Football’s Shoot! magazine is to publish for the last time this week. Blogger Tim Walters laments its passing.
As one of today’s overpaid, over-hyped football stars might put it after a defeat, I’m quite simply gutted.
Growing up in the Seventies, football to me was Shoot! Going to bed on a Wednesday night was full of expectation knowing that in the morning the magazine would drop through the letter box and I would get my weekly fix.
It’s the end of an era, the end of a golden age, the end of a kinder, less sensational type of reporting on our national game.
The magazine was launched in 1969 but in many ways harked back to the 50s and seemed to target those like me who would go onto a field, throw down some jumpers for goalposts and play for hours on end. They had big-name columnists – the likes of Kevin Keegan, Gerry Francis, Gordon Hill, Alan Ball and Bryan Robson when they were at the height of their powers.
But their columns reflected a gentler, more sober side to the game. They were our heroes but we still felt some sort of empathy with them in a way which is nigh on impossible in today’s game.
And then there were the League Ladders. Given away before the start of the season they allowed you to chart every club’s position as the season went on. When the ladders arrived it was a sign that the new season was just around the corner, they reflected the hopes and ambitions of every young football fan across the country.
Religiously I would do my ladders every week for the first few months of season before, inevitably, the passion would fade until the start of the next season.
You Are The Ref when you had to decide what to do if you were refereeing a real game was another hugely popular feature.
Then there were the question and answer features with a different footballer each week. Inevitably they would reveal that the person they most wanted to meet was either The Pope or Mohammed Ali, their favourite meal was steak and chips and their drink of choice was Lambrusco – how glamorous that all seemed back then.
Having a letter published in Shoot! in 1979 (I think) gave me as much happiness as anything I have achieved professionally since.
And I still remember the devastation I felt when I didn’t win one of the Adidas Tango footballs on offer in a competition,
Somewhere in my mother’s loft she assures me that she still has all my old copies of the magazine piled high in black sacks.
As Shoot! arrives on the shelves this week, perhaps it’s time to dust off those old copies and hark back to the days when real men were “Chopper” Harris or “Bites Yer Legs” Hunter and today’s prima donnas were just a bad nightmare on a Wednesday night.
Agree with Tim? What are your memories of Shoot? Post your comments below.
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25 Comments
ohhh league ladders i used to have one on my wall every year!
Blimey, I can still remember the posters of Rodney Marsh, Terry Venables, Joe Royle and the like stuck to my bedroom wall as if it were yesterday. So sad that its finished and so sad that I idolised Terry Venables!!
I agree. Absoloutely. Living i Denmark I even learnt English from that magazine! It was the only place where I - a Birmingham City fan since the early seventies - could follow who played for my team and in which formation, and when you were patient, you would in time get a poster of a Blues player. When I didn´t quite understand the articles, I brought SHOOT! with me in school and asked my teacher…..
Bob Latchford, Trevor Francis, Alan Campbell, Kenny Burns and Rodney Marsh were always with me in my room
In 1971 they gave away a fixture list in a plastic wallet - I filled it in until Wolves got knocked out of the League Cup by Manchester City away 4-3!!!
I loved SHOOT but I haven’t completely recovered yet from the death of TIGER. All those thrilling Melchester games against Portdean with Roy and Blackie Gray always scoring. Those were the days my friends.
Adidas Tango!!!
I was eight and played for Bentley under tens, me and a couple of others were a year younger than everyone else, my first proper season our home games we played with an Adidias Tango (still my favourite ball ever).
First game i scored two from midfield, memories never forgotten!!
As for the demise of shoot, with the internet taking over the world, weekly magazines are out of date by the time they are printed, and lets face it if there are no half naked ladies in them from off some crap soap programme they wont sell.
(Obviously somebody has told me about those type of magazines i have in the back of my wardrobe, eerrrm i mean on the top shelf of my local newsagents).
i used to love shoot in the 60s i remember the one edition wolves where top of the league,but it was a comic aye boing boing
End of another era.
How long until we find most magazines giving up the battle with the internet?
I also loved Shoot!, I used to get it in the early 90’s and it was great even then, far better than its main competitor ‘Match’.
I agree totally. It was an era of contrasts. There were a lot more personalities then - Doog, Best, Marsh, Tony Currie, Frank Worthington. Yet at the same time it was an era of abject failure at international level - England failed to qualify for 2 world cups and a european championship. Yet I hark back fondly, maybe it was the closer bond between the fans and the players then
Took a while but i gradually collected all the Albion team in posters from Shoot, even Geoff Hurst!!!
Shoot, 90 Minutes and the still going Match magazine, I had thousands of the bloomin things, spent many an hour reading through them, childhood memories…actually I do still flick through the Match magazine as the little un gets it off his gran every week…reliving my youth!!!
6. Don’t tell me Tiger has finished! When did that happen Malvern Wolf? I was a huge Melchester fan when I was a kid!
I think I have a lump in my throat! Got it delivered religiously for 5 or 6 years. Posters were ripped out and used as wallpaper. League Ladders - man, I was an addict. RIP Shoot!… times have changed, but you will live on in my memory fondly.
isn’t it just the print version stopping? Sad, but as a publication, it’s day, albeit a golden one, has gone.
Hard to imagine todays stars or indeed todays youthfeeling the same affection as some of us do.
Ar..i remeber buying the fust edition to chart the baggies success after winning the FA cup the year befour…magic times
Thats when love of the game meant more than love of money… gone forever…just like Shoot RIP
Cantello, I am not sure when but it was quite a few years ago. I bought a Christmas special (for my kids of course) a few years ago and loved it. If you think the Hawthorns and the Mol are good you should see Mel Park.
Cantello, I have just found it. The Official Annual 2000. In it you can read about the helicopter crash of 93 and all about the 8 players killed in the Middle East. On a lighter note Tubby Morton is now running a pub on the south coast. Sadly he didn’t make the all time Melchester 11 as Charlie the Cat Carter was named between the sticks. The team did feature Lofty Peak, Johnny Dexter, Merv Wallace, Blackie Gray of course and Roy and Rocky up front. Happy days!!
This is fun. Record attendance was in 1950 when 68,000 saw the 6th round cup game against Prestwich North End.
Stop messing about Malvern…lol..
I also remember…(dont shoot me down here),when Match Weekly came on the scene..late 70’s maybe??
Was ok, but not a patch on Shoot!…
Glory days gentlemen…we didnt win anything but football was football in them days…we had a chance going into every season…not like today..when we’ve got no chance..
Footballers today should habg their heads in shame
*hang
Something else thats struck me since i’ve read all these comments is concerning the posters.
I bet these days the players have to be paid a sum to have their picture published anywhere.
I had all the copies of Shoot from the first to the last edition of 1978 - the year I got married’ I was supposed ‘to grow up’ and so my copies got dumped. Wished I’d dumped the wife (now ex) then instead.
I’m sorry its going and it’s true - in those days all teams in the top division had a chance. Derby did so, Villa did, Notts Forest did and even Wolves came fourth one year. But today it won’t happen and it’s right - who can emphasise with the massively overpaid stars of today.
Sorry your gone Shoot RIP
LET’S HOPE THEY REPLACE IT WITH SOMETHING GOOD LIKE..MUPPET OUT WEEKLY OR THE GOIN NOWHERE WITH MCARTHY ANNUAL.