The bag of Villa stuff

[pauliewalnuts]

My brother's wife's grandfather died a while back. My brother said that they were going through his stuff and "found some Villa stuff, which you can have" (he was a big fan).

I finally got round to looking through it all today. It's an impressive haul.

Firstly, I was impressed by the bag in which it came, which took me back to the 1970s and walking up to Waitrose on Stratford Road in Hall Green.



So, first of all, there is a collection of newspapers from May 4, 1981.

Here are the back pages.



A lot of the sports pages go with this story, seen here in the Bham Post:



The Daily Express:



True to form, the Daily Mail goes with this on the front page:



Then we have some matchday programs from the title season:



A Sports Argus "What a Chase!" special pullout as the season neared its end:




Then we have another Sports Argus special after we won it:



With a tribute to the fans:



And a tip of the hat to Mr Stride:



Back page is a tribute to the 14:



But, hey, don't worry, because the future is safe, we have this lot.

Noel Blake, Mark Kendall, Mark Jones, Robert CuntHopkins, Paul Birch and Mark Walters.



Continues in next post ...

[saunders_heroes]

Fantastic stuff

[Damo70]

I had those two Argus specials. I particularly remember the 'What A  Chase' one. Also, that is Andy Blair in a Coventry kit on the front of one of those programmes isn't it?

[pauliewalnuts]

A Ron Saunders testimonial magazine



A touching tribute from the late recently turned 100 Harry Kartz:



Receiving the manager of the year gong from Eric Morecambe (I have no idea why, but I vividly remember seeing this photo as a 13 year old)



Brilliant photo:




A photo of the great man with Pat Cowdell (that's a name I haven't heard for a quarter of a century)



The squads from the testimonial.

Against Small Heath, of all people



A 1984/5 Souvenir handbook:



Containing an excuse from the chairman.

Look at the bit about why they appointed Turner. Plus ca change.



I love the header on this page, so stylish.



Continues in another post ....

[richtheholtender]

Brilliant stuff.

[pauliewalnuts]

Contains "you must be fucking joking, I am only 16 and I already know those are shit" advert



Slightly incongruously, a 1981 Steam Train special



I've never seen this before, it's a sort of cartoonified, large format version of Peter Morris's book (which I have in its usual format)



Contains much along these lines:



Plus this book:



Slightly sniffy Telegraph report, Monday May 4th 1981:



Then there is a Dennis Mortimer testimonial mag:



Mr Mortimer et famille:



Randomly amusing piece of 1980s tush, centrefold Hoddle article:

[dave.woodhall]

That's the official centenary book, The First 100 Years, which if anything is better known than the earlier one.

[pauliewalnuts]

That's just a quick scan of what is there.

Needless to say, I am bowled over by the collective magnificence of it. It was clearly horded and kept by someone who cared deeply about it for 30 years, and i will be stashing it along with the priceless stuff I've turned up over 10 years of family history research.

It all smells brilliantly of "old stuff", too.

If there's interest, I will have a proper look this week and scan some stuff properly, there is hundreds of pages of it, this is just a few randomly snapped low quality photos i took just now.

[bertlambshank]

Keep em coming.

[dave.woodhall]

And Harry Kartz is still alive.

[pauliewalnuts]

Ha ha, that's a good point, Dave, I was confusing his 100th with his recent passing. Which of course, hasn't happened.

[PeterWithesShin]

Great stuff Paulie, keep the pics coming. I love it when I'm mooching through an old box or something and find old Villa stuff I'd forgotten I had.

A 1975 LC Final silk scarf of my dad's was one that delighted me a few years ago.

[bertlambshank]

I found a bottle of lemonade wrapped in the Villa kit last week.Christ knows when it was from early 90's I think.Most get round to opening it one day.

[OzVilla]

I had all of those back in the day, just looking at the covers makes me nostalgic as I haven't seen then in 25 odd years.

I just wished I knew where they'd ended up.

[Villan For Life]

Those Argus specials certainly bring back some memories!