Alec Stock

Alec Stock (30 March 1917 - 16 April 2001) was an English footballer and manager.

Alec Stock was born in Peasedown St John and played as an inside-forward for Tottenham Hotspur, Charlton Athletic and QPR before the Second World War and guested for several other clubs during the hostilities. He joined Yeovil Town in 1946.

He came to prominence as the player/manager of Yeovil Town during a historic F.A.Cup run in 1949. They had thrilling victories over Bury and Sunderland, before losing to Manchester United in the fifth round. He later managed Leyton Orient (1949-1959), AS Roma, QPR (1959-1965) (general manager 1965-1968), Luton Town (1968-1972), Fulham (1972-1976) and AFC Bournemouth (1979-1980). He was also the assistant manager of Arsenal for 53 days during the 1955/1956 season and was a director of QPR (1977-1979).

It was perhaps Alec's time as manager of Queens Park Rangers where he is most fondly remembered. It was during his spell in the 1960's that coincided with the development of the club with chairman Jim Gregory. The team enjoyed unprecedented success in 1967 and 1968 winning consecutive promotions with the club reaching the first division for the first time and becoming the 1st third division team to win the league cup in 1967 beating WBA 3-2 in a come from behind win. Stock had a focus on youth bringing many of the team through the clubs youth system (including Frank Sibley, Tony Hazell, Roger Morgan, Ian Morgan and Mick Leach) as well as blending characters such as Rodney Marsh and Mark Lazarus into the set up.

He was the inspiration for the famous and hugely popular character, "Ron Manager", who was featured in the BBC comedy programme The Fast Show. Ron was developed and played by the comedian and actor Paul Whitehouse. The origin of Ron's style of speech, characterised by such sentences as, 'small boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts, you know, wasn't it?' stems directly from Stock's idiosynchratic syntax.

External links

• The Internet Soccer Database