Roy Race

Roy Race

Personal information
Full name	Roy Race
Date of birth	( 1938-10-21)21 October 1938
Place of birth	Melchester, England
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position	Striker
Youth career
1954	Melchester Rovers
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1955–83	Melchester Rovers	245	(200)
1983	Walford Rovers	21	(45)
1983–93	Melchester Rovers	256	(236)
National team
1963–1987	England	43	(52)
1986	Basran	3	(6)
Teams managed
1975–1983	Melchester Rovers
1978	England (caretaker)
1983	Walford Rovers
1983–1993	Melchester Rovers
1993	England B'
1994-1996	AC Monza
1996–present	Melchester Rovers
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

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Roy Race was a fictional footballer who appeared in the comic strips in the British boys' comic Roy of the Rovers during the 1970s, 80s and 90s. He was a striker, playing for Melchester Rovers and England. The strip first appeared in the boys' comic Tiger in 1954 and continued for 22 years before giving its name to a new weekly (and later monthly) comic magazine, published by IPC and Fleetway from 1976 until 1995, in which it was the main feature.

The character is a fondly remembered childhood memory for several generations of British men.

Club career

Melchester Rovers

Roy Race was brought up surrounded by football. His father's few footballing medals and trophies from a mediocre career in the 1930s twinkled like stars on the sideboard and Mel Park, the grand old stadium of his local team Melchester Rovers, as Roy recalled "Stood like heaven at the end of the street." Not that young Roy needed any encouragement; football was in his blood. A fine all-round athlete, he was a naturally gifted footballer, making up for his lack of muscle with the subtle touches that had been missing from his father's own career.

In 1954 he was playing for Melchester Area Schools under-14s, a year later he signed schoolboy forms for Melchester Rovers, the only club he had ever wanted to play for. At sixteen, Roy made his first appearance for Melchester Rovers. This was no ordinary debut. An injury to Rovers regular striker meant that the young apprentice was drafted into the side for the 1959 European Cup final. It was a dream, a fantasy, a fairy tale. Roy twisted and turned his big Spanish marker, leading the line like a man twice his age. With 10 minutes left, and the game goalless, he broke free on the edge of the area and let fly with the shot that made his name: "Racey's Rocket". It screamed into the net. Rovers were Champions of Europe and had a new hero.

Roy Race would go on to have the longest and most celebrated careers in world football.[4][5][6] Within two seasons he was made captain, and together with his best friend and striking partner Blackie Gray won practically every trophy there is. Sadly injury always meant that Race was never able to appear in the World Cup finals or European Championships and hence he was always denied the chance to lead England to the highest footballing glory.

In 1976 Race married Rovers club Secretary Penny and a year later they gave birth to twins, Roy and Melinda, a further daughter was born in 1982 called Diana.

Roy Race became player manager of Melchester Rovers in 1978 leading Rovers to League Championship success in his first season, however an alarming drop in form and injuries resulted in Rovers getting relegated following the 1980-81 season. In a December issue of 1981 Roy was shot and seriously wounded by a lone gunman in his manager's office. A man by the name of Elton Blake was arrested for attempted murder and once Race had recovered from his coma he was able to lead Rovers to promotion back to the first division in their final games of that season.

Walford Rovers, return and accident

In 1983, following a heated argument with Rovers directors Race left Melchester Rovers for ambitious Walford Rovers. During Race's stint with the London side, the comic divided its attention to Melchester and Walford. However, the spat only lasted a short time and Race was able to return to his beloved Melchester Rovers.

Tragedy struck the Rovers in the summer of 1986 when a terrorist bomb in Basran killed eight team members: Noel Baxter, Vic Guthrie, Steve Naylor, Carl Hunt, Neville Jones, Kenny Logan, Jimmy Slade and Trevor Cassidy. Roy survived the attack and went on to build a new Rovers team that went on to win the 1987 Littlewoods Cup Final against Stambridge City. Race, who scored both Rovers goals, dedicated the win to those players.

The following season saw Rovers narrowly miss out on the double after winning the league, Rovers lost in the FA Cup final.

The 1988-1989 saw Mel Park suffer an 'earthquake' and subsides forcing Rovers play their 'home' games at Wembley Stadium. The disruption to the season saw Rovers struggle and end up in a relegation battle. The last game of the season saw Rovers needing to beat local rivals Melboro to avoid relegation. A Race inspired 3-1 victory kept the Rovers up.

The 1989-1990 season saw calls for Race to step aside and let a younger striker take over, Rovers signed Andy MacLaren for a British transfer record from Celtic. However Race continued to score goals and led Rovers to a FA Cup win against Weston Villa.

Race rejected an offer of an $8 million five-year contract to become manager of the USA international team. 1991-92 saw Rovers become League champions, with Race setting a new league goal-scoring record, notching up his 436th goal to seal the title.

