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I've met some truly mad Sunderland supporters .....

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Jack Ford said:
Thats him! Used to don a butchers coat.



Thats Tom, I believe he had a bit of a speech impediment. Would really like to know whether he was still about. I honestly thought at the time the illness was a bit of a ruse but was obviously wrong
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Aye he had quite a bad stutter although nobody ever said anything about it.

Just reminiscing about him made me realise Reiver is spot on with his comments about being isolated as a SAFC fan for being from a different part of the country. I remember when we went down to Cardiff the time when we got humped 4-0. We had all travelled down overnight on buses to Bristol and got the train from there. Cardiff were in a right huff that 200 of us had been there all day so the atmosphere was far from convivial on the way out of the ground. I remember a Welsh policeman came over and was keen to force us onto our buses which they had helpfully brought to the ground.

So it was you 200 lads: turn left. Tommy on his own off to the station to get the train back to London: turn right.

Needless to say he jumped on our bus for 10 minutes to effect his escape!
 

Never knew who this lad was but someone might know......

Way back in the late 70s when we used to go away we always got talking to a lad who at the time must have been at least late 30s. We called him toothless because, yes you've guessed it, he had his front teeth missing. Always wore a sheepskin coat.

Ring any bells with anyone?

I've often wondered if he is still alive and kicking.

Anyone mentioned John Henry?
 
My Boy Harry said:
Never knew who this lad was but someone might know......

Way back in the late 70s when we used to go away we always got talking to a lad who at the time must have been at least late 30s. We called him toothless because, yes you've guessed it, he had his front teeth missing. Always wore a sheepskin coat.

Ring any bells with anyone?

I've often wondered if he is still alive and kicking.

Anyone mentioned John Henry?
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Prominent light coloured sheepskin wearers were Cal from Whitburn, Gram from Grindon,Davey? Aka Celtic.
 
The Falcon said:
Prominent light coloured sheepskin wearers were Cal from Whitburn, Gram from Grindon,Davey? Aka Celtic.
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did they have their front teeth missing?

I can also tell a story about this lad who we knew as John Henry. It was suggested that he was a mate of the Bear's..he was a big fat lad who at the time ie late 70's was a few years older than us.

He sometimes travelled on the Travel Club buses and always got on with two things in his hands....a bag full of bait and alcohol and also an empty plastic container. He always got on the bus and made sure he got the very back corner seat. If someone was sitting in that seat he basically threw them out. We had no idea at all why he brought this empty container with him until we stopped off one day and we saw him empty it in the gents at a service station. It was basically a piss bucket that he used on the bus. The buses at the time didnt have toilets on them and as he was drinking alcohol all the way down, which no one said a word about, his bladder was coming under some pressure. whenever we reached our destination he had already had a skin full.

The additional story about him was that we played away at Plymouth once and john Henry was being chased by some of their fans. JH broke into a garden shed and came out swinging a shovel around. The Plymouth lads scarpered.
 
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Stevie said:
Aye he had quite a bad stutter although nobody ever said anything about it.

Just reminiscing about him made me realise Reiver is spot on with his comments about being isolated as a SAFC fan for being from a different part of the country. I remember when we went down to Cardiff the time when we got humped 4-0. We had all travelled down overnight on buses to Bristol and got the train from there. Cardiff were in a right huff that 200 of us had been there all day so the atmosphere was far from convivial on the way out of the ground. I remember a Welsh policeman came over and was keen to force us onto our buses which they had helpfully brought to the ground.

So it was you 200 lads: turn left. Tommy on his own off to the station to get the train back to London: turn right.

Needless to say he jumped on our bus for 10 minutes to effect his escape!
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Was that the match whereby some famous Cardiff Figure or summat had died and us fans were accused of making a noise during minutes silence. John Charles maybe?? or maybe getting mixed up.

Aye come to think of it Tommy did appear to travel solo but it was obvious he knwe loads
 
Jack Ford said:
Dont travel often nowadays but another 'character' we used to sometimes bump into at away games was a lad called 'Tom'. He was a skinhead and had a few front gold teeth. He told us he was working as a chef at a London Restaurant??? Always used to chat to us whenever he saw us. Anyhow, it was Bristol City away in 80s, he was stood in front of us in queue for away end. All of a sudden a meat wagon pulled up, out gets a few coppers, and lifted Tommy and took him away for some reasom? He didn't put up any struggle but never did find out why./. Anyone know/aware of him. Was told at one time that he had fucked off to Thailand and also another rumour wasthat he had died (this was not true )
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herd the same good kid was tom ,
 
Just had a text from a fellow SAFC fan to say that the lad with no teeth and the sheepskin is called Mole from Hendon. Still goes to the match apparently. Probably in his 60's now? Now he was a real character. Not an overly big lad, fairly wiry but boy when the action started I dont think I ever saw him come off second best.

