Over the years there have been a number of players whose first team career at Chester has failed to extend beyond a brief 90 minutes of league action. Players like Peter Donnelly, Phil Williams and Gary Tallon may not have made the impact of Stuart Rimmer and Grenville Millington but they remain part of the fabric of the club and have their own stories to tell. This is the strange tale of one of those lesser known Blues whose football career took an unlikely turn after leaving Sealand Road.
Goalkeeper Dick Howard played a single Football League game for Chester in the 1965/66 season. It proved to be an ignominious occasion as he conceded four goals against Bradford Park Avenue and was given a free transfer at the end of the campaign. There can’t be many supporters who recall the name and those who do remember the Wirral youngster will perhaps be surprised to hear what happened next.
Born in Bromborough in 1943 Dick came to Chester’s attention while playing for Chester College where he was studying on a three year teacher training course. Known as Richard or Richie in his Chester days he signed for the club in summer 1965, as cover for Dennis Reeves, and was seen as a good prospect. After playing for 45 minutes in a friendly at Colwyn Bay he featured in the Probables v Possibles Public Trial where he impressed Cheshire Observer football reporter Ralph Houdley who wrote: “A six footer and strong with it, Howard bought off a number of spectacular saves. A completely relaxed looking sort of character his reflexes were sharp and he earned deserved approbation for the decisive way in which he dealt with determined scoring efforts from Talbot, Metcalf, Durie and Morris” With Reeves firmly established as first choice Dick started the campaign in the reserves at Hyde where Chester drew 1-1.
At that time the Cheshire County League was being dominated by the increasingly strong north west non-league sides like Macclesfield Town, Altrincham, Wigan Athletic and Runcorn. Chester had failed to finish in the top half of the table since the 1958/59 season and the first team only just scraped past Wigan in the FA Cup. Unsurprisingly interest in the the Cheshire County League side had tailed off and attendances were regularly below 1000. As an example there were barely 100 spectators in the ground for the fixture against Winsford United so it was a difficult situation for a young goalkeeper. Dick appeared in 35 reserve game that season in a side that conceded 116 goals and he himself was between the sticks when New Brighton, Altrincham and Stafford scored five, Runcorn and Oswestry hit six and Wigan hammered in seven. His very last game saw Altrincham inflict a humiliating 8-1 massacre to clinch the title.
Dick seems to have had a mixed campaign at the back of what would have been a busy defence. When Chester beat Ellesmere Port the match report stated: “Towns failure to find the net resulted mainly from the excellent display by goalkeepeer Richard Howard who made several spectacular leaps across his goal.” Similarly, against Crewe in the Cheshire Senior Cup, he “played a great game in the Chester goal making a number of spectacular saves” and against Stalybridge Celtic he “had a splendid game, his handling of high crosses was first class.“
On the down side, against Witton Albion, it was reported that “he will persist on standing well off his line exposing himself to the lob. Several times he was fortunate to see such efforts just drop over the bar.” In the league fixture against Wrexham Reserves, he was at fault for one of the goals when he threw the ball to the inside left who scored and against Rochdale, in the Lancashire Cup, he dropped a 30 yard lofted shot over his own line.
In April 1966 Dick was given his only first team opportunity when Dennis Reeves was dropped for the Good Friday fixture against Bradford Park Avenue at the Stadium. Sadly it didn’t go well for the youngster as Chester slumped to a 4-2 defeat. Ralph Houdley, reporting in the Cheshire Observer, stated: “Making his league debut, Richie Howard did not inspire confidence and, with all the good will in the world, I cannot exonerate him for some share of the responsibility for the first two Bradford goals at least.” The following day Reeves was reinstated for the 1-1 draw at Doncaster Rovers and on Easter Monday the first choice keeper kept a clean sheet in a flawless display as Chester won the return game at Bradford by a single goal. Meanwhile Dick was back in the Cheshire County League and on the end of a 5-2 home defeat to Stafford Rangers.
Under the circumstances the fact that he was given a free transfer would have come as no surprise and having been released you would have perhaps expected him to follow the trail of many former Chester players of the 1950s and 60s by moving into the Welsh leagues. However this is where the story takes an interesting twist.
Having successfully completed his teacher training and earned a diploma in Physical Education Dick emigrated to Canada to take up a teaching role and reinvigorate his playing career. A keen student of the game he ended up playing for the Hamilton Primos before moving down to Rochester to play for the Lancers where he remained until 1971 apart from a short stint with Detroit Cougars.
Returning to Toronto he played for the Metros where his displays caught the attention of the national team and he won five international caps for his adopted country including games against USA and Mexico in the 1974 World Cup qualifiers.
In the 1970s Dick also became a PE teacher and director of athletics in Toronto and when he retired from playing, later in the decade, he utilised his coaching skills by becoming a coach for the Canadian national youth teams. Further advancement followed and in 1981 he became an assistant coach for the senior Canadian national team that just missed out on qualifying for the 1982 World Cup. From 1986 to 1992 he was technical director of the Canadian Soccer Association and also became a long-serving FIFA coaching instructor in North America.as well as a member of the FIFA technical committee.
At the same time as he was making a name for himself as a coach Dick also made the move into broadcasting where he became a Canadian Gary Lineker, First of all he created a show called “Road to Wembley” which received accolades for bringing football into the forefront in Canada. As a result of this he was given the opportunity to cover the 1978 World Cup in Argentina for BBC Canada and ended up regularly covering the premier international competition on television until 2014.
Quite a career for a player who conceded nearly 100 goals for Chester Reserves in his one season in the Cheshire County League.
Information on Dick Howard’s career in Canada from https://peoplepill.com/people/dick-howard and https://northernstartingeleven.com/peles-crazy-canadian-dick-howard-and-a-lifetime-of-soccer/
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