It was easy to see why Fulham’s Directors were impressed by Vic Buckingham's application for the Manager’s job.
From 1932 to 1949 he had been a classy wing-half with Tottenham Hotspur and then won a reputation as a deep and original thinker as a coach with Oxford University and Pegasus (and an Amateur Cup win at Wembley) before cutting his managerial teeth at Bradford City in 1951.
After two years he jumped to the First Division and, in his first full season with West Bromwich Albion, the Baggies won the FA Cup and would have completed the double but for an inexplicable loss of league form in the closing weeks. From The Hawthorns he moved to Amsterdam and Ajax in 1959, steering his new club to the Dutch title in 1960. By 1961, he was back in Britain, with Sheffield Wednesday and the next stop, in January 1965, was a three-year contract at Fulham.
His first full season, 1965/66, looked like ending in relegation but was retrieved only when Dave Sexton replaced Ronnie Burgess as Coach.
The signing of a young Allan Clarke from Walsall was Buckingham's best piece of transfer business and his goals helped keep the Club clear of danger the next season.
But in 1968/69 the trapdoor opened.
When Buckingham left after three years, it was to be his last job in English football. He was briefly with Ethnikos in Greece and Spanish clubs Barcelona and Sevilla but by the early 1970s, his career was over. He died at Chichester in January 1995 in his 80th year.
