Gordon Banks’ path from teenage coal miner to 1966 hero whose career was tragically cut short

GORDON Banks was from the glittering England generation who did it for the glory.

After bagging coal aged 15 in his native Sheffield he went on to become known as Banks of England for his safe hands as the Three Lions goalkeeper.

He won a World Cup winners’ medal and yet, along with his ’66 teammates, was paid just £60 per match and £1,000 each for clinching sport’s ultimate prize.

“Quite a bit then, but hardly enough to take care of your old age,” modest and likeable Gordon would reminisce.

Oh, and the team also got a free raincoat. He recalled: “We had a suit made by somebody in London for advertising reasons before the World Cup and then when we won it they gave us the coat.”

Their West German opponents pocketed £10,000 a man and a Volkswagen car just for reaching the final.

At the time England’s No1 was driving a dinky Standard Eight. His club Leicester City paid £35 a week. But the fact he never earned more than £100 a week failed to rankle.

“See, my first job was bagging coal,” he said. “So I would shove the coal into hundredweight bags and drop it into cellars. Then I went to work on a building site.

“To go from that to playing for England in a World Cup was like a dream.”

He wrote in his autobiography: “Every time I got something — a little bit of money here, a medal there — I was grateful.

“I think a lot of people go into the profession without knowing hardship. When all these lovely, luxurious things come their way, they can’t really appreciate them.”

Born in Abbeydale, Sheffield, in 1937, Gordon’s father Thomas worked in a steel foundry and was a part-time illicit bookie.

Mum Nellie’s pleasures in life were “a cigarette and a pint of stout” at the local working men’s club on a Saturday night.

I think a lot of people go into the profession without knowing hardship. When all these lovely, luxurious things come their way, they can’t really appreciate them

Gordon Banks

He wrote: “I was always cold as a child, because the World War Two bombs had warped the window frames. There was no central heating, and although we had coal fires, we always let them go out at bedtime. It was often as frosty inside as it was outside.”

His elder brother John had a bone disease that required 14 operations. He died aged 34 having never recovered from injuries received in a mugging as he carried home the takings from their dad’s betting shop in Catcliffe.

Gordon played for Sheffield schools but was dropped aged 14 without explanation.

At 15 he left school to work as a coal bagger and credited the job with helping build up his strength.

Then, while sitting on a fence watching a steel works team, a player who recognised Gordon from school said: “Our goalie hasn’t turned up, do you want a game?”

Gordon did not have his kit. “I played in my working trousers,” he remembered. “I still recall the bemused looks on the faces of my new teammates when a cloud of coal dust shot up from those trousers as I blocked with my legs.”

He progressed through Yorkshire League team Rawmarsh Welfare to the Chesterfield youth team where he signed in 1953 as a part-time professional.

During National Service with the Royal Signals in Germany he met wife Ursula. They would have three children — Robert, Wendy and Julia.

He joined top-flight Leicester in 1959 and was given his first cap by Sir Alf Ramsey in 1963.

England’s games against West Germany left Ursula with “mixed feelings”. But by 1966 Gordon said “an England rosette decorated her coat and anyone sitting beside her would have no doubt where her allegiance lay”.

Sir Alf proclaimed Banks as the finest goalkeeper as England lifted the World Cup. The next year he moved to Stoke City.

In 1970 England went to Mexico to defend their crown. In Guadalajara on June 7, the world’s greatest player Pele powered a header towards the far corner of Gordon’s net.

Now being replayed on news bulletins across the globe, Gordon’s save is judged the best ever seen.

He remembered: “As I got to my feet Pele came up to me and patted me on the back. ‘I thought that was a goal,’ he said. ‘You and me both,’ I replied.”

As I got to my feet Pele came up to me and patted me on the back. ‘I thought that was a goal,’ he said. ‘You and me both,’ I replied

Gordon Banks on the Pele save

On the morning of the quarter final against West Germany, Gordon came down with a stomach illness. Rusty Peter Bonetti deputised and England crashed out after throwing away a 2-0 lead.

Gordon watched on TV in his hotel room. A time delay meant it was still showing England two up when the team trooped back.

He thought Bobby Moore and Alan Ball were winding him up when they said they had lost 3-2 and were going home. But the sight of tears streaming down Bobby Charlton’s face revealed the truth.

Gordon later said he had never watched the second half in its entirety and so was not in a position to judge if his stand-in Bonetti was to blame. There were suggestions Gordon had been nobbled. “We all ate the same food and took the same tablets, so why me?” Gordon said.

“I was at the top of my career and felt confident in everything I did. I’ve got to say I’ve become more and more suspicious over the years.”

Then, in October 1972, his career effectively came to an end in a mass of twisted metal.

Dashing to Sunday lunch from Stoke’s Victoria Ground where he had been receiving treatment for an injury, 33-year-old Gordon tried to overtake a crawling lorry and a car behind it.

His Ford Granada ended up in a ditch after colliding with a van. Surgeons could not save the sight in his right eye.

He said later: “I wouldn’t say I was bitter because I was to blame for the crash.”

Gordon called on the fortitude his brother had shown when fighting his bone disease. He said: “I just got off the floor and did what he did and said, ‘Let’s crack on’.”

He went to the US and played for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in 1977 and 1978.

It emerged he had an affair with a games mistress he met before leaving. Gordon recalled: “It was one of those flashy things that was over quickly. I admire Ursula for the way she handled it. She’s a great woman and I wouldn’t change her for anybody.”

A move into management with non-league Telford United left him deeply disillusioned in 1980 when he was told he was no longer boss.