1. Home
  2. John Rowlinson

John Rowlinson

The Boys of ’66 - The Unseen Story Behind England’s World Cup Glory

  • The Boys of ’66 - The Unseen Story Behind England’s World Cup Glory

  • Wembley, 30 July 1966… Geoff Hurst completes his hat trick… England are the World Cup champions.

    Everyone knows how the story ends, but how did it begin? How did Alf Ramsey assemble an England team to win the trophy for the first, and so far only time? The choice of the final eleven was far from straightforward: in just over three years Ramsey selected no less than fifty players and, at the start of 1966, two of the winning team had still to make their debuts for England.

    This book charts the chequered path to eventual victory, assesses both the players who made the final squad and those who lost out and, with the help of previously unpublished photographs, provides a unique chronicle of professional football over fifty years ago.

John Rowlinson trained as a journalist after a history degree at Cambridge where he played football for the university. He enjoyed a long career with BBC TV Sport where he was responsible, among many other events, for World Cup, Wimbledon and Olympic coverage. He then spent seven years as Director of Television at the All England Club, before joining the Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games as Head of Broadcast for London 2012. Married with two daughters, he lives in Berkshire.

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience. For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.