The Ice Kings is the name given to the Leicester City side of the 1962-63 season, due to their run of form in both the First Division and the FA Cup on icy pitches during the brutal winter of 1962/63, the coldest winter of the 20th century in England and Wales.[1]
During the freezing winter, a plethora of games were called off in England and Leicester did not play a single game between Boxing Day 1962 and 9 February 1963. However, as games began to start being played again after the lengthy hiatus, Leicester, on the icy pitches began to gain huge momentum and went on a lengthy winning and unbeaten run which saw Leicester top the table with 9 (and later 5 games) to go and reach the 1963 FA Cup Final.[2] However, as injuries took hold and the ice began to melt Leicester's momentum faded and they ended up winning just 1 of their final 9 games and losing the FA Cup final to Manchester United despite being hot favourites, after a dour performance. Despite chasing the double during the icy period as the season came to a close the Foxes ended up in a disappointing 4th position and as FA Cup runners-up.[1]
The 1962-63 side is often regarded as the best side in Leicester City's history.[3][4]
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| Leicester's regular starting lineup in the 1962/63 season based on players with the most starts. |
Leicester's creative attack was built around the skillful playmaker Dave Gibson[1] who forged a deadly partnership on the left of Leicester's attack with Mike Stringfellow. Ken Keyworth was the club's centre forward and prolific goalscorer upfront, while Howard Riley provided balance on the right-wing. Much of the flexibility in the side came from the athleticism of Frank McLintock and Graham Cross, who regularly changed positions during games which Gillies once claimed "utterly confused [the] opposition" as opposition players would often be asked to mark "our [Leicester's] number eight, so they thought Cross was their man, when McLintock had replaced him" as "players hadn't got beyond thinking about numbers then."
In defence, Leicester forged a fearsome half-back line of McLintock, Ian King and club captain Colin Appleton with John Sjoberg and Richie Norman as full-backs and legendary goalkeeper Gordon Banks in goal.
The Ice Kings were managed by Matt Gillies and his assistant Bert Johnson and were hugely influential in English football for their fluid "switch" and "whirl" systems and playing sequences of short probing passes to unlock defences and establishing the concept of positional flexibility and for their switching of positions, particularly of inside right and right-half Graham Cross and Frank McLintock, upsetting the tradition 1-11 formations in England and confusing opposition players, who were used to thinking in terms of rigid formations in the English game. Johnson had brought back this system from watching the great Hungary and Austria sides of the 1950s and he and Gillies developed their own version of the systems with Leicester.[1]
Gillies later said it "confused opposition" as opposition players would often be asked to mark "our [Leicester's] number eight, so they thought Cross was their man, when McLintock had replaced him" as "players hadn't got beyond thinking about numbers then."[5]
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