On This Day (6th October 1964): Brian Clough rouses the 'Red Army' once again!
Today at 01:00 AM
Normally one to get on the end of crosses, sixty years ago today, a Sunderland icon was encouraging others to place their crosses into a very different kind of box
Ahead of the 2024 UK General Election, Roker Report published a feature looking back at some of the connections between Sunderland AFC and various politicians over the years.
The piece referenced Black Cats supporter Jonathan Reynolds MP, who is now Secretary of State for Business and Trade and announced his appointment to the cabinet in July with a message on X that proudly included an image of his mug, the slogan on which read 'Made in Sunderland, sold to the world'.
It's always nice to see the area and the club receive such positive national and international exposure, and the links don't end there.
Towards the end of last season, then-opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer was pictured taking in the Lads' game at Norwich City.
He attended Carrow Road with former MP and Canaries chairman Ed Balls, although his decision to go has since been queried- not so much because it led to the somewhat incongruous combination of a Championship fixture having to be declared alongside Taylor Swift tickets, but because of wider concerns about 'freebies' being given to those in public office.
Julie Elliott, who'd served as a shadow cabinet member under former Sunderland director David Miliband's brother Ed, stood down as the MP for Sunderland Central ahead of the last election and has since been replaced by Lads fan Lewis Atkinson.
Whilst serving, she based herself at Norfolk Street for a period. Not only was this the birthplace of the club itself, but her office had previously been the home of Charles W.Alcock, who was an influential football administrator in the early days of the sport and also created the FA Cup.
The world's most famous competition was notable within the management career of Brian Clough for being the one major honour he failed to win, with the closest he came being when he took Nottingham Forest to the final in 1991.
Clough's playing career had come to a sad end in September 1964 but the terrace hero was to remain a hugely popular figure on Wearside and during the following month, he was lending his voice to a local Labour candidate.
That is where we link politics to today's 'On This Day', as it was on 6 October that he appeared at a rally at the Technical College's Wearmouth Hall ahead of the upcoming General Election.
The venue had recently been opened by the Duke of Edinburgh and later became part of the University of Sunderland's central campus before being demolished and replaced by the CitySpace building that currently stands there.
Clough was part of Gordon Bagier's election team for Sunderland South and he shared the stage with Bagier plus long-running Sunderland and then-Sunderland North representative Fred Willey MP, as well as Deputy Leader George Brown, MP for Belper and soon to be First Secretary of State.
Brown spoke passionately on behalf of the two candidates and having proposed a vote of thanks for this support, Clough later admitted that his own public speaking 'was far more unnerving than Roker Park'.
Nevertheless, his renowned wit and sharp mind still came to the fore and he was applauded warmly after being forced to respond to a heckler among an audience of several hundred people.
Bagier's association with Clough proved fruitful, and come polling day on October 15, he overcame the previous Conservative incumbent Paul Williams by a margin of 1,566 votes and subsequently increased his share of the vote in the coming years.
Bagier remained in situ until his retirement in 1987, outstaying Willey, who in 1964 enjoyed a 3.4% increase on his performance in 1959, and by the time he stepped down in 1983, he'd represented the town for thirty eight years.
The outgoing Williams, meanwhile, remains the last Tory to be returned by any Sunderland constituency, including the various forms of Houghton and Washington that also incorporated Hetton-le-Hole once they all became part of the metropolitan borough in 1974.
Like Bagier, Clough also remained politically active.
He regularly donated money to trade unions, appeared at marches and on picket lines, and during the 1970s he was involved in the creation of the Anti-Nazi League.
Although an undoubted giant of the game and an eternal Sunderland hero, there was clearly so much more to him than just football.