The summer of 1992 saw Race appointed as player-manager of the England 'B' team and they went on to win a four-nation tournament against USA, France and Segovia.

The 1992-1993 season saw the dawn of the Premier League era, and also saw Race resign as manager live on Sky TV. Race continued to play under controversial new manager Ralph Gordon who after a string of poor results saw Gordon resign and Race reinstated as player-manager. On 23 March 1993, Race, on a scouting trip to watch a potential new signing, crashed his helicopter and was critically injured ending up in a coma.

Managerial career

Race came out of his coma in September 1993 and learnt that his left foot has been amputated, ending his playing career (at the age of at least 51!). Race eventually recovered fully and became manager of Italian Serie A side AC Monza.

1995 saw a further tragedy shatter the Race family as Penny Race is killed in a car crash. The true circumstances of the crash remain a mystery to this day. Following her death Race quit Monza and football with depression.

1997 saw Race return as manager of Rovers just in time to save the Rovers from relegation to Division Two.

The 1997-98 saw Race bring in his graduate daughter Melinda to help generate funds and keep Race's financial backers the Vinter brothers off his back. Melchester Rovers finish the season fourth in Division One but win the Wembley play off final to gain promotion back to the Premiership.

1999 saw Rovers beat a Castlemere team managed by Johnny Dexter to win the FA Cup following extra time.

Honours

All of these records are fictional of course, and only date as far as 2000, the last fully completed season of the comic strip. Race enjoyed a 40-year playing career, all but one year of which was with Melchester, and scored an incredible 481 goals (by rough calculations) for his clubs and 52 for England – though he never graced a World Cup or European Championships as injury always seemed to get in the way.

League

• Premier League (including (Old) First Division): 10 titles'
  • 1957–58, 1959–60, 1962–63, 1967–68, 1971–72, 1976–77, 1979–80, 1987–88, 1991–92, 1999–00.
• (Old) Second Division): 1
  • 1981–82

Cups

• FA Cup: 10
  • 1959, 1961, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1984, 1990, 1995, 1999
• League Cup: 2
  • 1986, 1987
• FA Charity/Community Shield: 2'
  • 1974, 1977 (shared)

European

• European Cup: 4
  • 1964, 1969, 1973, 1970
  • Runner-Up (2): 1978, 1975[9]
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 4
  • 1967, 1971, 1975, 1985
• UEFA Cup: 2
  • 1979, 1985

International

• Intercontinental Cup/World Club Championship: 2
  • 1964, 1969
• Summer International Tournaments: 9
  • Australia 1966, Mexico 1969 (shared), Saladoria 1970, Australia 1978, Crete 1980, Scotland 1981, Vienna 1986, Crete 1989, Japan 1990

National team career

Roy Race represented his nation on several occasions collecting 8 caps (according to a soutce), including the legendary game against Johan Seegrun' s Netherlands 21 January 1978. On the other hand, Roy Race’s England career is somewhat of a mystery, according to a source he won 43 caps scoring 52 goals. According to his 1986 profile on ROTR he had only 1 or 2 international caps.

Roy's England against Netherlands in 1978 at Wembley.

1966 World Cup

Just a month before the 1966 FIFA World Cup would be held in England, an end-season charity match saw international striker Roy Race twist his ankle badly. The England selectors could not take a chance on Race for the World Cup team. The most important tournament in Race's career was about to fly away.

Manager Ben Galloway took the Melchester Rovers team on a tour in Australia trying to ease Roy's pain over his missed chance on the 1966 World Cup. But he would play in an unofficial one: the many nationalities in Australia had given a wealthy sheepman a startling idea to start Australia's own World Cup. Rovers agreed to represent England and soon found themselves playing against a fantastic Italian team which they eventually eliminated in the first round. After eliminating a team who represented Poland, the Rovers successfully battled their way through the final where they lifted the cup beating the Bulgarians with Roy Race scoring the winning goal.

1970 FIFA World Cup

After missing out the previous three World Cups, Rovers captain Roy Race travelled to Mexico with the England squad alongside his teammates Geoff Giles and goalie Tubby Morton. With a month to the World Cup, England were already in Mexico, getting acclimatised to the unfamiliar weather conditions. In the meantime the rest of Melchester Rovers team would be getting prepared for their summer South America tour in Saladoria.

Reigning World Champions England faced Rumania in the opening game of tournament, having the three Rovers players in the first eleven. On 6 June, Roy Race performed his second World Cup match in a thrill-packed game against mighty Brazil but they didn't prove able to score. Eventually England made it to the next round but at some stage obviously they were defeated which let Roy Race and the other internationals get incorporated with the Rovers team in Saladoria and helped them win the international clubs' tournament.

