The statue of 1927 FA Cup winning captain Fred Keenor is due to be unveiled at Cardiff City Stadium today, more than two years after the appeal to raise the £85,000 needed to erect it was launched. Here, we reprint an extract from a first person piece Keenor wrote for the Sports Budget publication in August 1927 in tribute to the great man
LET me show you around Ninian Park where we are preparing for the new season. After winning the FA Cup in April we have had a hectic summer I can tell you.
As captain I have eaten more free suppers than I ever imagined possible, but I am ready for Bolton Wanderers at Ninian Park this Saturday.
Doesn’t the ground look a picture? It hardly seems possible that it was a rubbish tip in 1910, but it was!
Today, Ninian Park holds 60,000, the concrete stand cost £8,000 and we are having another built in the near future.
The pitch is looked after by old David Gouldstone, an excellent groundsman. He has to suffer a lot of leg pulling, but he’s an old soldier and takes it well.
Dave likes a bet, but none of the lads have ever made a fortune from his tips. The chap with the big cheery grin is George Latham. Everybody knows George and the dog with him is Bonzo, his pet bull terrier who doubles up as a night watchman.
Always together and always up to no good. One of their favourite tricks is to wait until we are all in the showers and then turn on the cold water.
And when we stay away, they regularly manage to sew up one of the lads pyjamas. Quite a few of the players like a game of snooker or billiards and you’ll often find Len Davies, Ernie Curtis, Billy Hardy and myself playing on the table in our recreation room.
But our billiards prize must go to Sam Irving, who also enjoys a game of golf.
We’ve got several musicians at the club. Jack Jennings, Ernie Curtis and Harry Wake can all tickle the ivories a little bit, while Tommy Sloan thinks he is the best singer in Cardiff.
Tommy Farquharson is a keen dancer, always up to the latest fads, and he claims to be able to pick up any music station in the world on that wireless of his.
Hughie Ferguson and George McLachlan also have musical tastes, but of the gramophone variety.
Both claim to be keen collectors and George, like myself, is a motorist.
Harry Wake is a good friend of mine and he acts as secretary of the Cardiff City Benevolent Fund, a scheme originated by the directors.
The players subscribe now and again for the poor and needy of the Cardiff district.
I don’t know whether any other clubs have the same idea. I haven’t of any who do.
Winning the FA Cup was a great ambition of mine. I pledged our return to Wembley Stadium after losing against Sheffield United in the 1925 final.
My sympathies went out to dear old Harry Wake, who was unfairly blamed for our defeat against Arsenal that day.
Then fate capped it all when Harry was injured and had to miss the final success over Arsenal. I think it helped spur the boys to victory.
As a Cardiff boy I was overwhelmed with our homecoming. Len Davies, Ernie Curtis and I felt ever so proud to be natives of this great city.
The scenes outside Cardiff City Hall will remain with us long after our playing days are over.
