On 25th May 1963 Manchester United took on Leicester City in the FA Cup Final at Wembley. A full strength United side beat Leicester, getting three goals past a twenty five year-old Gordon Banks and conceding just one themselves. The United front line that day will bring back fond memories for United fans of a certain age: Johnny Giles, Albert Quixall, David Herd (scorer of two of the goals), Denis Law (the other scorer) and Bobby Charlton.
Just five days earlier United played their final league game of the season away at Nottingham Forest, a game on which nothing depended, United were 18th when the game kicked off and, in spite of losing 3-2, 18th when it finished. United manager, Matt Busby (not yet Sit Matt) chose to rest two of his key players, Charlton and Law. This gave two youngsters a chance to play: Nobby Stiles, recently turned twenty one but with over 100 appearances under his belt already, was in the team instead of Denis Law (!); and, replacing Bobby Charlton in the No.11 shirt, was Dennis Walker, still a teenager. This was Walker’s United debut and he thus became United’s first black player. Neither Stiles or Walker played in the Cup Final, indeed Dennis Walker never played for the United 1st team again.
We have a copy of the programme for this historic game:
I would normally have cropped out the advert on the back of the programme but I was intrigued by it. Not only does it advertise cigarettes (‘People love Player’s), a real relic of a bygone age, but it features an image of two lovely slices of watermelon. What could possibly be a more healthy accompaniment to a slice of melon than to puff on a fag?!
Some things, however, haven’t changed in the sixty years since this games was played. The ‘Trentside Topics’ programme notes have this to say:
Some clubs (today’s visitors for instance) can boast an unlimited supply of cash in which to enter an inflated transfer market, and in competition with such, it is becoming more and more difficult for other clubs (ourselves included) to secure the kind of ‘star’ players that occasionally become available.’
Of course, one way forward would be to recruit a charismatic manager who could transform your club’s fortunes – but Brian Clough’s tenure as manager of Forest was still over a decade in the future!
But buying your way to success has never been infallible, after their FA Cup triumph in 1963 United wouldn’t lift that particular trophy again until 1977 and, after winning the League in 1964/65 and 1966/67 and the European Cup in 1967/68, United themselves went almost a full decade without winning any silverware.
Unsurprisingly, Dennis Walker does not feature in the programme, although Bobby Charlton does:
An image in the programme shows Bobby Charlton in the days when he had a full head of hair!
Dennis may have only played once for United’s first team (it only takes one game to make you a ‘first black player’!) but he did enjoy success with both York City and Cambridge United and made over 200 hundred appearances in the Football League in total.
Dennis had an interesting life after hanging up his boots and you can read about him in Football’s Black Pioneers.