They shouldn't show any Bundesliga on FSW, the rights belong to GolTV and we usually get 3 or 4 games every weekend, plus an hour long highlight show on Wednesday nights.
I remember a lot, since I became a fan wathcing the 1980 European Cup from Italy. In that tournament, in the Holland Chechoslovakia game, he annouced that "the referee is Mr OK, from Turkey, spelled o-k...whether the players think he is ok we'll have to wait and see." To this day, my friends and I still refer to the ref as "Mr Ok". I also remember they had a tournament in Uruguay in 1980 for the 50th anniversary of the first world cup in 1930, between the then 6 WC winners. It was called the Copa del Oro. When the show came on the air, there was a beach scene in the backround, and Toby's voice comes on, "Welcome to Montevideo, and the Copa del Oro" The scene switches to a shapely gal in a bikini waking up the beach, to which Toby comments "Oooohhh, wonder if she's going to the game!"
Great memory! That opening sequence of the Copa de Oro was shown before each match and Toby always had to get in a remark on that lovely body. "England were invited but declined... luckily she didn't... and so Holland are taking their place." "It's really great to be here in Montevideo... especially when you have sights like THAT! The soccer's not bad either." One of the Globe Kicker issues had a little article on Toby and stated that he loved three things in life: "Beer, women and soccer. And not neccessarily in that order."
While SMIG was not my introduction to the Bundesliga (a visit to Hannover as an exchange student in 1973 was), it has a lot of great memories for me. I remeber watching as a student at Penn State in 1978, knowing I would soon be leaving for Germany and actually seeing some of the stadiums depicted. I actually attended 4 matches shown on SMIG in the spring of 1978--Duisburg, Frankfurt, and Stuttgart at Cologne and Braunschweig at Gladbach. The first match let to a humorous exchange between one of my classmates and her parents--they had seen the Duisburg-Cologne match on SMIG and suggested to her daughter that she attand a match. Her reply indicated that she had been at the match and that her parents hadn't looked closely enough at the TV! (We actually had a decent chance of being on as we were a group of 10 and were at the front of the section at midfield.) I saw a couple of the matches later that summer on reruns--it was odd to be sitting at home in Philly watching a match I had been to. They even used the Gladbach-Braunschweig match in a special broadcast showing how SMIG was done around the work with lengthy extract fromt that match in spanish! I was very disappointed when I saw the Galdbach match at home as I had been sitting almost directly behind Udo Lattek and the Gladbach bench in the second row of the stadium, and they *always* showed the coaches on the bench at the games--except that week. I sure wish I had a tape of that match (it unfortunately is not available from the chap who has so many of the other games available).
Yes.. I'm old enough to remember that show.. As well as the time when nobody had a color TV, the milkman, house calls from doctors and the ice man making the rounds in the neighborhood carrying the blocks of ice so people who didn't have refrigerators yet could keep their food cold..
Which reminds me of my favorite pseudo-Toby Charles quote of all time; I'm not sure he actually said this, it might have been an American comedian imitating Toby Charles: "oh my.....the fans are burning the stadium down....and who can really blame them?"
Re: High Wide and ...... Yep. I had the same feeling about them as a kid in Tampa. Nothing more enjoyable than watching the Rowdies beat the Cosmos. We also got Soccer Made in Germany in Tampa in the late 1970's. Soccer America, Soccer Digest, Soccer Made in Germany....pretty thin stuff to nurture young soccer fans back in the day. I never thought we would have so much soccer on TV as we do today. Or that print publications would be effectively replaced by something called "the internet".
Re: High Wide and ...... It's a big change--I mean I actually used to subscribe to Kicker as well as their Fussballmagazin (even got a letter printed in the latter) as that was the only way to keep up with the news over in Germany, except when my penpal would send me a sports page or two, and I was a long time subscriber to SA. Now I get my news from kicker.de--often as it is happening--and I watch matches live on GolTV instead of week-old taped condensed matches (and I even had German TV on satellite for a while). Replica shirts were almost impossible to get and were very expensive (still are ) and now I have game-worn BL shirts in my closet at home. Never thought any of that that would ever happen.
Re: High Wide and ...... The interview with Toby Charles is now live at http://www.epltalk.com/podcast and via iTunes. Please spread the word. It was definitely an honor to speak with Mr. Charles. He brings up to speed on what he's been doing lately, who his famous cousins were, his fondest memories from Soccer Made In Germany, how he found his way from Wales to Germany and much more from his great legend. Enjoy! Cheers, The Gaffer
Re: High Wide and ...... Did you personally interview him? Very, very interesting talk! Thanx. Btw: Mr. Charles has got a good taste concerning his fav Bundesliga club!
Re: High Wide and ...... DF what are your best memories at soccer made in Germany? I´m big fan of "soccer made in Germany" and love to watch old games from 70´s...
Re: High Wide and ...... I used to love hearing him say "Borussia Mönchengladbach" - it was like a fictitious word that meant "Soccer made in Germany".
This interview was fantastic. I only got to know who Toby Charles was during the last 2-3 years as I obtained many SMIG tapes featuring Toby Charles. So he came to Germany in 1960 as an English teacher. What I really don't get is why German soccer magazines like "Hattrick" or whatever it is called don't write a feature on this guy and the "Soccer Made in Germany" show in general - he and the show are still totally unknown in Germany, it is a great story that US soccer was actually boosted by this show back in the 1970s yet nobody in Germany has a clue about that. Could be such a great story. Actually, I contacted Hattrick about a year ago telling them about the potential for a great story there is, but guess what these pricks didn't even give me a reply.
Unfortunately you can't expect anything from a commercial broadcast station like DSF. Typical! Maybe there's a chance to contact Monika Lierhaus from the ARD "Sportschau" or even the "Aktuelles Sportstudio" at ZDF. I have to confess that I didn't know Toby Charles either.
Re: High Wide and ...... EXCELLENT! I owe my soccer obsession to Toby Charles and Soccer Made in Germany. I was really pleased to hear him sounding quite well. Great interview!
I just noted I got the name wrong - I meant "11 Freunde", the monthly football magazine (ten years ago there was "Hattrick", also a monthly football magazine). I mean a story like that of SMIG and its influence in the development of US soccer would be simply perfect for a magazine like "11 Freunde" (they did a special on the NASL earlier this year, hence I don't understand why they don't even consider researching something on SMIG).
I totally agree. You know the funny thing about the Toby Charles interview is that I really don't think that HE knows just how influential he and his show actually were. If someone were to write a story on SMIG and its influence on the development of US Soccer, the perfect lead in would be to first interview US fans (and perhaps coaches and ex-players?) of a certain generation who first got the "soccer bug" from watching SMIG. It would be a great story. "Oh, it's in the backathe net!"