Thanks for the sporting memories...

Mike Pye has been telling everyone how he used to live next door to the Manchester United and Northern Ireland goalie Harry Gregg – a survivor of the Munich air disaster.

In those days – the early 60s – footballers weren’t so rich or exalted as they are now, Mike says. So they just lived cheek-by-jowl with everyone else.

“He just lived around the corner from us. I used to go into his back garden to play football with him! He had these small goalposts there.”

There’s an impressed silence – broken only by the predictable jokes about how often Mike scored.

Then it is Chris McMillan’s turn. He’s determined to top the Harry Gregg story.

Remember Nobby Stiles? he asks. “I used to work with his nephew!”

Chris’s audience are less impressed than he might have hoped for. He presses on manfully.

Actually, no-one knew the lad was related to the great Manchester United and England midfielder, even though he was nicknamed ‘Nobby’ because of his surname, Chris says. “And then one day I said to him, ‘You’re not related to Nobby Stiles, are you?’ And he turned to me and said, ‘yes, he’s my uncle’.”

Chris still looks astonished all these years later. “He was 6ft 2in, a really good-looking lad!” he says. “You know Nobby Styles...”

Everyone around the table bursts out laughing.

Welcome to the regular Friday morning Sporting Memories session run by the York City Football Club Foundation.

Each Friday at 10.30am a group of “older” sports fans meet around this table to swap stories, pull each-others’ legs, and generally share their love of sport.

York City Football Club Foundation coach Joe Scarborough leads the sporting memories session

The aim, says Phil Smith, the football club foundation’s inclusion officer, is to give them a chance to get together in a place they love to talk about something they’re all still passionate about.

For some, their sporting days are past – although there are a few “walking footballers” here today. But the memories are rich, the enthusiasm for sport undiminished, and the laughter free-flowing.

Community foundation coach Joe Scarborough kicks off today’s session by quoting a famous Smiths lyric: “The sycophantic slags all say, I knew him first, and I knew him well”.

“That got me thinking, do I know anyone who is famous’?” Joe asks.

The answer is, yes. He went to school with Matt Crooks. The Rangers star, on loan to Scunthorpe United, scored a late winner last month as Scunthorpe beat League One promotion rivals Bradford City 3-2 – and that brought the memories flooding back for Joe.

He was in the same year as Crooks at school. He never knew him that well, he admits – but one time he did get him to ask a girl out for him.

And did it go well?

“He sent me a message: ‘I asked her. She said no’!”

There’s sympathetic laughter. And soon everyone is talking about their own memories of sporting heroes. Mike and Chris weigh in with their stories about Harry Gregg and Nobby Stiles’ nephew, then Richard Snowball has a great tale about the Yorkshire cricketer and left-arm spinner Johnny Wardle.

“He was a great bloke!” Richard says. “I remember once he came out to bowl, and he’d switched the cricket ball for an orange. It splattered all over the bat!”

Members of the sporting memories group gather in the Bootham Crescent stands after their session

The foundation’s own Sarah Stelling probably tops the lot, however, with her story about being at a Liverpool v Hull City match. She’d been chatting away to someone in the crowd, all the time thinking he looked vaguely familiar. “I turned to him and I said, ‘I recognise you, don’t I? I don’t know where from’.”

“I’m Kevin Keegan,” he told her.

Over the space of an hour and a half, and endless cups of tea and coffee, the talk ebbs and flows.

There’s talk of what it must be like to have had a famous parent. “Nigel Clough,” says Tosh Stokes. “He’s not a bad manager. He was a reasonable player. But he’ll always be in his father’s shadow.”

There’s talk about the pressures of the modern game, and the expectations heaped upon its stars.

And there’s talk about what makes for a real sporting hero. It’s not just about success on the field, but something more.

Jermain Defoe, for example, and his friendship with five-year-old Sunderland fan Bradley Lowery, who has cancer. “When he scores a goal and points at that little lad in the stand – tremendous!” says Roy Smallwood.

Sporting hero: Jermain Defoe with Bradley Lowery

And then there’s Rio Ferdinand, baring his soul about the death of his wife Rebecca and his worries about the effect on his children in the recent BBC documentary Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum and Dad.

“That was amazing,” says Chris McMillan. “He was just this ordinary guy, struggling to come to terms with it.”

“It will have helped so many people,” agrees Phil Smith. “When he joined that group (of other young widowers) and he was just opening up ... very powerful.”

“And when he left that group, he realised that they had come to terms with their grief, but he hadn’t,” says Chris. “It was incredible.”

It was the memory box, in which the star encouraged his three children to put memories of their mum, that really touched this group of fans, however.

“He wasn’t a celebrity, he was just a dad,” says Sarah.

A grieving husband and father, not just a celebrity: Rio Ferdinand

Inevitably, the talk at last gets around to what makes a great football manager.

There was Alex Ferguson, who got the best out of three generations of Manchester United players. “Part of it was about fear!” says Richard Snowball.

There was Brian Clough. “You will never hear a player who played for him say a bad word about him,” says Chris.

And, much closer to home, there was Martin Foyle and his ability to handle Richard Brodie.

“Martin Foyle was the only man who could get him to play!” says Tosh Stokes. “He got the best out of him – like Mills does with the players now!”

There was only one way this discussion was ever going to end, of course – with talk of York City’s prospects.

“So, are we staying up?” asks Joe.

There’s a general chorus of agreement. “Yes!”

The consensus view is that Mills, having overhauled an under-performing squad, has finally got the team playing the way it should. “He’s turned Vadaine Oliver around!” says Chris.

“The players look as though they want to play for York City,” adds Richard.

Turned a corner: Vadaine Oliver (left) on the ball

There’s a real sense of optimism around the table. This was before City’s stirring 3-0 victory over Braintree on Saturday, followed by their dispiriting 2-0 loss to Bromley on Tuesday.

Ultimately, however, whatever happens on the pitch for York City this year, the Foundation’s sporting memories group will continue, their love for the game and for their local club undiminished ...

• The York City Football Club Foundation’s sporting memories session are free to take part in. Just turn up at the 1922 Bar at Bootham Crescent at 10.30 on a Friday morning, and prepare to get talking.

Sporting memories is one of many activities run by the Foundation, which is York City's charitable and community arm.

Other activities include:

• in-school and after-school coaching
• holiday football fun camps
• City Tots, City Kickers and City Juniors children's teams
• an elite development programme
• walking football

To find out more about the foundation and its activities, visit yorkcityfootballclub.co.uk/club/community/ or call 01904 559508