Vic Keeble
Centre-forward who scored as much with his head as his feet
VIC KEEBLE, who has died aged 87, was a free-scoring centreforward for West Ham and Newcastle, and the last survivor of the Magpies’ team that won the FA Cup in 1955.
He joined Newcastle in 1952 for £15,000, when he was still doing National Service in the Army. It was a substantial fee for a player from lowly Colchester United, for whom initially he had appeared in nonleague football. Yet his eye for goal and prowess in the air had also attracted Blackpool, looking for cover for Stan Mortensen, and when given his chance Keeble proved his worth.
During his first season he deputised for the injured Jackie Milburn, but spent the following year in the reserves. In 1954, however, Milburn was shifted to outside-right and Keeble led the line, scoring 15 times in 28 matches and creating more goals with flick-ons.
“He scored so many goals with his nut I swear he had studs in his forehead,” wrote Milburn, although the limited power in his feet led fans to dub him “Feeble Keeble”. Notably, he contributed five goals in the team’s run to the Cup Final against Manchester City.
After just 45 seconds, Milburn scored from a corner when the City captain, Roy Paul, left him unmarked after realising he was meant to be watching Keeble. Keeble remembered Bert Trautmann making a good save from him 10 minutes later, but it mattered not as the Toon ran out 3-1 winners. It was their third Cup victory in five years – and remains their last domestic trophy.
Keeble and his teammates were given £25 apiece as a bonus. They put it on a horse – which came third. Many years later, he sold his winner’s medal. “We never had any money, did we? When I moved house, I had to buy a heater, a fridge and a cooker. So I spent the money on those things.”
After losing his place through injury, Keeble was signed for West Ham in 1957 by Ted Fenton, who had been his manager at Colchester. The Hammers were then in the Second Division, and the partnership that Keeble formed with John Dick – they claimed 40 goals between them, with Keeble superb at holding the ball up – proved instrumental in their winning the title that year. With it came promotion to the top flight from which the club had been absent for a quarter of a century.
The next season, Keeble scored 20 goals in 32 matches as the side finished sixth. He shared a house with Malcolm Allison and would give Geoff Hurst a lift into training. A back injury was to curtail his career, however, and he retired in 1960.
Victor Albert William Keeble was born in Colchester on June 25 1930. He came of humble stock but won a place to the town’s grammar school, where his first love was rugby. Through a youth club, he came to the attention of Arsenal, with whom he trained as a schoolboy before signing forms at 17 with Colchester, then a semi-professional team in the Southern League.
As an amateur, Keeble scored a hat-trick inside a quarter of an hour on his debut and, once established in the side, became prolific. In 1950, he notched 43 goals in 45 matches as the club won promotion to the Football League as well as the Southern League cup. The next year, in the Third Division South as it was, Keeble scored 7 in 21, then 16 in 25 in his final season at Layer Road.
A down-to-earth, courteous man, after retiring Keeble worked for a time as a sports reporter before returning to Colchester United on the commercial side. Later he worked for many years for their great rivals, Chelmsford City.
An early first marriage, from which he had three daughters, ended in divorce. He had a son by another relationship, and two sons with his second wife Carole, who predeceased him. Latterly, he had been devoted to Maggie, his German Shepherd.
His children survive him.
Vic Keeble, born June 25 1930, died January 29 2018