Ted Drake

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Ted Drake
Personal information
Full name	Edward Joseph Drake
Date of birth	16 August 1912
Place of birth	Southampton, England
Date of death	30 May 1995
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1931-34 1934-45	Southampton Arsenal	72 (48) 167 (124)
National team
1934-38	England	5 (6)
Teams managed
1946-47 1947-52 1952-61	Hendon Reading Chelsea
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Edward Joseph "Ted" Drake (August 16, 1912 - May 30, 1995) was an English cricketer and footballer and manager.

[edit] Playing career

Born in Southampton, Drake started playing at Winchester City, before turning professional and joining Southampton, in 1931. A prolific centre-forward, he hit a hat-trick on his Saints debut and scored (in total) 48 goals in 72 league games. He also appeared for Hampshire County Cricket Club in county cricket

Drake moved to Arsenal in March 1934 for £6,500, and scored on his league debut against Wolves. Although he joined too late to qualify for a League Championship medal in 1933-34, Drake would win one the following season, after scoring a spectacular 42 goals in 41 league games. With two more goals in the FA Cup and Charity Shield, Drake scored 44 in all that season, a club record that holds to this day.

The following season, Drake scored seven in a single match against Aston Villa at Villa Park on December 14, 1935, a club record that also still stands. Drake would go on to win the FA Cup in 1935-36 and the League again in 1937-38. The Second World War curtailed Drake's career somewhat, although he served in the Royal Air Force as well as turning out for Arsenal in wartime games. However, Drake's career would not last long into peacetime; a spinal injury in 1945 forced him to retire from playing. With 139 goals in 184 games, he is the joint-fifth (along with Jimmy Brain) all-time scorer for Arsenal, as of 2006. He also won five England caps, scoring six times, and was one of seven Arsenal players who played for England in the "Battle of Highbury" against Italy in November 1934.

[edit] Management Career

After retiring as a player, Drake managed Hendon in 1946, and then Reading from 1947. He led the club to the runners-up spot in Division Three South in 1951-52, though at the time only the champions were promoted. He was appointed manager of First Division Chelsea in 1952.

Upon Drake's arrival at Chelsea, he made a series of sweeping changes, doing much to rid the club of its previous amateurish, music hall image. He discarded the club's Chelsea pensioner crest and with it the Pensioners nickname, and insisted a new one be adopted. From these changes came the "Lion Rampant Regardant" crest and the Blues nickname. He introduced scouting reports and a new, tougher, training regime based on ballwork, a rare practice in English football at the time. The club's previous policy of signing unreliable big-name players was abandoned; Drake instead used his knowledge of the lower divisions and the amateur game to recruit little-known, but more reliable, players such as John McNichol, Frank Blunstone, Derek Saunders, Jim Lewis and Peter Sillett.

Within three years, in the 1954-55 season, Drake had led Chelsea to their only First Division championship of the 20th century. In doing so, he became the first person to win the league title both as player and manager. However, Drake never came close to repeating the success. The championship-winning side was gradually broken up, to be replaced by the crop of youngsters emerging from the club's youth team, such as Jimmy Greaves, Peter Brabrook and Bobby Tambling, for whom Drake was an aloof figure. Thereafter performances and results were very erratic, leaving the club stranded in mid-table; after an FA Cup loss to Fourth Division side Crewe Alexandra in 1961 the writing was on the wall and Drake was sacked early into the 1961-62 season.

After leaving Chelsea, he became reserve team manager at Fulham (where his son, Bobby, played), later becoming a director and then life president of the Cottagers.

Drake died in 1995, at the age of 82.

Preceded by Billy Birrell

Chelsea F.C. Manager 1952-61

Succeeded by Tommy Docherty