A LEGENDARY RELATIVE
BY LIAM HARDING
In 1912 one of the best players to ever grace the beautiful game was born. That man is my great-granddad, Ted Drake.
While I was always aware of the fact I was related to the striker - a holder of multiple scoring records at Arsenal and beyond - it wasn’t until I properly got into football, around the age of 10, that I realised just how impressive his achievements were.
In the 1934/35 campaign, Drake hit 44 goals in all competitions, to help the club to a third consecutive league title. His haul, which remains a record that no Arsenal player has come close to matching, included three hat-tricks and four four-goal hauls.
In the following season, on 14th December 1935, he famously ran riot at Villa Park. Sporting the world’s biggest bandage on his left leg, he scored all seven goals as Arsenal beat Villa 4-1. It became and remains, the most goals scored in a single English top-flight match and, 90 years later, it’s hard to imagine the record being beaten.
By the time World War Two interrupted the football calendar in 1939, Drake had become the quickest player in Arsenal history to reach the 100-goal milestone.
A back injury sustained on a PT course during the war years forced him to hang up his boots in 1945, but within a decade, Drake had his hands on another title medal; this time as manager of Chelsea. In so doing, he became the first person to win the First Division Championship as both a player and manager. Having arrived at Stamford Bridge in 1952, he’d declared he would need three seasons to win the league. He wasn’t wrong with his prediction, leading the Blues to success in their Jubilee year. They wouldn’t win another title until Jose Mourinho took over.
I became an Arsenal fan in 2013. It wasn’t a tricky decision considering the club runs deep in my blood and pretty much everyone in the family, aside from my uncle, supports them. He likes Spurs, a decision he made to wind up his dad and one he’s stuck with!
Within days of declaring myself a Gunner, I begged my granddad Graham, an Arsenal member and regular at the Emirates, to take me to a match. He is the youngest of Ted’s three sons and was born 10 years to the day his dad destroyed VIlla.
My dream came true in August 2013 when Grandad bought us tickets to watch the Gunners play Galatasaray in the Emirates Cup. I remember the anticipation to this day, I’d never been so excited about anything in my life before!
We travelled from Basingstoke to London Waterloo then changed at Leicester Square for the Picadilly Line to Arsenal station, just around the corner from Emirates Stadium. It was a truly tranquil experience, my heart melted when I saw the sheer class of Arsenal’s home and the huge mural of my great-granddad on the stadium banner. From that moment onwards, I was hooked!
We sat up top in the North Bank where most of the atmosphere. It was where my granddad preferred sitting which is probably the real reason we ended up sitting there! If Arsenal won the match, they’d lift the Emirates Cup. All eyes were on the Gunners. Despite being sat next to a young lad in a Galatasaray shirt, I didn’t hesitate to leap into the air when Theo Walcott edged Arsenal into the lead not long before the break. Everyone was chanting, “Arsenal, Arsenal” and “One-nil to the Arsenal” - it was superb!
Despite the near pant-wetting excitement of the opening 45 minutes, the visitors broke my heart into a thousand pieces after the break. Galatasaray equalised before Didier Drogba bagged the winner to secure the cup for the visitors. It took us ages to get out of a jam-packed Emirates and into Arsenal tube station and I remember feeling scared after witnessing some Galatasaray ultras letting off flares. Thankfully, they were contained.
Over the next three years, I did a tour of the stadium and attended a couple more games in the Emirates Cup before my granddad bought me a club membership. At last! This meant I could start going to competitive matches. My first was a game at home to Southampton, the club where my great-granddad started his career. In total, he scored 47 goals in 74 appearances for the Saints between 1931-34 and was hailed “the best centre forward in the world” by Arsenal manager George Allison.
As you can imagine, I couldn’t wait for the match and spent Friday at school just clock-watching desperate for the bell to go. When the time came, Arsenal just about escaped the jaws of defeat. Having gone 1-0 down to the Saints early on, they recovered with Santi Cazorla’s late penalty clinching a 2-1 win that shook the Emirates as if an earthquake had struck. Two friends of mine were at the game too, however, we were unable to meet at half time as I failed to check my phone and have the ringer turned on (typical me!).
After going to a handful of games with my dad and granddad for a couple of seasons I started going with my non-related brother George whose dad is an Arsenal season ticket holder. His dad always used to visit the supporters club for a pre-game drink and we would join him. I remember being shocked by the small ball and goal in the urinals that used to help me with my ‘shooting’ accuracy. It was a great place, I loved visiting and connecting with other fans and having the opportunity to ask them about their experiences as an Arsenal fan. I also loved performing the old party trick, revealing my connection to Ted Drake.
A match against Chelsea in 2019 brought with it another surprise. I was featured at the back of the Arsenal programme having completed a Q&A. It was unbelievable, I was so over the moon and kept telling anyone who’d listed. A friend at the match was flabbergasted when he spotted me while casually flicking through his copy.
Since that 2018/19 season, when I managed to get to 10 Arsenal games - the last a dull 1-0 win over Bournemouth - I’ve not been to the Emirates. Covid disrupted football for two years and I’ve spent the last couple working weekends to support my time at university.
Despite my prolonged absence, I was pleasantly surprised when the club emailed me in mid-2022 asking if me and granddad would like to take part in the fan consultation for the new Emirates Stadium artwork. Naturally, it was impossible for someone with Arsenal blood to turn down, so we helped give our input on the designs which were unveiled a year later at Camden Art Centre. We were invited to the opening night along with a number of former legends who’d also adorned the stadium’s previous artwork that had featured Ted Drake. These included Ian Wright, Bob Wilson and Charlie George.
I managed to speak to them all, but the one meeting that stands out was with George Graham. I said to him “I know a lot about Arsenal history, in fact, I know the club's biggest win was 9-1 against Grimsby Town at Highbury in 1931” and he responded amusingly with, “Oh, I wasn’t in the team that day, I’m not that old”.
Being related to one of Arsenal’s greatest legends has led to so many good experiences for me and my granddad Graham. Unfortunately, I never got to meet Ted, he died in 1995, seven years before I was born. That said, I feel as if I know him having sniffed out every piece of information about him on the internet. I’ve even gone through old match reports and articles from the 1930s having subscribed to the British Newspaper Archive last year.
