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That brief video clip of our 3-3 draw at West Ham in 1926 shows only 20 seconds of action, but it's packed with goodies. A quick reminder: I mentioned above that you can see West Ham's new Main Stand - so similar to the Double Decker. After that, you see this: On the left is our captain Johnny Duncan. who has just won the toss against West Ham skipper Sid Bishop - who we signed shortly afterwards. Later that season Bishop became our first ever outfield player to be selected for England. In the picture, Duncan is looking up at the sky. Why? It's the position of the sun he's interested in. In those days, in almost every match report you see something like 'Smith won the toss and chose to defend the Kop end in the first half so the opposition would be playing into the sun'. It never seems much of an issue anymore. Next is this: It's only a fleeting moment of action but it's possible to identify exactly what it shows. That's our left back Reg Osborne, looking back anxiously. And the keeper is our Kenny Campbell. Have we just conceded ? Well, a moment after that you see the ref signaling that a goal has been scored, running back to the half way line. But which of West Ham's three goals that day was it? Various visual clues tell us that this is still the first half. The Hammers only scored once in that period - a Stan Earle header from a corner. I'm pretty sure it's the first goal in a Leicester League game ever caught on film (or at least, that's still on existence). Then we see this: Kenny Campbell going to pick the ball out of his net after West Ham's second goal. Then this: The ball's in Campbell's net for a third time. What a shame the cameas never captured any of Arthur Chandler's hat-trick.

This is a truly magnificent video. Watch it right till the end - it's worth it: (and just a word of explanation for the thread - it was posted just after Beckenbauer died on January 7th)

Villa SF 2000. Response to 'boring, boring Leicester'. We outplayed them, won 1-0 and made it back to Wembley. This was after the game - my favourite ever game at Filbert Street.

More on Leicester Prison. Hattersley in 1953 wasn't the only prisoner who escaped over the wall (whatever it says on wikipedia). There have been several others. Two escaped together in 1939, and there were two cases in the space of two months in 1932. Here's a piece from the Leicester Evening Mail at the time of Hattersley's escape: Those details are questionable though. Jones was initially thought to have smuggled himself out in a delivery van, as it says there, but it later became clear that he'd scaled the walls. And Philpott, as far as I know, was never recaptured. Two years after he escaped he was still on the run, and I can find no record of him after that. Anyone know different? Here's a diagram from the Mercury after Philpott's escape: Philpott had made it out of his cell by sawing through the bars on the window - just like the character in 'Over The Wall We Go' - not one of David Bowie's best known tracks, but it's great. The artist here is 'Oscar' - alias Paul Nicholas:

