PART 1 (Early Days)

Quite often I have been asked about being a youth growing up in Northern Ireland and my path to getting to play professional soccer. It’s a long story but may be similar to what many of you go through now. Growing up in the 1950’s was a totally different generation and many things have changed. But I hope that my story can serve as an inspiration for many of you.

I grew up in a rural area of Northern Ireland called Kilmore. We lived way out in the country. I believe our nearest neighbors lived a mile away. My family did not have a lot, but we always had what we needed. We did not have electricity, running water, or plumbing much less a car, TV, or phone. Our toilet was an outdoor toilet and we had a well in the back for water. However, this is what I was used to so I never really thought things were different. I was about 9 years old when we moved into government housing in a small village called Moira. It was the first time I had seen an inside toilet and bathtub. This was all foreign to our family at the time. The village had about 600 people back then. I went to school in Moira where the entire school population numbered 30. Every day a bunch of us would get together after school and play football (soccer). Some days we played in the streets of Moira, other days we found a cow field where the grass might be six inches long. It didn’t really matter to us where we played, just that we got to play. There were no coaches telling us what to do, we just played and learned the game on our own. Not everyone had a soccer ball, so the guy who had a ball got to pick his team mostly. I remember when I got my first ball I would go to the fields and play on my own for hours.

Every day would be the same, football, football, and more football. I eventually joined a local boys village team at 11. We would go and play other neighboring villages. There was only one youth team for our village and everyone wanted to play. So we had 10, 11, and 12 year olds all playing on the same team. Other villages had even older kids on their teams. Each village wanted to win these games to earn bragging rights so they were extremely competitive matches. These were great times for me, I had a lot of fun playing in these matches.

I had become a pretty good player and at age 12 moved to a bigger school in our nearest town, Lurgan. They had a football team and I made the team even though I was 2 years younger than most of the other players. Our math teacher, Mr. Anderson, was the coach. He really did not know much about the game, but fortunately the team was pretty good. Unknown to me a scout for the local Northern Ireland league team, Glenavon, had been watching me and asked me to go train with them on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I was just turning 13 and I was young to be playing with part-time professionals. Since my family did not have a car, I was fortunate that the team bus carrying the players from Belfast had to go right through Moira to get to Lurgan. So they picked me up and dropped me off at home each day for practice. I was in heaven getting to sit next to and play with the players whom I had been watching play every Saturday with my Dad.

I was training with grown men and they did not go easy on me. It was hard and physical but I learned quickly to be tough. Two of my uncles had played pro football, so they worked with me a lot and started me thinking deeply about the game and a chance to go higher. Our school won loads of honors including the National school’s championship. I was now 14 and Glenavon wanted me to sign a contract to play for them. But at the time I had made the Northern Ireland National U15 team and was keeping my options open. At training for the National Team I met a young player by the name of George Best. I was fortunate to make the team, George was not so lucky. I tell this story many times because this setback drove George to later become one of the best players in the world in the 60’s. In later years we had the opportunity to play together and became friends.

I had been doing well in International games and now scouts from England were taking notice. My family started getting letters from teams, and at the age of 15 I had the option to sign for Bolton Wanderers, Everton and Sunderland, of the English First Division clubs. There was no Premier League back then so in 1960 this was the top division in England. All I ever wanted to be was a football player so the attention was exciting. However, I was brought back down to earth, when my parents told me I was not leaving home at 15 to go to England to play football. Unbeknownst to me my mother had been talking to a textile company in Lurgan getting a foot in the door for me to become a textile apprentice artist. As a textile apprentice I would be designing Irish linen, which at the time was sold all over the world. I was a very good artist in school and art was my favorite subject. My art teacher, Mr Storey, was able to get me the interview for the position as an apprentice. I remember my mother taking me on the bus to the company for the interview and me arguing with her all the way there, saying, “I want to be a soccer player!!!!!!!”

Bolton were very persistent and sent their chief scout Frank Pickford to our house in Moira to talk to my mother and father. I was still determined to leave, as this was always my dream and I did not want to lose this opportunity. A little luck came my way! My mother’s brother, Alf, lived in Bolton. Alf was a former professional player at Cardiff and said that I could live with him in Bolton. So, after a long discussion, with a lot of regret, my family agreed to let it happen. I left school at Easter in 1961 and was in Bolton only three days later. I would have my housing paid by Bolton, I signed a contract and was given 14 pounds a week, back then that would probably have been about $56 a week or about $224 a month. I had the club take 10 pounds a week out of my wages and send it back home to my family. I did not need much as all I did was play soccer every day and occasionally go to the movies. I had no car so I pretty much walked everywhere I needed to go. Bolton did make me go to school one time per week at night. They allowed me to choose my subject so I chose carpentry. I also loved working with wood and still do! I was living my dream!!

Stay tuned for the next installment in a few weeks.

Coach John Napier