It’s too easy to be a New York Yankees fan. (The same goes for perennial winners Manchester United—that juggernaut of English football that each season glibly stuffs its trophy cases). What these clubs have in common is massive worldwide support with smug followers and bandwagon jumpers alike. It takes much sterner stuff to support West Ham United FC, an unfashionable club that plays well enough to maintain its “sturdy middle-table” place in the English Premier League but hasn’t won a trophy since 1980-81. A typical season has “The Irons” (aka “The Hammers”) finishing 10th among 20 clubs.
Since 1904, “The Cockney Boys” have played their fluid style of football at the Boleyn Ground, in the working class East London borough of Newham. The 1966 World Cup-winning England side featured several West Hammers, including legends Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. In the 1970s, many punks carried the Hammers’ banner. One East End tradition was to blacken a pair of Doc Marten’s cherry red boots with shoe polish, allowing patches of the club’s dark red colors to show through. Astonishingly, since the club’s 1901 inception through 1989, the club has had only five different managers—12 overall—and 10 of them have been English. Some notable players have served the Hammers with style, including Carlos Tévez, Yossi Benayoun, Joe Cole, Julian Dicks, Paolo Di Canio and Trevor Brooking.
So how did I become attached to this homely club? As a youth in Florida I played “under-16” football with a club that had a sister-relationship with WHUFC, mirroring the claret and blue team colors on its kit. We were awful; I was awful—an awkward and shabby defender. But my loyalty to WHUFC ne’er waned (even during occasional relegation setbacks throughout its history). Expectations are never high, freeing one to follow the club’s fortunes with wanton abandon and little regret.
So, you can keep your silverware. My heart (but not my money) will forever be with West Ham. “Forever,” as the club anthem goes, “blowing bubbles/Pretty bubbles in the air…”