Bill Nicholson, 'Mr Tottenham', never forgotten

We lost our greatest-ever manager and 'Mr Tottenham', Bill Nicholson, 16 years ago today, 23 October, 2004. He was 85.

Born on 26 January, 1919, Bill arrived at White Hart Lane as a member of our groundstaff in 1936 and served as player, coach and manager for the next 38 years.

As manager, he won eight major trophies and led the Club through the 'glory, glory' years of the early 1960s, clinching an historic 'double' of the Football League title and FA Cup in 1960/61.

Moving down to London from his Scarborough home in 1936, Bill spent two years on our groundstaff and played for our nursery team, Northfleet United, until turning professional in 1938. He made his debut against Blackburn 80 years ago yesterday - 22 October, 1938.

A tough-tackling half-back, Bill helped us win back-to-back titles in 1949/50 and 1950/51 - the Division Two title followed by our first Division One championship - under manager Arthur Rowe and his renowned 'push and run' style.

Bill played 341 times for us between 1938-54 and won one England cap when he scored with his first touch against Portugal at Goodison Park in May, 1951.

Always interested in the coaching side of the game - he passed his FA badge and coached the Cambridge University team during his playing career - Bill was appointed coach when Jimmy Anderson replaced Rowe as manager in 1955.

Bill took over as manager in 1958 and put together our greatest-ever team, the FA Cup and Division One title double-winners of 1960/61. Trophies followed in the 'glory, glory years' with the FA Cup retained in 1962 and then more history as we became the first British club to win a European trophy, the Cup Winners' Cup landed in 1963.

We lifted the FA Cup again in 1967, the League Cup in 1971 and 1973 and the UEFA Cup in 1972 - all under Bill's leadership.

During that time, Bill signed some of the greatest players to pull on our famous white shirt - the likes of Dave Mackay, John White, Jimmy Greaves, Alan Mullery, Pat Jennings, Alan Gilzean, Steve Perryman, Martin Peters and Martin Chivers all snapped up by the great man.

His legacy lives on - and will never leave us.