Watford FC legend Keith Eddy will always have a special place in Hornets’ folklore, captaining the club to its first ever league win: the Football League Division Three title in season 1968/69.
He arrived at Vicarage Road in the summer of England’s 1966 World Cup win, leaving his hometown club in Barrow-in-Furness as a 21-year-old to sign for manager Ken Furphy for the sum of £1,250. He had become disaffected with the game at Barrow and was contemplating giving up life as a footballer and becoming a milkman before Watford signed him amid strong interest from Brighton.
Keith quickly established himself in the (r)evolution under Furphy. An unflappable central midfielder and then centre-half, he became part of a trailblazing team that included Duncan Welbourne, Stewart Scullion, Mickey Walker, Tom Walley, Terry Garbett and Barry Endean; all of whom helped lead the club into unchartered territory... the Second Division and an FA Cup semi-final.
He played every game of the promotion-winning season: all 46 matches, scoring eight goals - most of which were penalties, an art he excelled at. Watford pipped Swindon Town to the title on goal difference, finishing three points ahead of rivals Luton Town (who missed out on promotion) with a squad put together at the cost of £56,000.
The following season, 1969/70, saw this progressive team reach the semi-final of the FA Cup. One of Keith’s biggest career regrets is that he missed the 1-0 Vicarage Road quarter-final win over the mighty Liverpool - captained by fellow Barrow-in-Furness boy Emlyn Hughes - and the 5-1 semi-final defeat to Chelsea at Tottenham’s White Hart Lane, both because of a knee injury.
Keith was arguably the club’s greatest ever captain - ahead of the likes of Cliff Holton, Sam Ellis, John McClelland, Robert Page and Troy Deeney. He wasn’t blessed with pace - the fans affectionately hailing him as ‘Steady Eddy’ as a result - but he more than made up for it in composure and command either at the heart of the defence or in the middle of midfield. He simply strolled through many matches, such was his natural flair for reading the game.
Scroll to 50:00 in the above video to see Keith Eddy being inducted into the Watford FC Hall of Fame in 2021.
He reluctantly left the club for Sheffield United in the summer of 1972 but did so as he just could not turn down the chance of playing in the First Division, and in doing so complete the full house of playing in all of England’s four tiers.
Keith was reunited at Bramall Lane with his mentor Furphy a year later when the latter took charge of the Blades. Watford had been relegated back to Division Three that summer. Keith finished top-scorer in his final season with six goals, such had been the struggles of a side now flying too high.
During his six seasons at Vicarage Road, he gave fans an education in the art of penalty taking; converting 18 out of 19 penalties, missing just one against Swindon in 1969.
He carried on his spot-kick proficiency at the New York Cosmos, who he joined in 1976 thanks to Furphy, assuming the duties from Pelé after the great Brazilian missed one, he explained in a recent ‘Golden Tales’ podcast, which can be heard below. Keith converted eight spot-kicks from eight attempts, captained both Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer and was named in the All-Star team.
He retired from playing in 1977, then managed Toronto Blizzard for two years before setting up the Tulsa Soccer Club in Oklahoma - a grassroots organisation that now boasts 100 teams.
With children and grandchildren spread out across the USA and elsewhere, he fell in love with the States and never left once he’d arrived. Home for Keith and wife Jacqueline has been Tulsa, Oklahoma, the city where he had such an impact on the growth of grassroots ‘soccer’.
Respected widely throughout the game, he always referenced his fondness for his success-filled years at Vicarage Road, while Watford supporters who witnessed him play rightly consider him the finest player to have ever captained the club - such was Keith’s influence on the unprecedented heights the club hit while he wore the armband.
Watford appearances (goals):
Football League: 239+1 (26)
FA Cup: 19 (3)
Football League Cup: 15 (2)
Total: 273+1 (31)
