Latest news with #sports history
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
From a hijacked van to the Brazil team bus (and kissing Pele)... Elsie Cook's journey has been incredible
THERE is laughter, even the merest gasps of joy and incredulity, as Elsie Cook tells her story. There is the trip to Hampden in the official Brazil team bus after a meeting with Pele in 1966. There is the hailing down of a furniture van in Argyll Street in 1972 so that the first Scotland women's team could get to training in Greenock. There is the meeting with Jock Stein. There is a moment when a women's team is changing behind a bandstand in an Ayrshire Park in the sixties, providing more than frisson of shock for the church goers leaving a Sunday service across the road. All these, and so much more in her life story, can raise a smile but there is a deeper tale of struggles, regular disappointment and pain just beneath the surface of congenial hilarity. Born in 1947, Cook has done it aw and seen maist of it, as the vernacular in her outstanding memoir, A Kiss Fae Pele, might put it. The Scottish Women's Premier League begins on Sunday. Professional women players will play on good surfaces, in front of paying crowds with authorised referees. In the early days of Cook's passion, even obsession, of organising women's football none of the above applied. 'We had to clear dog mess off the parks,' she says. 'The councils would not allow us to change in the dressing-rooms. The SFA would not allow referees to officiate at our matches. We changed where we could and we were grateful to those on the sidelines who would come and referee our matches.' This was Stewarton, Ayrshire, in the 1960s and beyond. The landscape of professional women's football, of thousands of young girls being coached and given a vision of a future of playing football, was out of sight then. This destination was reached by the efforts of many. It is, though, impossible to imagine it being secured without Elsie Cook. Cook was inducted into the Scottish Hall of Fame this month. It was long overdue and, full disclosure, as chairperson of that august body I must share culpability for the delay. Cook, though, was sanguine about it all. After all, the story of her life has been one of fighting battles in the face of outright opposition or chronic indifference. But there are signposts on the journey that took her from football in a mass of grassland, dubbed the Jubilee, in Stewarton to the inner sanctum of the hall of fame at Hampden where she was inducted in front of a packed crowd. They had all been touched by the driving force that is Cook. She tells her story. Then others emerge from the audience to tell their tales of Elsie. Of course, there is fitba' chat but there are also the tributes to another Elsie. This is the Cook who took up art in her fifties and graduated with honours from Glasgow School of Art. This is the lover of nature who took up hill-walking and became an Alpine climber. This is the runner who tackled marathons for the first time as she was approaching 40. She was inspired by her mother and auntie, who both completed marathons in their sixties. There is obviously something in the genes that propels Cook but there is something defiantly individual too. She is a woman of ideas but one of action, too. The Pele story shows this. As a teenager, she ventured from Stewarton to see the great man in Troon in 1966 where the Brazil squad was staying in preparation for a friendly against Scotland before the World Cup in England. 'When I heard he was there I had to go,' she says. She took a tartan tammy and presented it to her hero. 'I was standing there when Garrincha, Tostao and others were passing by. My knees were knocking like coconuts in a hurricane when Pele came up to me.' She made an impression. She was given tickets for that night's game at Hampden and a place in the official bus that followed the team bus up to the national stadium. 'You know, I've never quite forgiven Billy Bremner because the wee so-and-so kicked Pele all night,' she says with a smile. She then visited Pele in Liverpool before a World Cup match and was even invited for a night out. That putative date was collateral damage as Pele was kicked out of the tournament and Brazil went home after the group stages. If that bus was missed, then a furniture van was caught. The superficially humorous story of Cook hailing down a van as a minibus for players failed to turn up in 1972 has a deeper meaning. It first shows the paucity of resources for the first Scotland women's team. 'The English turned up for that match in fine style with great coaches and good gear,' she says. Cook was left to beg and borrow. And use her native wit. When the team seemed to be stranded under the Highlandman's Umbrella in Argyll Street, the van was spotted, the driver cajoled into helping, and a disaster averted. 'What else could I do?' says Cook. The idea of just accepting that it just was not her day did not cross her mind. This first international in 1972 – 3-2 loss to England in Greenock - led to a wondrous, significant moment at Celtic Park. In 1974, the phone rang in Stewarton. Cook's mother told her: ''It's for you, it's Jock Stein.' The Celtic manager invited Cook to bring two women's teams to Celtic Park as pre-match entertainment before Celtic faced Olympiakos in the European Cup. 