May 30, 1979: Brian Clough's Revenge

May 30, 1979: Nottingham Forest Football Club win the European Cup, the tournament now known as the UEFA Champions League. It is the crowning achievement of their manager, Brian Clough. Less than 5 years earlier, Clough looked finished as a top-flight manager. Now, he was the boss of the Champions of Europe.

Clough was a native of Middlesbrough, in the North-East of England, and had starred as a striker for the hometown soccer team, Middlesbrough FC. Don Revie was also a Middlesbrough native, and had also starred as a striker, for Manchester City.

Both men subsequently played for Sunderland FC, ostensibly Middlesbrough's arch-rivals, and for the England national team -- albeit Clough only twice, and Revie only 6 times, as that period, the late 1950s and early 1960s, was when the forward position on the England team was dominated by Tom Finney of Preston North End, Johnny Haynes of Fulham, Bobby Charlton of Manchester United, and Jimmy Greaves of Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.

Both went into management at a young age, Revie due to declining skills, Clough due to a nasty knee injury in a game on Boxing Day 1962, one that probably would have been easily fixable today. Both took long-dormant teams out of the 2nd division of English football and into the 1st: Revie at age 33 with Yorkshire team Leeds United in 1964, Clough at 34 with East Midlands team Derby County in 1969, the year Revie's Leeds won the 1st division for the 1st time.

But there were significant differences between them, and Clough's failure to understand them led to his failure to properly understand Revie and the effect he had on his Leeds players. For Revie, 8 years older than Clough, the defining experience of his childhood was the Great Depression, and the result was that he did whatever he had to do to survive, even if that meant cheating. For Clough, it was World War II, and the result was a basic sense of fairness, which meant that not only did he not accept cheating, but he publicly condemned those whose who did, including Revie, his gifts to referees (the press called them "Don Readies"), the diving of Leeds Captain Billy Bremner, and the rough play of Johnny Giles and Norman Hunter.

In 1972, Clough guided Derby to win the League, beating Leeds for the title by 1 point. At 37, he was 5 years younger than Revie was for his 1st title. He was quoted as saying, "I wouldn't say I'm the best manager in the country, but I'm in the top one." But Leeds won the FA Cup. In 1973, as defending League Champions, Clough got them to the Semifinals of the European Cup, losing to Italian champions Juventus. This matched Leeds' best performance in the tournament, losing to Celtic of Glasgow in the 1970 Semifinal. But a dispute with management led Clough to quit Derby.

In 1974, with England having failed to qualify for the World Cup for the 1st time ever -- although the country hadn't entered qualification until the 1950 cycle -- the Football Association hired Revie as England manager. Leeds management hired Clough, who had been managing with Sussex team Brighton & Hove Albion in the interim. