A much greater parity in spectator experience for able and disabled supporters is one of the most welcome advances made in football over the past half century. With provision for safe, accessible and comfortable facilities becoming increasingly standard, the modern game has a laudably progressive approach towards welcoming disabled and restricted mobility supporters to games these days.
It was not always so. Not very long ago disabled supporters were typically seen by clubs as an unwelcome burden to the extent that some of them – Luton Town being a high-profile and unapologetic offender – actively banned entry for wheelchair-bound fans under the spurious premise of ‘safety’. This story is about what was, in 1969, a well-meaning attempt by Huddersfield Town to give a day to remember to a 19-year-old disabled fan called David Tagg. Viewed through contemporary eyes, it’s a well-meaning attempt handled in a rather cack-handed manner that betrayed the widespread lack of understanding for and empathy with the needs of disabled fans.
David had sadly been bed-ridden for eight years and when his favourite club heard about his plight, they were determined to make his dream come true and entertain him at a home game. The problem was that wherever David went, his bed had to go too. Huddersfield duly arranged transport to pick him up half-an-hour before kick-off – a removal van. Now this was a different age of course, but ambulances equipped to carry beds existed in 1969 and considering the circumstances, one could surely have been requisitioned for the day. I shudder at the thought of David enduring a white-knuckle ride to the stadium, rattling around a windowless vehicle designed for moving wardrobes, not humans.
So once David arrived, more or less safe and sound, what provision had Huddersfield made in the stadium for their special guest? I might have guessed they created some space for his bed in or around the Directors Box perhaps, or maybe behind the dug-out so that David could listen in on the manager. And with West Yorkshire hardly know for its clement weather, a location under cover at the very least? It was none of these: David was wheeled out and deposited on the touchline, on his own, near one of the corner flags. With not even a Wagon Wheel to his name, David was left to fend for himself against the elements and wayward passes of Second Division hoofers. Whether players had to wheel him out-of-the-way to take corner kicks remains unrecorded.
The tale of David Tagg’s day-out at Huddersfield was reported widely at the time as a good-news story and, to be fair to Huddersfield Town, they had made an effort that few other clubs would have bothered to. The unintentional treatment of David as a piece of slightly inconvenient furniture hints at just how difficult life for the disabled fan attending football back then was – even when people were actively trying to be helpful.
It’s stories like David’s that cause you to really appreciate the work of the organisations that have battled so hard over the intervening decades to better the lot of the disabled fan in football. Please click on the banner below to visit Level Playing Field and see the fine work they do in this field.