So we're about to see something that's never happened before in English football - a club winning four titles in a row. In the past, every time a club has won three, they've fallen short the following season - Huddersfield in 1926/27, Arsenal in 1935/36, Liverpool in 1985/84 and Man U in 2009/10. Now it looks like Man CIty will finally do it. Looking back at those past attempts, you find some fascinating Leicester connections. Let's have a look at them. 1926/27 The story of Huddersfield Town in the 1920s rivals Leicester 2016 as the most miraculous in the history of the League. In 1919 their chairman decided to wind the club up and move the whole operation 20 miles down the road, merging with a new amateur team called 'Leeds United', who would conveniently take over Huddersfield's place in Division Two. Somehow though, the move didn't take place, and Association Football survived in Huddersfield. Six months later and the club had, incredibly, made it to their first FA Cup Final and won promotion to Division One. Four years after that, under legendary manager Herbert Chapman, they won the League title. Then they retained it twice, despite Chapman moving to Arsenal. In August 1926 they set out to win it for a fourth time. Two months into the season and the club that looked likely to stop them - to everyone's surprise - was Leicester City. In our two previous seasons in the top flight we had finished 17th (a year earlier), and rock bottom (in 1909). We had also just suffered the shock of losing our own managerial legend. Peter Hodge had joined Manchester City; replaced by another Scot, Willie Orr. The very first moment of the Orr era was actually captured on film. Here you see our opening game - at West Ham. If the brand new stand you see at the start looks familiar it's because the Double Decker, built the following year, was almost a carbon copy: We drew that 3-3, and our next two away games were also in London - 2-2 at Spurs and 2-2 at Arsenal. Good early home form meant we traveled to Everton on September 18th knowing that a win could put us top for the first time ever. Those hopes seemed to have been dashed when Everton were 3-0 up at the break. But we somehow scored four in the second half, and the home side missed a last minute penalty to leave us in dreamland - at the top of the tree. We then won three of the next four, which left us a point behind leaders Burnley with a game in hand. Huddersfield were down in 8th place. It didn't last. We took just a point from the next five games and were never real challengers after that, though our final position of 7th was by far our best ever. Huddersfield ended up in second place, narrowly failing to make it four in a row, five points behind champions Newcastle United. 1935/36 1930s Arsenal were the second great team built by Herbert Chapman. But as with Huddersfield, he led them only in the first two seasons of the hat-trick of title wins. He died suddenly in January 1934, aged just 55. As the Gunners opened the 1935/36 season, aiming for four in a row, Leicester were playing their first game in Division Two for a decade. We'd suffered our own shocking managerial bereavement - Peter Hodge, who'd returned to Filbert Street in 1932, passing away just six months after Chapman. His replacement Arthur Lochhead - he of the music shop on Loseby Lane - took us down in his first season. The club who stopped Arsenal's run were Sunderland, and the man who inspired their title win was a player we had let slip through our fingers. Raich Carter, still recognized today as one of the greatest ever English inside-forwards, came down for a trial at Leicester over the Christmas holiday in 1930. He had just turned 17 and was looking to sign his first professional contract. He played for us in a reserve game at Filbert Street against Watford, but on a muddy pitch he couldn't show his true ablilty. He soon returned home to the North-East, Willie Orr telling him he'd never make it as he was 'too small'. Who knows what the 1930s might have brought had we signed him. Sunderland were the beneficiaries, and Carter's magical skills helped them to stop Arsenal's run of title wins. 1984/85 Liverpool's bid for four in a row suffered a double blow before the season began. Captain Graeme Souness left for Sampdoria, and Ian Rush picked up an injury in pre-season that kept him out for nearly three months. By the time Rush returned, the Reds were in the bottom half of the table. But then came a typical Liverpool surge. The first of their title hat-trick, in 1981/82, had come after they'd been 12th at New Year, and now the giants smelled the blood of another title run. That was until Gordon Milne's Leicester City arrived at Anfield on Boxing Day: The hero of the game was keeper Ian Andrews, who had only recently taken over from Mark Wallington. Liverpool's climb up the table continued after that setback, and they would finish second behind Everton. 2009/10 We were in the Championship as Manchester United chased their fourth title in a row, but on United's books at the time were a group of players who would play a big part at the King Power in the years ahead. Danny Drinkwatwer, 19, was on a season-long loan at that club that very nearly ceased to exist at the start of the story - Huddersfield Town. Danny Simpson, 22, was also on loan for the season - at Newcastle. Matty James, 18, was named on the bench for one League Cup tie that season, but didn't get on the pitch. He too was soon loaned out - to Preston. Ritchie de Laet, 20, was the only one of the future foxes to feature in United's quest for four in a row. He played in two games in December, a win over Wolves at Old Trafford, then a 3-0 defeat at Fulham. Here he is with one of Fulham's goalscorers that day, Bobby Zamora: It was Chelsea who stopped United making it four in a row, and de Laet never played for United again. 2023/24 So once again we've been a League below as a club strives for four in a row. The only impact we've had on Man City was to steal their Assistant Manager before the start of the season - and they don't seem to have missed him. If they do finish the job on Sunday, it will be the third City-City championship double - Manchester in the top flight, Leicester a League below. Exactly the same thing happened in 2014, and back in 1937. At the end of that season, 87 years ago, we beat Spurs to clinch the Division Two title then a week later, while on a celebratory tour of Europe, we met the Man CIty squad completely by chance on Cologne Station. If it happens again, I wonder what Guardiola and Maresca will say to each other? (and if this turns into a caption competition I'll have no complaints).

Quite like this thing City have been singing for ten minutes non-stop. Bet United hate it. The Stone Roses are supposed to be Reds: Sometimes I, Fantasise, Won the league under Mancini, And again with Pellegrini, Don't these times, Fill your eyes, Now we've got Pep Guardiola, And the blues are taking over, We're never gonna lose, We're always on the booze…

Meant to suggest this moment: But I guess it's too late now.

'Upson Downes' kindly sent me this photo of himself in Everton kit back at the time when the ball hit him in the face at Goodison:

This is the other side of that medley release that features that track:

And while we're at it, here's the most joyous track he (or anyone) ever recorded. Johnny Dodds' clarinet solo followed by his famous stop-time solo on trumpet.

More on 'When You're Smiling'. In the months before Louis Armstrong arrived in Leicester in 1934, a recent release of his was being reviewed in the press - a medley of recent hits: That could well have been one of the records featured in the 'recital' in Kingstone's Clock Tower store mentioned above. And it gives you a good idea of what his set-list would have been at the Opera House in Silver Street. It's an incredibly rare record now, but fortunately it's on youtube - uploaded seven years ago, only 15 views. It's magnificent: The version of When You're Smiling is great, though he does it fairly straight. The other two tracks give you an idea of why he was such an original. Ripping up the old melodies and replacing them with his own in-yer-face scat-rap. It's as shocking as Elvis in 56 or Johnny Rotten in 76. He just blew everyone else away. This is the lyric to St. James' Infirmary: I went down to St. James Infirmary, Saw my baby there, Stretched out on a long white table, So cold, so sweet, so fair. Let her go, let her go, God bless her, Wherever she may be, She can look this wide world over, But she'll never find a sweet man like me.

