Lawrie: Flamboyant Frank Worthington was a special talent

Sadly, a bit like John Mortimore recently, it was not totally unexpected, according to his family.

He had suffered from dementia for quite a while.

His brother Dave rang me to tell me, because Dave was captain of my team at Grimsby Town. After talking for a while about Frank, he brought up memories of Grimsby.

The team there won the league. We had a reunion two or three years ago. All their names are now up in a room and, sadly, he told me that three of that team now are also suffering from dementia.

I’ve never really believed too much about the heading of the ball situation, but in those days it was the leather type with the bladder and thick lace sticking out on the surface. So obviously it did hurt. But one of the ex-Grimsby players was a little midfield player called Dave Boylen, who was a sort of Alan Ball type. Not quite at international level, as Alan was, but he rarely headed the ball. Sadly, he is also battling dementia.

Either way, it’s sad to hear when these things are happening.

But even Dave had a bit of a smile as we talked about one or two of his brother Frank’s antics. He remembered why he moved on from certain areas.

If you look at his record, he probably played with more teams than anybody else. He was abroad in America and Sweden and eventually had a few games down in Weymouth. But he was back in Yorkshire at the end.

He was very flamboyant. His nickname was Elvis, who was his hero. Some of the national newspapers this week had pictures of him all dressed up as if he was going on stage.

He had long hair, which in those days was most unusual. Some supporters may remember when the players came out for a kick before the game, most of them would be having shots at the goalkeeper or passing to each other. But Frank would come out with his own ball, flick the ball up and the crowd would be counting the number of times he would get it up onto his knee, then his head, then eventually catch it on the back of his neck before coming off to applause.

He was only with us for about one season. He didn’t score many, but two youngsters who I had signed as schoolboys, Danny Wallace and Steve Moran, benefited from playing up front alongside him and he unselfishly made sure that they had good games.

Frank was very different on the field to his brother. If I could compare, I would probably liken it to two other young players I signed – Franny Benali and Matt Le Tissier.

Dave and Franny were both full-backs, whose tackles forwards would be trying to avoid, whereas Matt and Frank were much more silky. Every manager would want any one of them in his team.

Off the field, I suppose a book could be written about Frank’s activities.

I think his last game with us was probably one he should’ve been in, but wasn’t because I sent him home. It was Stoke City away.

We went up on the Friday night as usual. The players checked in, went to their rooms, dropped their bags, came down for a meal and went back to their room. Frank always asked for a room on his own.

One of the staff would then go round and check everything was alright. On this occasion it was Lew Chatterley. He came back downstairs. I said, ‘everything okay Lew?’. He said ‘hmm’ and more or less nodded.

I said ‘come on, tell me’. He said ‘Frank’. I said ‘don’t tell me, he hasn’t got a lady in the room has he?’. The staff were laughing and he said ‘no, two!’.

Obviously I marched up, moved them on and told him to pack his bag.

The next morning when we were leaving to go to the ground, Lew nudged me to look out and Frank was standing there looking very sad, suit on and bag in hand. I said to the driver ‘drive on’, much to the surprise of everyone.

But Frank had got the message and I don’t know to this day how he got home.

But that was his way of life and obviously I had to do what any manager would do.

Fortunately, a few years later Anne and I were abroad on holiday, I think it was in America. Somehow, Frank found out where we were, he saw me and came over and we had a good lunch together with plenty of laughs and happier memories.

Looking at some of the goals which the television have shown on his passing, everyone will remember how special he was.

But he will now be part of that sad team which have left us, with probably Tommy Docherty managing them all. And they will be I’m sure looking down on how some of their ex-clubs are doing.

So happy memories and God bless to you, Frank.

Listen out for a new station

I want to wish my dear friends Mike Osman and Patrick Trant the best of luck.

They are two of the founders of Great British Radio, that launches this Sunday at 11am.

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Great British Radio is a collection of voices, thought and lives, celebrating the extraordinary and the ordinary.

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