HISTORY OF T&MUFC
CLUB LEGENDS
Bob Parker
Bob was a fantastic centre forward who came to live in Mitcham from Scotland at an early age and proceeded to score over 500 goals for the club.
He was a modest lad and undecided whether to play cricket or football eventually deciding to do both. As a footballer he was good in the air and his turn of speed was very deceptive. He broke into the Tooting & Mitcham first team in 1941 with the Second World War still in progress.
Tooting were in the South Eastern Combination League which was a War time competition consisting of between eight and eleven teams most of the clubs were localised. The other fixtures were made up of friendlies.
Bob would score on his debut in a 5-3 home loss to Met Police. He would obtain League Winners medals in season’s 1942-43 and 1943-44, plus the Athenian League title in 1949-50.
He won the London Senior Cup in 1943 when Dulwich Hamlet were beaten 5-4 Parker with two goals and in 1949 Bromley were defeated 3-2 (aet) Bob netted once. The Surrey Senior Cup was lifted in 1944 when we accounted for Epsom Town 3-1 Bob Parker bagging a hat-trick and the following year we saw off Sutton United 4-2 in the County Cup Final with Bob not on the scoresheet. He also had several runners up medals in both league and cup. He was capped for London, Surrey and the Athenian League. Bob would come out of retirement to play in the Surrey Senior Cup Final in 1953 and scored both our goals as we upset the formbook to beat our near neighbours Wimbledon 2-1. He never played for the club again. Previous to that Bob played in our FA Cup First Round tie at Millwall in November 1948 which was lost by a goal to nil and at home to Brighton & Hove Albion in the same round of the competition at Sandy Lane scoring one of our goals in a narrow 2-3 defeat in November 1950.
The number of goals he scored for the Club will probably never be beaten. His brother Alan also played for Tooting & Mitcham United for many years.
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Article written by Ian Bullock TMUFC Members Club Vice President
