Happy Birthday, Bill

Today marks what would have been the 100th birthday of the legendary Bill Nicholson.

In tribute, we have changed the ‘wallpaper’ on our social media channels for the day and will be running content with the hashtag #BillNick100 so that fans can send us their memories and share their thoughts of the great man.

At Wednesday night’s match against Watford at Wembley, we shall be celebrating Bill’s centenary with a special edition front cover of the matchday programme, content on the big screens and a tribute at half-time involving some of his great former players.

A feature wall that depicts the now iconic image of our greatest-ever manager holding open the famous iron gates that once sat in front of White Hart Lane has been installed in the East Stand on Level 5 of our new stadium, opposite The White Hart bar, for fans to visit on matchdays.

The affectionately-known ‘Bill Nick Gates’ themselves remain carefully stored, as they have been since 2015, in order to preserve them and avoid any damage as works around our wider stadium campus continue.

Bill arrived at the Club as a member of our groundstaff in 1936 and served as player, coach and manager over the next 38 years.

A tough-tackling half-back, Bill helped us win back-to-back titles in 1949/50 and 1950/51 - the Division Two title followed by our first Division One championship - under manager Arthur Rowe. Bill played 341 times for us between 1938-54.

He took over as manager in 1958 and put together our greatest-ever team - the FA Cup and Division One title double-winners of 1960/61. Further trophies followed during the ‘glory, glory years’ with the FA Cup retained in 1962 and then more history as we became the first British club to win a European trophy in 1963.

We lifted the FA Cup again in 1967, the League Cup in 1971 and 1973 and the UEFA Cup in 1972 - all under Bill's leadership.

During that time, Bill signed some of the greatest players to pull on our famous white shirt - Dave Mackay, John White, Jimmy Greaves, Alan Mullery, Pat Jennings, Alan Gilzean, Martin Peters and Martin Chivers to name but a few.

Bill sadly died on October 23, 2004. His ashes - plus those of his beloved wife Darkie - were buried under the White Hart Lane pitch that meant so much to him and then - with the family’s blessing - respectfully transferred into safe keeping on a vantage point overlooking the site as the demolition of the old stadium approached.

In January last year, Bill and Darkie’s caskets were re-interred at a specially-selected location below where the new pitch overlaps the old.

From everybody at Tottenham Hotspur - Happy Birthday, Bill. You will never be forgotten.