International goals

• National Teams: England, Basran
• England (1963-1987): 32 full international appearances.

Though Roy Race was close to be picked for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, an injury kept him out of action and the selected squad. Nevertheless, he debuted in 1963 against a lowly South American side scoring a hat-trick. He missed out the 1966 World Cup but he was selected for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. This was his only World Cup appearance as the 1986 Basran massacre wouldn't allow Race to win the most illustrious trophy in the World.

His very last performance for England was displayed against Turkey in 1987 at Wembley Stadium and according to press the most spectacular goal that Race scored for England took place against Brazil in 1981. It is remarkable that with Roy in the squad England were defeated only in one game, the one that saw England out of the quarter finals of the 1970 World Cup.

• Basran (1979): 3 international appearances.

In the summer of 1979 Roy Race managed and played for the middle-eastern national team of Basran. He scored 6 goals in 3 matches and led Basran to the 1979 Middle-East Games. Upon his return to England he recommended Lofty Peak for the vacancy. Lofty Peak was appointed the new coach of Basran.

International matches

National Team #	Date	Venue	Opponent	Goals	Result	Competition
England	April 1963	Caragua, South America	Caragua	3	3-1	Friendly
England	June 1970	Mexico City, Mexico	Rumania	-	Unknown	1970 FIFA World Cup
England	8 June 1970	Mexico City, Mexico	Brazil	-	0-0	1970 FIFA World Cup
England	May 1973	Rome, Italy	Italy	1	2-0	Friendly
England	August 1974	?	?	?	?	Friendly
England	August 1975	Wembley Stadium, London, England	France	2	2-0	European Nations Cup
England	November 1975	Wembley Stadium, London, England	Mulvania	1	1-	Friendly
England	February 1978	Wembley Stadium, London, England	Netherlands	-	4-1	Friendly
England	June 1981	Wembley Stadium, London, England	Brazil	1	1-0	Friendly
England	June 1983	?	?	?	?	Friendly
England	February 1985	Wembley Stadium, London, England	France	1	1-1	Friendly
England	August 1985	Wembley Stadium, London, England	France	?	?	Friendly
England	June 1986	Wembley Stadium, London, England	France	?	?	Friendly
England	June 1986	Wembley Stadium, London, England	Turkey	2	2-0	1988 UEFA Euros Qualifier

Comic World Cup

Several World Cups were held during Roy Race's career since 1954 and until last decade of the Roy of the Rovers story in 1998. Though Roy Race didn't participate in the final stages of the tournament, there were big names of the comic football world and Roy's rivals as well who made an impact and went down the history

Legacy

Race is considered one of the most popular and best football comic heroes of all time. On Sunday 12 December 1999, journalist Simon Turnball from the Independent newspaper wrote an article declaring Roy Race as footballer of the century and not Pele who was chosen at the time by IFFHS.

Guardian selected him as the 6th best ever in November 2003. On 29 June 2009, journalist and comic fanatic, Richard Copeman for Daily Mail described Roy as the greatest-ever 'fictional' centre forward.

On 10 December 2010, Scott Murray, Tim Bradford, Doug Cheeseman and David Hills for The Guardian made a Top6 of the most memorable football cartoons, with Roy finishing 6th. Scott Murray on April 14, 2011, described Race as the greatest cartoon footballer of all time. On 26 January 2012, Tom Stewart picked his 10 Top10 of Fictional Footballers, picking Roy as the best ever (the other comic player of the list was Johnny Dexter).

The football comic heroes blog selected him as the 8th best of all time in November 2014. Andi Thomas of the Paster Magazine on October 21, 2015 picked Race as the best ever comic football player (among other imaginary ones), though stating that his favourite was Hamish Balfour.

On 19 July 2016, Larry Ryan picked his fictional football XI with Roy (jersey number 7) as his GOAT.

Journalist Mark Carruthers on 7 February 2023, posted ultimate fictional football XI picking Race as a midfielder, and described as possibly the greatest fictional footballer of all-time and a true legend (the only comic player of the XI).

Team 33 picked out some of the best fictional footballers to have appeared on screens or comics and Roy was the only comic football player. James Mason, on 3 June 2021 picked the 3 The Greatest Sporting Comic Book Characters of All-Time, with Roy being among them (Flash Gordon and NFL SuperPro the others). In 2018 Richard Benson called Roy as English Football's Greatest Hero.

Personal life

Roy's grandfather was a Rovers player too, lifting the 1908 FA Cup. Roy married the Rovers' secretary Penny Lane in 1981. He had two twins with her, a girl and a boy named Rocky Race, also a footballer.

See also

• Johnny Dexter (Hard Man)

Sources

• The official Roy of the Rovers website
• Waybach machine

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