Eddie Hapgood Footballer

From Beyond the Touchline

Lynne Hapgood

• Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• eBook ISBN:
  9781801502122
• Year: 2022

Eddie Hapgood, Footballer is the extraordinary story of a young unknown from Bristol who became Arsenal and England captain and a national hero, in the dark days of the 1930s. His impact is so enduring that when the millennium dawned, the public voted him one of the greatest sportsmen of the century. That glorious legacy was painfully achieved. Hapgood considered football an art and played it joyously as part of a team, but he struggled when politics, class and money threatened to undermine him and corrupt football. By the late 1930s, the ugly shadows of fascism, Nazism and looming war were bearing down on the beautiful game. Hapgood found himself in a public fight for justice and respect, while behind the scenes he protected his family with dedication, love and humour. In this gripping memoir, his daughter Lynne Hapgood pulls together the various threads - success, celebrity, tragedy and vindication - to reveal the real Eddie Hapgood. She examines the nature of sporting greatness and its impact on fans and family.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Preface
• 1. A Suitcase of Stories
• 2. Beginning with Bristol
• 3. Blue Skies and Red Horizons
• 4. Becoming ‘Eddie Hapgood’
• 5. England v Italy 1933 and 1934
• 6. Changes at Arsenal 1933–1935
• 7. Highs and Lows at Arsenal 1935–1937
• 8. England v Germany 1935 and 1938
• 9. ‘And Then There’s Eddie Hapgood’
• 10. War-Torn Lives
• 11. The Ghost of Eddie Hapgood
• 12. Becoming a Football Manager
• 13. Dreaming of Bath
• 14. A Case of Libel and Slander
• 15. ‘The Arsenal Was My Heritage’
• 16. Weymouth and Elsewhere
• Acknowledgements
• Selected Bibliography
• Photos