Thanks everyone, Didn't see it live coz, you know, time difference. But just read through all the comments here and it's been massively entertaining.

Just bumping this for people who were there today and didn't see it earlier.

I've made a slight edit to the original post. I shoud have said that most of the young men who used to meet at East Gates Coffee House to discuss Fosse matters were former pupils of Wyggeston Grammar School For Boys - which took the name of one of the four 'notable people' you can see on the Clock Tower - William Wyggeston.

To quote the above: The opening of Kingstone would not have been welcomed by Mr. Arthur Lochhead, manager of a music shop on nearby Loseby Lane. Lochhead was not in the shop every day becauase he had another job - he played inside-left for Leicester City. Later, after the death of Peter Hodge, he took over as boss at Filbert Street. The directors thought his experience running the shop would stand him in good stead. How did Arthur get on? He took us straight down to Division Two - the first relegation experienced by the club called 'Leicester City' (the Fosse had gone down in 1909). Arthur resigned a year later (or was he pushed?). The story is that the directors thought he had too much autonomy.

With your scrapbook visible in the picture

The forgotten parade? Do you remember Monday evening after the 2000 League Cup Final? I was there near the Clock Tower as the bus came past. I've been trying to find photos of it online and drew a total blank. How weird. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place. Then I remembered - there might be something in the programme from the game the following Saturday. And there was indeed a nice two page spread. Here's a few shots cribbed from there on my phone: On the next one you can see that old Dean and Dawson building mentioned above (on the right): And here too:

I wish! Still working here in Japan. Just learned some very good time management techniques from the locals

The Clock Tower is a great place for a celebration. If you're there today, have a look around. Those buildings tell a lot of stories about the history of our club. Look at this this photo from the 2016 parade. Let's start with the three buildings marked: 1) First the one on the right. You can see below that it used to be called the 'East Gates Coffee House'. In the early days of Leicester Fosse it was, in effect, the headquarters of the club: Back in the 1880s when Leicester Fosse played on Victoria Park there were, of course, no buildings at that site that belonged to the club. We were simply allocated an area of the park each week and we got on with it in front of a few dozen spectators, usually at the same time as a much larger crowd watched a rugby game on a neighbouring pitch. The place where club members sat down to discuss selection and tactics was that coffee house by the Clock Tower. There would have been crisis meetings there too. There were times in those early days when the future of the club was in doubt, due to the lack of interest from local people and the difficulty in attracting players. But thankfully, they always found a way to keep the club going. 2) Next, the building just to the left. It's now the entrance to Highcross, but back in the 1930s, a new music and furniture store called Kingstone's opened there: It's not the clearest photo, and if anyone knows of a better one, please post it below. The mid-1930s was boom time for music stores, with the new gramophones taking off and sales of radios and records rocketing. There was fierce competition in the city centre, and the opening of Kingstone would not have been welcomed by Mr. Arthur Lochhead, manager of a music shop on nearby Loseby Lane. Lochhead was not in the shop every day becauase he had another job - he played inside-left for Leicester City. Later, after the death of Peter Hodge, he took over as boss at Filbert Street. The directors thought his experience running the shop would stand him in good stead. When Kingstone opened, their Managing Director Charles Keene decided to get some extra publicity by arranging an instore appearance by a famous musician from America who was touring the UK. In February 1934, the tour arrived in Leicester. Jazz lovers packed out the Opera House in Silver Street, less than 50 yards from Kingstone, to see the sensational Louis Armstrong. He played the Opera House for six nights, and as you can see, one afternoon that week he was at the store to sign autographs and do a 'record recital'. What does that mean? Did he just play some of his recent records? Did he sing along to them? Did he sing live without the records? Did he have his trumpet with him? I'm not sure. But what we do know is that one of his recent hits was a track called 'When You're Smiling'. Whether he performed it or not at Kingstone, it's very likely he performed it every night on stage. What a time to be alive. The man who's been called 'the most important musician of the 20th century' blasting out an early version of our song right in the centre of town. And on the day he first took the stage at the Opera House, the draw for the FA Cup Quarter-Finals gave Leicester City an away tie at Preston. We had never got beyond this stage before - but we won at Deepdale to take us into the semi-finals for the first time. Louis Armstrong came back to Leicester twice after the War, and in 1959 we know for sure that 'When You're Smiling' was in his set. You might recall our old friend Bernie Henson trying to get Louis' autograph at the De Montfort Hall that night: 3) Now let's go back to the photo from 2016 and have a look at the building marked on the left: Leicester City fans used to spend a lot of time in that building, or to be precise, queueing up outside. Why? Spot the clue on the wall: Dean and Dawson's travel agents was the place in the city centre that sold tickets for Leicester City, and before FA Cup matches like those in 1934, this would be the scene: That was before our Fourth Round replay against Brentford in 1948. 4) If jazz was the in-thing in the 1930s, in the 1950s it was another import from America. We know the precise moment that Rock'n' Roll mania hit Leicester. It was September 4th 1956. That evening, the film Rock Around The Clock was being shown at the Gaumont in the Market Place, and after reports of riotous scenes at showings in London, police were actually stationed inside the cinema. But that didn't stop people. As the Evening Mail reported, 'Teenagers crocodiled down the aisles, and several times the soundtrack was stopped to prevent the patrons getting out of control'. Then after the film 'they crocodiled round the Clock Tower'. In the days that followed there was pantomime outrage in the local papers, with calls to ban not just the film but all rock'n'roll music. Something else was just beginning at that time - Leicester City's surge up the Second Division that took us to the top of the table, and ultimately the title. Those two timelines of excitement - in music and football - went totally hand in hand that season, with the hits of the day being transformed into terrace anthems. That promotion story will be told in detail in a forthcoming thread. 5) On the Clock Tower itself, looking down disapprovingly on those out of control teenagers in 1956, were the following: a) Alderman Newton, whose money helped set up the school in St. Martins under the playground of which King Richard III's body was discovered. b) Simon de Montfort, whose Hall we mentioned above. c) William Wyggeston - most of those early Fosse members who met at East Gates Coffee House were former pupils of the school that took his name. d) Thomas White, known as a 'civic benefactor'; his money helping out a number of local organizations. Which puts him in the same bracket as... 6) If the players on the balcony this afternoon look down to the left, they'll see the sporting statue. The story behind its installation is pretty familiar. Leicestershire won the County Championship in 1996, then the following year we won the League Cup and Tigers won the Pilkington Cup. Does anyone know if the City player was based on anyone? Or is it just a generic footballer? It was Steve Claridge's goal in the replay that won us the Cup, four days after a 1-1 draw at Wembley. That match was a milestone in the life of Vichai Raksriaksorn, as he was then known. It was the first time he'd watched a football match in England. After that, well, he had that dream. Please add any other Clock Tower related stories. There must be others.

