Stanley Matthews' son took up tennis because kids kicked him on football pitch
Before he set off to walk to Blackpool ’s Bloomfield Road football ground, Sir Stanley Matthews would put lead in his shoes, so when he put his football boots on he would feel like he was walking on air.
With admiration, his son, Stanley Jnr, also recalls how his father would fast every Monday, and drink juices every Tuesday – tomato was his favourite.
All this part of his relentless fitness regime and sheer bloody determination which, along with his inherent magic, earned the twinkle-toed star his nickname Wizard of the Dribble.
Yet despite this will to win, Sir Stanley, the legendary England, Stoke and Blackpool player, who played professionally for four decades, from the 1930s to the 1960s, earning 54 England caps, never once copped as much as a yellow card on the pitch.
At home, it was a rather different story. Competitive? When he was playing anything with his kids, the mild-mannered winger with a magician’s moves was a sore loser.
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Sir Stanley and Stanley Jnr in 1951 (Popperfoto via Getty Images)Stan Jnr, 77, who has the same angular features as his superstar dad, chuckles as he recalls how he and his older sister Jean would secretly giggle at their father’s competitiveness.
“We would smirk,” he admits. “On the pitch, if he won, he didn’t go crazy. If he lost it was the same thing, there were no great highs or lows.
“The fact he never got a card was an amazing achievement. He never lost his temper on the football pitch, but when he played with me and my sister, if he was losing, he didn’t like it.
“He’d have to leave, he’d say he had to make a phone call. We had a tennis court in the garden, lawn bowls, chess, backgammon, table tennis.
“Even as a kid I was better at chess, most board games. He’d say ‘Oh, I have to go’. That was funny. I think that’s what I miss most about him today.”
Stan Jnr, who now lives in Florida in the US, was soon better at tennis, too.
The Matthews family in 1953 (Popperfoto via Getty Images)His name was mentioned repeatedly last week when Henry Searle, 17, became the first Brit to be crowned Wimbledon boys’ champion since Stan Jnr in 1962.
The record was a reminder Sir Stanley’s son had inherited his genes and become a successful sportsman, too.
Stan Jnr, who represented Britain in the Davis Cup in 1971, and got to the second round at Wimbledon, the US Open and French Open, once beat Ilie Năstase and won 12 singles titles, has now retired from the tennis academy he went on to run in the US state of Connecticut.
He reflects on why he moved into tennis when he could have chosen football.
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“At 10 or 11 I was pretty good. I dribbled soccer balls with Dad and he would show me the Matthews move. It was like the ball was stuck to his feet. I managed it in my own little way,” he laughs.
“But it seemed the other kids just wanted to kick me, just to say they had stopped Stanley Matthews. I went off it for that reason, and I certainly would never have been as good as my father.”
Stan Jnr in 1967 (Getty Images)
Henry Searle is first Brit to be crowned Wimbledon boys’ champion since Stan Jnr in 1962 (Kieran McManus/REX/Shutterstock)He and his sister would instead play tennis fiercely at home, “egged on” by their dad. “He would have buckets of balls and throw them like a ball machine to practise volleys.”
Stan adds: “Dad was pretty good, he got to every ball, but I could beat him.”
Tennis, then, became his chosen sport – different from his dad, and grandad, Jack, a barber turned boxer.
Because the Matthews family lived in Blackpool, Lancs, where Sir Stanley played from the late 1940s until 1961, when he returned to his hometown team of Stoke where he started, the footballer would train on the beach. And young Stan would join him.
At 13, Stan Jnr moved to London to train with the Lawn Tennis Association but often went home at weekends. He rarely felt his dad was absent, always around to play football on the beach on Sunday with the family or do headers back and forth with his son with a tiny football in the house.
Because Sir Stanley had an astonishingly long career, continuing until 1965, father and son’s sporting careers overlapped.
Dad and baby son in 1946 (Getty Images)
Stan Jnr beside the honours board at Wimbledon (DAILY MIRROR)At 16, when Stan Jnr won the boys’ title at Wimbledon, his father was away on tour. Sir Stan tried to make tournaments but felt his presence was a distraction.
“He’d be hiding behind a tree,” says Stan. “He was very recognisable, people would talk to him and he felt it interfered with what was going on on court for me.”
Stan encountered comparisons with his dad, especially when he failed to win grand slams.
But he thinks his dad was “happy” with his achievements. “He didn’t put pressure on me,” he recalls. That was perhaps in conscious contrast to Sir Stanley’s dad, who as he died expressed his wish for Sir Stanley to lift the FA Cup.
He finally did after failing twice, with Blackpool winning in 1953.
Stan Jnr recalls: “I would call him up and say ‘It didn’t go well’ and he would ask ‘What went wrong? Keep trying’. That was it, he was good like that.”
Like father, like son (Offside / LEquipe)Young Stan got to as many of his dad’s games as he could. The family had a “signal” they’d exchange when Sir Stanley emerged from the tunnel.
“We made a little circle with the thumb and first finger,” Stan recalls.
He sounds chuffed by it still – a special sign exchanged between a boy and his dad. Intensely proud, he got angry when players tried to take down his father. He says Chelsea defender Ron “Chopper” Harris went for Sir Stanley in a game in the 60s. “I was mad, I was yelling,” Stan recalls.
The first footballer to be knighted – much to his embarrassment – and winner of the inaugural Ballon d’Or, Sir Stanley played professionally until he was aged 50 years and five days.
“But he often said he retired too soon,” says Stan. His dad would continue his breathing exercises and regular walks as exercise almost up until his death aged 85 in 2000.
An estimated 200,000 lined the streets for his funeral in the Potteries.
“People adored him,” says Stan, who felt just the same.
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