Argyle manager in the 60s.
A very nice man I heard although never met him.
https://twitter.com/Only1Argyle/status/ ... 26081?s=19
A very nice man I heard although never met him.
https://twitter.com/Only1Argyle/status/ ... 26081?s=19
IJN":29zw1rkc said:The manager when I started supporting Argyle.
Also he was the man in the advert 'Dip Don't Dazzle' a public information film on in the late 60's warning against full beams on the road.
Always heard he was a gentleman. From memory he had something to do with Charlton Athletic, perhaps he was a player there.
Former England player Derek Ufton managed Argyle for nearly three years from May 1965.
A cultured centre-half who was known for the ferocity of his tackles, Ufton was born in Crayford, Kent in 1928. He started out as an amateur with Cardiff City, and played for non-league sides Dulwich Hamlet, Bexleyheath and Welling United before signing for Charlton Athletic in 1948. At Charlton, he was a regular for twelve seasons, captaining the team and making 263 appearances. During this time, he dislocated a shoulder no less than twenty times.
Ufton was also an accomplished cricketer who made his first-class debut for Kent in 1949. A left-handed wicket-keeper/batsman, he played 149 first-class matches in thirteen seasons, scoring 3,915 runs, taking 269 catches and recording 44 stumpings.
Derek Ufton's sole England football cap was awarded in a showpiece match against The Rest of Europe, held in October 1953 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the formation of the Football Association. An England team which also included Alf Ramsey, Stanley Matthews and Billy Wright met the cream of European football at Wembley in front of 96,000 spectators; England went behind three times, but the match was drawn 4-4. In 1999, this match was downgraded to unofficial status by FIFA, but the Football Association still record it as a full international and, therefore, Ufton's cap still stands.
One of the few players to stay with one club for the whole of his career, Ufton retired from the professional game in 1960 and then became a coach at Tooting & Mitchem in 1961 before he was brought to Plymouth Argyle as chief coach under his former Charlton teammate Malcolm Allison during the 1964-65 season.
When Allison left Home Park for Manchester City in 1965, Ufton was appointed manager and immediately embarked on a policy of transforming the team. One of his policies was to sell off the players who would command the highest transfer fees and replace them with cheaper equivalents. This paid off financially as the club made a net profit of nearly £50,000, but it made little difference to Argyle's fortunes on the pitch.
Ufton was well-liked by the Argyle faithful, but in his first two seasons at the helm the Pilgrims failed to progress, finishing in the bottom half of the Second Division. Early in 1967-1968 things became even worse. By February 1968, relegation seemed certain: Argyle were out of both Cup competitions and had won just three games in 25. Ufton was sacked, and never managed a football team again.
After leaving Home Park, Ufton returned to his old stamping grounds of Charlton Athletic Football Club and Kent County Cricket Club. He became a director of Charlton Athletic in 1984, playing a key role in returning them to their old ground, The Valley, in 1992, and became President of Kent County Cricket Club in 2001. He was a director at Charlton for 25 years, stepping down in 2009, but continued as a supporter at most home games.
[This description is based on an entry in The Gaffer Tapes, a series on Argyle's managers that appeared in matchday programmes in 2007-08, written and donated to Greens on Screen by Peggy Prior.]
To date, the only man to Manage Argyle and work as a male model on the side.oddball":3qjfmyw7 said:He was a male model....played cricket for Kent and footy for Charlton...I remembering watching the match at Charlton when Alan Sealey made his debut....
IJN":3gm6x61y said:The manager when I started supporting Argyle.
Also he was the man in the advert 'Dip Don't Dazzle' a public information film on in the late 60's warning against full beams on the road.
Always heard he was a gentleman. From memory he had something to do with Charlton Athletic, perhaps he was a player there.