Gordon Banks November 13, 1965
Photograph by Chris Morphet ©Getty Images/Redferns
Published in When Saturday Comes 230, April 2006

In 1965 Chris Morphet was a photography student at Leicester College of Art. As one of his lecturers worked as a sports photographer and attended games at Filbert Street he was able to tag along on a college assignment, the pictures intended for the students’ project discussion groups.

Leicester were playing Man Utd, but he recalls there was none of the hype that is now commonplace. “It was quite exciting but a casual and uncommercial atmosphere. It was all part of the general innocence and vibrancy of the 1960s.” Even as a student he could pursue the sports and cultural icons of the day (he also shot the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall) without major restriction. Morphet was watching Banks when, near the start of the game, a dog ran on the pitch. This was his very first picture on the day. Banks in his distinctive floppy cloth gloves, dived (and failed to hold) the intruder.

In the darkroom his lecturer recognised the potential news value of the picture and quickly circulated it to the national press. It caused a minor stir, running in the Mail, Sun, Sketch, Express and Mirror the Monday after the game. Cropped heavily from the full frame shown here, it was published with attendant cringeful tabloid puns. According to the Sketch, “Blackie” the dog was “charged with obstruction and offside”. “Here’s hoping the owner sees this identidog picture,” said the Sun. Banks, who went on to concede five goals, was predictably quoted in the Express, saying: “That’s almost the only save I made all day.”

Morphet strikes a similarly philosophical tone about his fleeting photographic fame, though the £30 or so he picked up plus the prestige of having a picture published afforded him some kudos among his student colleagues. The picture was nominated for sports photo of the year but after that the negative was filed and his career as a TV documentary cameraman took over. But, with the recent revived interest in all things retro, the picture has reemerged from the newspaper library files back into publication. As he now contemplates the prospect of trying to establish his authorship of the image, the quaintly informal circumstances that enabled him to take it in the first place seem a long way off.

Doug Cheeseman
Football Photography Writing