All at Fulham were saddened to learn of the passing of Ken Craggs this morning.
A highly successful coach at the Club in the 60s and 70s, Craggs oversaw the development of a number of youngsters, and was part of the setup which led the Whites to the FA Cup Final in 1975.
Club Historian Alex White provided the following words on Ken:
Ken Craggs never played in Fulham’s First Team but made many appearances for the reserve and youth teams at Fulham. He moved to King’s Lynn in the summer of 1960 and later played for Folkestone, Tunbridge Wells United, Dartford and Hounslow, where he was the player-coach.
He joined Fulham on a part-time basis in September 1968, as youth team coach and scout, and became a full-time member of staff in the summer of 1976, running the youth team for a while. He found and developed many of the First Team players at Fulham during the 1970s. Ken was in charge of the youth set up that found such players as Tony Gale, Brian Greenaway, Les Strong, Steve Hatter, Tony Mahoney, Terry Bullivant, Micky Kerslake, Perry Digweed, and many others.
From being in charge of the youth side he was promoted to the post of reserve team coach, giving up his full time job outside football. He devoted all his energy to guiding and coaching his young stars during the daytime training sessions under both managers, Alec Stock and Bobby Campbell.
Ken was a popular coach and both players and officials alike respected him. He was honest and straightforward in everything he did.
In the photo at the top of this article, of the 1972 Fulham youth team, Ken is sat in the centre. The below photo was taken at Craven Cottage to celebrate the 40 year anniversary of our FA Cup Final team, with Ken seen on the far right.