'I was standing in the tunnel as our game finished. I was beside Jock Stein. There I was this wee woman for Stewarton alongside this football great. He was such an imposing presence and he congratulated every one of the players as they came off the park. I was so proud. He was a big man but so much more than a physical presence. I detected an honesty and a gentleness about him.' The same could be said of Cook. Her gentleness should never be misconstrued as softness, however. Women's football was never given anything in the early days. Everything had to be fought for and Cook was on the front line. As honour was conferred on her at Hampden, as friends and family congregated to share her joy, it was instructive to reflect that everything came at a cost. Cook's marriage failed and she blames her obsession for football. She once promised her husband that she would resign as secretary of the women's association only to do so but return home as the national team coach. She also was afflicted by an energy-sapping illness that would not have been helped by such a hectic lifestyle. But surveying the audience at Hampden and almost bathing in their affection, she says: 'I would do it all again.' Later, she adds: 'It did take a toll and I never stopped but it was so good, even when I just took the wee girls at the start. It was hard going but it was worth it.' She says: 'I am surprised by the outpouring of love. I get very emotional about it. You meet mums and grannies who were weans when I was coaching them and it is great to see what is available for girls today. It is amazing, though, what comes back to you when you are writing a book. I suppose it is quite a story.' It is. It is a chronicle of a life well-lived. It is also a testament of how women's football prospered despite derision and the force of malignant male authority. The walk to the hall of fame has been long and sometimes arduous. At the end of her talk, Elsie Cook sits, surveys the audience with a smile and a tear in her eye. She is greeted by a standing ovation in the shadow of photographs of fellow hall of famers in such as Stein, Shankly and Busby. She deserves her place. She has more than paid the price of admission. A Kiss Fae Pele, was co-written by Tom Brown, it can be bought at
BreakingNews.ie
5 days ago
- Sport
- BreakingNews.ie
'Last nation on earth without a football team' prepares for first competitive match
Marshall Islands assistant manager Justin Walley admits the actuality of kicking off the country's first ever international football match still feels like a dream. The Marshall Islands have long claimed to be 'the last nation on earth without a football team', and did not even have a federation until 2020, let alone the national set-up, which has only existed for the last two and a half years. Advertisement For some members of the squad, Thursday's meeting with the US Virgin Islands at the Outrigger Challenge Cup in Arkansas will be their first competitive game of 11 v 11 football – ever. 'There's a sort of unrealness to it that we can't believe it's actually happening,' Leicestershire-born Walley, who now lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told the PA news agency. 'But we've been working very hard and we're really focused on what's ahead of us. We've already had several days of hard work and planning. Hopefully we will be as ready as we can be.' Springdale, Arkansas might seem like an odd choice of location for the Marshall Islands-hosted four-team tournament, but it is an area which, as of 2019, boasted the highest concentration of Marshallese in continental United States. Advertisement Some members of the squad have been recruited from Majuro, the Kwajalein Atoll, and other parts of the Marshall Islands itself, with its population of around 37,500 – and no club football. Amazing support from the public and lots of football clubs around the world following us ahead of our first-ever games this week. Please keep the follows and love coming! It makes us feel stronger — Marshall Islands Soccer Federation (@SoccerFedMI) August 12, 2025 Several team members have moved to the United States, where some play for US colleges, while others have Marshallese heritage. Their technical director and head coach, Lloyd Owers, who joined in 2022, is based in Oxfordshire. As far as they are aware, the Marshall Islands is the only recognised UN member state not to have played an 11 v 11 international fixture. Advertisement Some local to Majuro participated in an initial team meeting 18 months ago, but, revealed Walley: 'In terms of an actual national team training camp, this is the first one we have ever done. Players have gathered in Arkansas for their first training camp (Marshall Islands Soccer Federation/PA) 'The guys flew in on Friday and Saturday, the first training session ever was on Saturday. We're trying to cram in five days of camp to be ready. 'We try to train like we would with any normal club side. We just try to develop what we've got. Some of the guys do play club football, some have never played 11-a-side. They've played futsal. 'We've been developing that all week, we've played a few sort of mini-games, so it's not as if they (will have) never played 11-a-side before, they will be ready.' Advertisement The federation hopes to be recognised by FIFA in the next five years (Marshall Islands Football Federation/PA) Walley hopes what started out as a group of men with a vision – but no infrastructure – will lead to FIFA recognition by 2030 at the latest, though the first step is acceptance into a confederation. Funding for their big international debut has come from sponsorship, a £21,573 crowdfunding campaign, and about 2000 shirts sold over the last couple of years. 'I think people weren't taking us seriously,' admits Walley, who says the side want to give 'the best account of themselves possible' in their historic match. He added: 'They weren't thinking that we could possibly pull this off, playing national teams. We've come a long, long way in a short time.' Advertisement
