Dad brought me a book of autographs after the 1966 World Cup.
North Korea had beaten Italy in the group stages of the World Cup held at Ayresome Park in Middlesbrough.
19th July 1966 I was a 10 year old boy, totally mad on football and this was my second ever football match.
The first match was the week before when Russia destroyed North Korea 3-0.
The Middlesbrough crowd got behind the North Koreans, Italy were famous for being physical and as far as I was concerned they were all huge ugly players.
We were sat up in the Gods in the East stand, I had never seen anything like it. The singing and shouting and passion of a football match at it's real best, the underdogs battling against the Italian Gladiators.
I was hooked, and when Pak Doo Ik scored, I had never heard such noise!
18,721 people, mosty Teessiders went bonkers. Oh how many times, I have been in among that since!
If you talk to Teessiders nowadays, there must have been about 100,000 in the crowd as everyone seems to have been there, but does it matter? No, because Pak Doo Ik's boots did the job, they hooked me and I am sure thousands of other kids in the wonderful year of 1966.
Back to the autograph book, for years I thought that my Dad, being as he is had written the menu of the local Chinese takeaway in order to tell me that he had the autographs of the North Korean team, when in fact it is true, I have the real authentic autograph of the man himself!!
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