A real blast from the past that one mind.

It is thought that John Henry is from Hylton Castle. Is he still around?

Anyone know Nixon from Hetton?
 
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My Boy Harry said:
Just had a text from a fellow SAFC fan to say that the lad with no teeth and the sheepskin is called Mole from Hendon. Still goes to the match apparently. Probably in his 60's now?

A real blast from the past that one mind.

It is thought that John Henry is from Hylton Castle. Is he still around?
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I remember a couple of my mates saying Mole was on the tube that got ambushed by Chelsea at Earl's court. The scaffolding pole attack .
 
Buzzcock said:
I remember a couple of my mates saying Mole was on the tube that got ambushed by Chelsea at Earl's court. The scaffolding pole attack .
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He will have been and we were probably standing in fairly close proximity. As I say we got to know the lad by sight quite well and he always spoke to us at the away games. He loved the London games. He was a really nice lad. I'm sure he was at the infamous Millwall trip back in 78/79 or so when we all got kept in for an hour after the game.
 
My Boy Harry said:
He will have been and we were probably standing in fairly close proximity. As I say we got to know the lad by sight quite well and he always spoke to us at the away games. He loved the London games. He was a really nice lad. I'm sure he was at the infamous Millwall trip back in 78/79 or so when we all got kept in for an hour after the game.
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He was a bit of a character like ! :lol:
 
Dying to find out if someone knows john Henry and if he still with us. What a character he was.

Just had this sent to me (the lad BTW is a big SAFC fan but doesnt post on here):

"The Eagle Army from Pennywell going to away games in a furniture van, the Wingate bus, Tennick's coaches from Dundas Street; Tennick himself once getting off the bus on the way to Blackpool to go fishing.Midnight starts to London and the South Coast and West country games. People asking the driver to stop for a leak by the time we'd got to the Wearmouth Bridge. Stopping at fortes, Doncaster at 2am. Arriving in London for games at 7am and going down to Smithfield Market for a pint with the cockney butchers, drinking milk off the doorsteps, getting picked up at midnight at St Pancras with all the London fans hanging around for us, by the time we got home we'd been out a day and a half.

Gunner, Slosher, the Bear, Shick, Flanny, Nixon, Celtic, Sheff, Big Tom E, Jimmy Mack, Tarzan, Mole, Lamma, Armsy, Sammy smith, Herbie Smith, Frankie Wheatley and all the rest. Sunderland boys we are here!

SAFC's prodigy George Forster singing every verse of The Lambton Worm before Cardiff away in 1978 in their supporters club. Billy Simmons steward on Tennick's number 1 coach: "right lads nee alcohol on the bus or you'll be off". Me on the way back from Luton on a freezing winter's night on a coach whose heating had gone off; "billy fancy a tot of whiskey? Reply; "aye son that'll be champion, Dont mind if I do".

Audrey Baillee, Judith Tucknutt (nee Hood), Margaret from Ryhope, all the SAFCSA, absolute legends.
 
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A lot of folk on here may think this thread glorifies hooliganism but I think you had to live through those days to understand. I'm 5 foot 5 inches tall on a hot day and wouldn't pick a fight with with anyone. But following football back in those days meant that there would be trouble at almost every game that you went to .

You knew when you travelled away that at some point during the day you would have a bit of bother , be it verbals or a full scale ambush down a tube station .
What people need to understand is that we would all stick together for safety reasons more than anything else . We had to cover each other's backs when trouble broke out .
I still see lads out and about from those days and to a man they're all over the Moon to see each other cos of the bonds made back in the dark days . These aren't hoolies they're just ordinary hard working lads who love SAFC .
So please don't judge us as a bunch of thugs cos we weren't . I'll not claim that all of our fans were blameless in the trouble but I can only speak from my experiences of the time .
All in all travelling away is a much nicer experience today than it was back then and I hope we never go back to those days .
 
buster said:
Aye that'll be him , played professionally didn't he or is my mind working overtime?

One of the original Boldon Mafia lads
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I think he played for Carlisle or another Northern club, aye The Boldon Mafia.
 
"Modes of transport: football specials, martindales coaches of ferryhill, smiths of murton, lee's of durham, classic, redby, hylton castle coaches, economic buses, white ford transits with loose bench seats and no natural light, the football league liner (with disco), furniture vans, decorators vans, once saw one of those battery operated milk floats at carlisle, must have taken a day to get there - top speed 25mph.

Wally's tours, two tommy's tours.

