At school aged 16, I played football for Yorkshire Boys Senior Schools under 18’s, two years younger than most of the other players. This was with the likes of Jeff Clarke who went on to play for Manchester City. My coach was Eddie Beaglehole, who was very well known in the Doncaster area, and whose son Steve many years later went on to manage Doncaster Rovers. My working life started, when wrongly or rightly, I signed for my home town team Doncaster Rovers. Maurice Setters (ex Manchester United 1963 FA Cup winner, and assistant to Jack Charlton at the Republic of Ireland) signed me. My ex-boss and good friend Maurice is sadly no longer with us. I made my debut at the age of 17 years 3 months, at the old Belle Vue Ground against Torquay United on 3rd February 1973. Unfortunately I suffered a bad knee injury very early in my career, and it was only really diagnosed correctly after leaving the club. I have been privileged to play with some very good footballers, including Ernie Hunt (ex Coventry City) who was on loan at Doncaster, Mike Elwiss (who Bobby Charlton signed whilst he was manager of Preston North End), Graham Moore (ex Manchester United), Terry Curran, Peter Kitchen, Brendan O’Callaghan etc. I was also lucky enough to be at the club when local legend Alick Jeffrey was trying to regain his fitness, with a view of a comeback. Unfortunately it did not materialise. I was lucky enough to meet Malcolm Allison the Manchester City manager, together with his team of superstars in the away dressing room at Alick Jeffrey’s testimonial game in 1972 at the Belle Vue ground, plus Bobby and Jack Charlton etc from the International XI.
I have personally
collected autographs for over 30 years, which has been so rewarding. As a
hobby, at a young age, my children also became avid autograph collectors. They,
and I helping them, sent fan mail letters all over the world, mainly to film
stars, I took them to numerous football venues, and they went to the Wimbledon
Tennis Tournament for several years. I still remember to this day, how excited
the children were when they’d met Cristiano Ronaldo on many occasions. Even
being such a superstar, Cristiano always found time to sign autographs for children.
As a result, our home has boxes full of autographed material, which now my
children have flown the nest needs to go to a good home. All our autographs
have been obtained personally, or have been bought as presents from the most
distinguished of autograph dealers. The family have also spent many weeks in
California, and we’ve been lucky enough to meet many film stars at the Lone
Pine Film Festival, such as Olivia de Havilland, Ernest Borgnine, Angie
Dickinson, and Jack Palance, caught up with Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie
Reynolds at Miss Reynold’s Dance Studio in North Hollywood, together with many
other film stars at various conventions in the USA. I have also been lucky
enough to meet many Bond Girls, and many ladies from Hammer House of Horror.
I am only
listing a handful of varied autographs at any given time from an enormous
collection, so if anyone has a specific request, I can maybe help you out. We
also have some unique one off items, which are probably more suited for a large
Auction House.
So by buying
any autograph from the McLuckie family, you can be absolutely sure it is
genuine, and it has either been obtained personally by myself, son or
daughters. I make the bold, but confident challenge to anyone out there, “I
dare you to prove differently”.
Many people will not give out autographs without adding a name, so if I have a namesake out there, whereby I have a large inscribed selection to “Bob”, please enquire as they would make a wonderful gift for someone. What people forget, or are maybe not even aware of, the majority of the Classic Hollywood Film stars always added a dedication to a photograph. Proper autograph collectors generally like that, as in many ways this gives the autograph added provenance. I personally own lots of Classic Hollywood Film Star autographs, which have been dedicated to a person.