back catalogue starts....do things get any better than this????
Not much Sepp, although we will top it all off if we can get our 223's made up!
After looking through the early to mid 90's back catalogues, i'm struggling to find an Uhlsport glove i used for centre of excellence training around 1994/95.
They where a negative cut model with a sort of lime green coloured body, greyish coloured backhandand uhlsport written through the logo. I remember the wrist strap was a sort of hard felt type material and the had an open gusset style wrist.
I bought them off an older kid at school, brand new in the cardboard style box. They weren't the best glove i've worn to be fair, just wondered if Dave or anyone can remember them from this vague description?
I'm just echoing what the other lads have just said, but that story about John Burridge-superb!
I have heard that 'Budgie' story before, but loved reading it again!
UEFA 'B' Licence Goalkeeper Coach
Reply to justin07. The gloves that I wore were generally hand knitted woollen gloves, or a pair of normal cheap string gloves from Woolworths, nothing specifically designed for goalkeeping. The first gloves that I am aware of for goalkeepers was the Ron Springett glove from Lauder Millar, which was a fawn coloured string glove with brown pimpled table tennis rubber on the fingers. This was followed by the Peter Bonetti cotton gloves and then after that the Gordon Banks gloves from Coffer Sports. I had retired by then and so never wore anything that was intended for goalkeeping. Phil Parkes was one of the first U.K. goalkeepers to wear the latex gloves, Dave Sexton the Q.P.R. manager brought him back a pair of Heinze gloves from Germany. One of the reasons we started Sukan Sports was that in 1979 it seemed the right time to try and make the gloves available to the goalkeepers over here, as they were fairly well established on the continent but not in the U.K. The U.K. goalkeepers would see, and sometimes laugh at , the continental goalkeepers with their big gloves and big shorts being used in dry weather, but they did not have the chance to see the gloves and try them for themselves. Now the gloves are taken for granted, but 30 years ago it was very different until the goalkeepers could try them for themselves and realise that they helped their performance and were not a gimmick. What Sukan Sports tried to do was give the goalkeepers an opportunity to see and try for themselves the gloves that had previously been unavailable to them.
Dave, are you able to shed some light on the Reusch/Star gloves (below) that Manchester United's Gary Bailey wore. Who were Star?
You touched on it in comment on the catalogue page.
I cannot recall ever seeing anybody else wearing these and they did not seem to be around for very long.
Another question: Who were Erima, were they owned by adidas and how did they come to sponsor Germany for a short period?