The wild Man of Roker, Davie Dowell dancing on the main stand precipice after a goal. Jim, Taff and Mike...."take care of him".

Willie McFaul went to town in a white marina, bought some shit and called it Mirandinha. Denis smith went to town in his Lamborghini, bought some class and called it Gabbiadini.

Lest you forget fashions; Clockwork Orange dungarees, butchers coats, NCB doinkey jackets, dexy's midnight runners dungarees, scarves round your head, or wrists, or waist, green USA bomber jackets, could turn them inside out and they were luminous orange. bobble hats, Fulwell/Roker End silk scarves, trilbys, flat checked caps, Le Breve's, Farah slacks, original casual wear - previously bought in Binns by 75 year old golfers, union jack shorts, worn by many at rotherham away in 1988 - a famous day when the miners strike was re-enacted between Seaham, Murton, ?Easington and South Yorkshire constabulary".

"Levi Sta-prest trousers, red socks, black and ox blood brogues, ben sherman shirts, button down and flyaway collars, Dr Martens, astronaut boots, monkey boots, riding boots, skins, skin chicks, suedeheads, fulwell boot Boys, Townies, Vauxies, Loew Ford Mafia, Ashbrooke Axe Men, Farra Aggro boys, ?Herra Soul Mob, Peterlee Pirates, Hebburn and South Shields right hand side of the Fulwell, Thorney close, Grindon, Pennywell, town End Farm, witherwack, Suddick, Ryhope, Costa Del Silky, New Harra, Shiney Row, Newbottle, Houghton, Hetton, wingate, horden, Blackhall, billingham, durham, Langley Park, sherburn Road, Brandon, Chester le Street, Pelton, Stanley Pirates, Plainsy, Grangetown, Seaham, murton, Hawthorn, Easington Lane, Easington Village, Seaburn, fulwell, Roker...and the rest......"
 
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My Boy Harry said:
"Modes of transport: football specials, martindales coaches of ferryhill, smiths of murton, lee's of durham, classic, redby, hylton castle coaches, economic buses, white ford transits with loose bench seats and no natural light, the football league liner (with disco), furniture vans, decorators vans, once saw one of those battery operated milk floats at carlisle, must have taken a day to get there - top speed 25mph.

Wally's tours, two tommy's tours.

The wild Man of Roker, Davie Dowell dancing on the main stand precip after a goal. Jim, Taff and Mike...."take care of him".

Willie McFaul went to town in a white marina, bought some shit and called it Mirandinha. Denis smith went to town in his Lamborghini, bought some class and called it Gabbiadini.

Lest you forget fashions; Clockwork Orange dungarees, butchers coats, NCB doinkey jackets, dexy's midnight runners dungarees, scarves round your head, or wrists, or waist, green USA bomber jackets, could turn them inside out and they were luminous orange. bobble hats, Fulwell/Roker End silk scarves, trilbys, flat checked caps, Le Breve's, Farah slacks, original casual wear - previously bought in Binns by 75 year old golfers, union jack shorts, worn by many at rotherham away in 1988 - a famous day when the miners strike was re-enacted between Seaham, Murton, ?Easington and South Yorkshire constabulary".

"Levi Sta-prest trousers, red socks, black and ox blood brogues, ben sherman shirts, button down and flyaway collars, Dr Martens, astronaut boots, monkey boots, riding boots, skins, skin chicks, suedeheads, fulwell boot Boys, Townies, Vauxies, Loew Ford Mafia, Ashbrooke Axe Men, Farra Aggro boys, ?Herra Soul Mob, Peterlee Pirates, Hebburn and South Shields right hand side of the Fulwell, Thorney close, Grindon, Pennywell, town End Farm, witherwack, Suddick, Ryhope, Costa Del Silky, New Harra, Shiney Row, Newbottle, Houghton, Hetton, wingate, horden, Blackhall, billingham, durham, Langley Park, sherburn Road, Brandon, Chester le Street, Pelton, Stanley Pirates, Plainsy, Grangetown, Seaham, murton, Hawthorn, Easington Lane, Easington Village, Seaburn, fulwell, Roker...and the rest......"
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Binns lower ground floor used to take a bashing especially on a Saturday, Fred Perry gear etc.
 
Mrjardine said:
reiver and t bone proper nawty!
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Jardine ..... obsessed, predictable and just not a witty bloke. As I always do, I start every new year with a clean slate with everyone on the board.

But here you are where you left off last year, along with the other relentless bores trudging around the board like lepers.

No wonder so many have you on ignore but, don't worry, your little Haway pal will along to 'like' your post .... as tedious and predictable as you tbh.

People are talking and having a good laugh while you have little of interest to say ..... do you never tire of posting the same stuff?
 
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