Now You Know — A preview of what’s to come
If, like me, you were deeply interested in Scottish Football between the early 1970s and 2006, one man was the supreme authority on the game here.
That man was Bob Crampsey, a man with a mind for football unrivalled.
From 1972 until 2006, Crampsey was the author of Now You Know, a column in the Evening Times, now the Glasgow Times, where football-mad fans would write in to ask Crampsey all kinds of questions on the game in Scotland either to settle an argument in the pub or just to enquire out of curiosity.
The first time I heard Crampsey speak was in the History of Football documentary in the buildup to the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Narrated by Terence Stamp, the DVD boxset is now obviously well out of date, with some of the talking heads having passed on, including Crampsey himself, dying in 2008 of Parkinson’s Disease.
Why am I telling you this? It was his encyclopaedic mind that inspired me to devour football knowledge like some kind of Tasmanian Devil, and I want to tell you a few short stories about a few footballers that I have come across in the years of consuming football history like an All You Can Eat Buffet.
These guys aren’t necessarily the best footballers from AFC, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL and UEFA, although you may recognise a few. But they are guys who deserve to have a spotlight put on them, in my opinion.
All of this wouldn’t be possible without the late, great Bob Crampsey, and I can only thank him for inspiring the one true love I have had, the getting and expanding of knowledge on football.
