Legends
Ted Drake
- Name
- Ted Drake
- Years at Chelsea
- 1952–1961
- Position
- Manager
- Honours
- First Division champions: 1954–55
- FA Charity Shield: 1955
- First man to win the league as both player and manager
Ted Drake took over at Chelsea in June 1952, a former Arsenal centre-forward with league titles on his record. He found a club that people saw more as entertainment than as contenders. He changed it from the roots up.
His first move was symbolic. He did away with the ‘Pensioners’ nickname, a nod to the old soldiers of the Royal Hospital, changed the crest and asked supporters to shout for the ‘Blues’. He brought hard work, discipline and faith in young players.
Three years later came the miracle. On 23 April 1955, in front of 51,000, Chelsea beat Sheffield Wednesday 3–0. The title was sealed, exactly fifty years after the club was founded. Drake became the first man to win the English title as both player and manager. The Charity Shield followed a few months later.
In the years that followed he built ‘Drake’s Ducklings’, a side of academy talent that included Jimmy Greaves. He was dismissed in 1961 and died in 1995.
When we sing about the Blues today, we use words he made ours. He is the father of Chelsea’s modern identity.
Sources
- Chelsea FC — From the Museum: the champions of 1955 (the title on 23 April 1955 against Sheffield Wednesday)
- Chelsea FC — Birth of the Blues: the Drake revolution (the end of the ‘Pensioners’, new crest, Drake’s Ducklings)
- Wikipedia — Ted Drake (1952 appointment, 1961 dismissal, death in 1995)
- Wikimedia Commons — Ted Drake 1955.jpg (photo: Rossem, Wim van / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl)
