No one knows the history of Nottingham Forest Football Club better than Don Wright, who just happens to be the official club historian. Wright knows his stuff and there is a lot since we are talking about the second oldest professional club in the world. Yes, there are the legendary accomplishments of Brian Clough, perhaps the greatest manager to ever ply his trade in England. But there is so much more and Forever Forest: The Official 150th Anniversary History of the Original Reds delivers it all.
The book is a joy from cover to cover and is broken into three parts: the first 50 years, 1915-1965, and 1965-2015. Each section is defined by great moments and great people. Nottingham is home to two of the game’s oldest clubs so you can imagine there is plenty of history, actually 150+ years, in this book. Nottingham, described by Daniel Defoe as one of the most pleasant and beautiful towns in all of England, is home to the beautiful game and some incredible legends.
Clough, clearly on par with Robin Hood, led the team for 18 years. But others like Billy Walker, Walter Roe Lymbery, Sam Weller Widdowson, Dr. Tinsley Lindley, Bob Cobbin, and Bob Marsters are arguably equally important as each contributed to the club in a big way. Walker managed the club for 21 years, while Lymbery and Widdowson often share the title of “The Father of Forest”. Widdowson and Lindley were great leaders and footballers. Cobbin and Marsters were legendary chairmen that led the club through good and bad times. Cobbin was the longest serving chairman (28 years), while Marsters is credited with saving the club from extinction during the troubled war years. One thing has been constant and it has been the quality of their leadership, something that has never been absent in their 150+ years of operation.
The story starts all the way back in 1863 when The Rule Book of the Football Association was published, a book that changed the world. Football spread further than any world religion, to the point where FIFA has more members than the United Nations.
Football became the favored game in Nottingham less than a year after that influential book was published. In 1865 the Forest Football Club was established. The word Nottingham was added to the club’s name two years later. Red caps with tassels were distributed, starting an international tradition. The team chose Garibaldi Red, named after the popular Italian hero Giuseppe Garibaldi. He and the color became a symbol of nationalism, freedom, and romance. It is easy to say that Forest were leaders from day one.
The club has also been at the forefront of football technology, having been credited with many firsts, including the introduction of the whistles for referees, floodlights, electric lights, and the first-ever Premier League game on Sky television.
Sadly Forest has also been connected with tragedies over the decades. They were Manchester United’s first league opponent after the Munich Air Disaster and Liverpool’s opponent on a deadly day at Hillsborough. The club itself paid a heavy price in two World Wars with players like Samuel Grenville Roberts and Harry Race losing their lives in World War II.
The Nottingham Forest trophy case is a crowded one. The first great triumph has to be the 1898 FA Cup Trophy, a piece of hardware that brought “scenes of excitement as had never been seen before in Nottingham.” Similar scenes would unfold at later in the club’s history, but this was the start. Nottingham grew into a football city, actually the smallest city to ever provide a European Championship.
This book is a fantastic read, a great study of a great club and the way things should be done. Forest has always gotten it right and they certainly wouldn’t have lasted over 150 years without the right philosophy and belief system. It’s absolutely brilliant in every regard and, for once,a book actually does the club’s illustrious history justice.
