REMEMBER when hard men were really hard men, mullets were real mullets and Leeds were really quite good?
Brian Clough was in his pomp. There were purple tracksuits, muddy pitches, incessant chain-smoking and the rippling torso of Kevin Keegan on show as he embarked on fisticuffs with half the Leeds team.
Ex-pros ran pubs, more than two sides had a chance of winning the league and you wouldn?t find a Cristiano Ronaldo diamond earring within 50 miles of the Baseball Ground.
Here are five of the best bits to sum up 70s soccer:
It's a dog's life, Keeps
IN 1970 the professional career of Brentford stopper Chic Brodie really went to the dogs.
The 33-year-old was somehow clattered into by a stray sheepdog that left him nursing a severely damaged knee.
Embarrassed he claimed: ?The dog might have been a small one but it just so happened to be a solid one.?
Although he did recover to play part-time football, Brodie was never the luckiest keeper.
On one appearance at Lincoln the whole goal frame collapsed, narrowly missing him, and he later feared for his life when playing against Millwall when a hand grenade was chucked into his six-yard box.
Chic said: ?I bloody scarpered.? It turned out to be a dud.
Jimmy's career on the line
JIMMY HILL was prepared to go where no football man had been before.
He abolished the minimum wage, created the phenomenon of ?punditry? and even got three points for a win ratified to make the game more exciting.
But his greatest leap was from the stand to the touchline to pick up the linesman flag and risk the wrath of the fans in a clash between Arsenal and Liverpool in 1972.
Flagger Dennis Drewitt had pulled a muscle and the game was in danger of being abandoned before the cry from the tannoy system was answered by spectator - and qualified ref ? Hill.
Yes, he got abuse ? but he took it on the chin.
Charity ends at home
IT was meant to be a new beginning. Brian Clough?s Leeds, flowing football and unblemished discipline - and it was a charity match.
But Clough led a team out at Wembley for the 1974 Charity Shield under the ghost of ?The? Don Revie.
The players decided Reds? king mullet, Kevin Keegan, needed a bit of personal treatment and by the time he?d been clobbered by half of Elland Road, Mighty Mouse finally flipped and lashed out at Billy Bremner.
Aghast at being dismissed, both men decided to bare their naked torsos, hurling their shirts to the hallowed turf.
The rippling Keegan beat the fiery Scot hands-down in the looks stakes but with both handed an 11 game ban and ?500 fine, it was at a heavy price.
Lee bites back
BRIAN CLOUGH had departed but Derby?s animosity for Leeds hadn?t waned.
It was November 1975 and a Division One clash at the Baseball Ground.
With reputation preceding him, Norman Hunter bit into little Franny Lee?s legs a little too hard.
Lee reacted, Hunter flung a left-hook, both saw red, and the mist didn't lift until both completed the walk of shame to the dressing rooms.
Mancs prove a bit too mouthy
IN the 70s Man United were nowhere near the force they are today.
In fact, they were so bad that the 1974-75 season was the only campaign since 1938 they have spent outside the top flight.
It was in 1975 that keeper Alex Stepney broke his jaw ? by screaming too hard at the inept bodies infront of him!
Spot the difference at Derby
BACK to the Baseball Ground, with the Rams battling relegation in 1977 and looking like claiming a rare victory.
But even though it was April, the surface wasn?t exactly conducive to flowing football and by the time Archie Gemmill had been tripped in the box with four minutes to go, the penalty spot had disappeared along with the disgruntled away fans.
It led to chaotic scenes where, with groundsman Bob Smith reaching for the tape measure to help the referee mark out the full 12 yards.
Unperturbed Jerry Daly slotted the spot-kick into the bottom corner.
Brian Clough was in his pomp. There were purple tracksuits, muddy pitches, incessant chain-smoking and the rippling torso of Kevin Keegan on show as he embarked on fisticuffs with half the Leeds team.
Ex-pros ran pubs, more than two sides had a chance of winning the league and you wouldn?t find a Cristiano Ronaldo diamond earring within 50 miles of the Baseball Ground.
Here are five of the best bits to sum up 70s soccer:
It's a dog's life, Keeps
IN 1970 the professional career of Brentford stopper Chic Brodie really went to the dogs.
The 33-year-old was somehow clattered into by a stray sheepdog that left him nursing a severely damaged knee.
Embarrassed he claimed: ?The dog might have been a small one but it just so happened to be a solid one.?
Although he did recover to play part-time football, Brodie was never the luckiest keeper.
On one appearance at Lincoln the whole goal frame collapsed, narrowly missing him, and he later feared for his life when playing against Millwall when a hand grenade was chucked into his six-yard box.
Chic said: ?I bloody scarpered.? It turned out to be a dud.
Jimmy's career on the line
JIMMY HILL was prepared to go where no football man had been before.
He abolished the minimum wage, created the phenomenon of ?punditry? and even got three points for a win ratified to make the game more exciting.
But his greatest leap was from the stand to the touchline to pick up the linesman flag and risk the wrath of the fans in a clash between Arsenal and Liverpool in 1972.
Flagger Dennis Drewitt had pulled a muscle and the game was in danger of being abandoned before the cry from the tannoy system was answered by spectator - and qualified ref ? Hill.
Yes, he got abuse ? but he took it on the chin.
Charity ends at home
IT was meant to be a new beginning. Brian Clough?s Leeds, flowing football and unblemished discipline - and it was a charity match.
But Clough led a team out at Wembley for the 1974 Charity Shield under the ghost of ?The? Don Revie.
The players decided Reds? king mullet, Kevin Keegan, needed a bit of personal treatment and by the time he?d been clobbered by half of Elland Road, Mighty Mouse finally flipped and lashed out at Billy Bremner.
Aghast at being dismissed, both men decided to bare their naked torsos, hurling their shirts to the hallowed turf.
The rippling Keegan beat the fiery Scot hands-down in the looks stakes but with both handed an 11 game ban and ?500 fine, it was at a heavy price.
Lee bites back
BRIAN CLOUGH had departed but Derby?s animosity for Leeds hadn?t waned.
It was November 1975 and a Division One clash at the Baseball Ground.
With reputation preceding him, Norman Hunter bit into little Franny Lee?s legs a little too hard.
Lee reacted, Hunter flung a left-hook, both saw red, and the mist didn't lift until both completed the walk of shame to the dressing rooms.
Mancs prove a bit too mouthy
IN the 70s Man United were nowhere near the force they are today.
In fact, they were so bad that the 1974-75 season was the only campaign since 1938 they have spent outside the top flight.
It was in 1975 that keeper Alex Stepney broke his jaw ? by screaming too hard at the inept bodies infront of him!
Spot the difference at Derby
BACK to the Baseball Ground, with the Rams battling relegation in 1977 and looking like claiming a rare victory.
But even though it was April, the surface wasn?t exactly conducive to flowing football and by the time Archie Gemmill had been tripped in the box with four minutes to go, the penalty spot had disappeared along with the disgruntled away fans.
It led to chaotic scenes where, with groundsman Bob Smith reaching for the tape measure to help the referee mark out the full 12 yards.
Unperturbed Jerry Daly slotted the spot-kick into the bottom corner.