Lord almighty... the true legend from Turf Moor
BOB LORD, the dictatorial outspoken figure of his time, led Burnley to one of the unlikeliest title successes in the game.
And as the Lancashire club prepare to celebrate the 60th anniversary of that amazing feat, the butcher – complete with his traditional pork pie hat – who had taken over as chairman five years earlier, has been brought back to life.
‘Bob Lord of Burnley’ is an intriguing testimony to the man who rocked football’s establishment on and off the pitch.
Burnley under Sean Dyche might be making waves among the
Premier League, but his side have to take second billing to the Turf Moor era of Lord and his men.
Lord recruited Harry Potts as manager and with unsung talent which included Adam Blacklaw, Alex Elder, Jimmy Adamson, Jimmy Mcilroy and Ray Pointer, the big city teams were left behind in a claret and blue slipstream.
In future years they existed on bringing through their own players and selling them.
Precocious youngsters, such as Willie Morgan, Leighton James and Jimmy Robson, helped keep the club financially sound as Lord appeared to wage war on the football establishment.
A blunt Lancastrian, even Manchester United in the aftermath of the Munich disaster weren’t spared.
While many clubs offered some of their players to help United rebuild, an enquiry from Old Trafford for a couple from Burnley’s squad was met with a sharp refusal.
“United may be in jam, but if they think they are coming to Burnley to pick roses off the tree, they better have second thoughts,”he said. “They will just have to fight their way out of it.”
In business, he was just as uncompromising. Starting off as a butcher, he eventually owned 14 shops in the Burnley area.
And when introduced to the Duke of Edinburgh before kick-off in the 1962 FA Cup final between Spurs and Burnley, he said, “I’m
Bob, Lord of Burnley.”
BBC TV’S Match of the Day began in 1964, but it wasn’t until 1969 that Lord allowed the cameras into Turf Moor, arguing that TV would reduce attendances.
Journalists who didn’t toe the Lord line were banned – so much so that they produced a tie ‘Banned by Burnley’.
Lord would argue through his many battles: “Nobody gets anywhere keeping their mouth shut. I am a worker for better things. I am an enlightened thinker. I like to air my views, but I am not a windbag. I am not a tyrant or dictator.”
He always believed that Burnley’s stay at the top would be a brief one, predicting the big clubs would swallow up the smaller ones.
“Burnley has no future as a club with any status or influence,”he said, as the odds of repeating the 1960 triumph increased.
His legacy lives on through the Bob Lord stand at Turf Moor, but today’s generation can be forgiven for not appreciating the labour of love that was Burnley FC.
A new book, ‘Bob Lord of Burnley’, by Dave Thomas and Mike Smith (Pitch Publishing) helps set the record straight on one of football’s most colourful characters.