Bob Lucas: A lifetime in football
By Adam Summers

Friday 13th August 2010

BOB Lucas spent 32 years as Weymouth Football Club’s physiotherapist.

He played as goalkeeper for the Terras for two years and was man of the match in a third round FA Cup tie against Matt Busby’s Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Bob was born in Bethnal Green and grew up kicking a ball around the streets of east London. He left school aged 13 to work as a printer.

When he was invited to join Crystal Palace in 1942 his career was interrupted by National Service and he became a Royal Navy Radio Operator during the Second World War.

He played for Crystal Palace and Tonbridge before joining Weymouth in 1949.

When he joined the Terras he went to buy a pair of Football boots and met his future wife Jean at Cole’s sports shop in St Mary Street where she worked. They married in 1951.

They moved back to London but he stopped playing aged 28 when he suffered a ruptured lung.

He, Jean and their daughter Linda moved back to Weymouth and after spells as Crystal Palace’s representative he became a physiotherapist at Dorchester Town.

He was a physio for the Football Association for 12 years and in 1972 he returned to Weymouth FC, also working as a printer at Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.