' Maybe I was wrong.

I mentioned in section 3 of the article that: 'Perhaps one of you can manage what I couldn’t and identify the Rovers player who misses a great chance just before United’s winner'. Well I'm pretty sure now that it's Eddie Crossan, the Northern Ireland international whose brother Johnny was a famous name in the 60s. He was still a key member of the Rovers side two years after that semi-final when there was a thrilling three-way race for the two promotion slots between Rovers, Leicester and Everton. Crossan inspired Rovers to a 3-0 win over us on Good Friday that saw them leapfrog us at the top of the table. When Rovers came to Filbert Street three days later they knew that a win would take them up - but we got revenge with a 4-0 win, and Rovers ended up missing out, with Everton climbing above them into second place. That was the third of the eight times we've been Division Two champions.

Presumably before that 6-0 defeat in 1928, those Blackburn players had been celebrating their Cup triumph fairly riotously in the 48 hours between Wembley and Filbert Street. The match report actually suggests Leicester were taking it easy. It could and should have been at least double that score, but: There was evidently a feeling of sympathy. Players right in front of goal with nothing to do but shoot straight, managed to put the ball over the top or wide. Two decades earlier, Leicester had not been given the same sympathy by Nottingham Forest. It was the club's first season in the top flight but relegation back down to Division Two had already been confirmed. The players were in no fit state to play football after celebrating 'Leggy' Turner's wedding the day before. Forest won 12-0. Our record League defeat. And there are two other moments to mention: Ten years ago, results in other games meant promotion for Nigel Pearson's team was sealed with six games to play. I'm not sure the players were in quite the same state as that Forest game, but we certainly relaxed. In the next game Brighton won 4-1 at the King Power. And in 1957, we sealed the Divison Two title with two games to play by winning 5-1 at Leyton Orient. Three days later, the same opponents were at Filbert Street for the final game of the season. The Second Division Shield was there, ready to be presented to Leicester for the fourth time after the game, and the Orient players formed a guard of honour as we ran out. That was the end of the niceties. They ran us ragged, going 4-1 up before the hour mark as we looked anything but champions. As the Mercury put it, 'Orient looked like inflicting Leicester's record home defeat'. But 4-1 was how the scoreline stayed. This was Jack Froggatt with the shield, the players looking just a little sheepish. Any Blackburn fans reading all this might feel a little encouraged. If we do lose tomorrow, there are numerous historial precedents.