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.As a hobby, at
a young age, my childrem became avid autograph collectors. They, and I, 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.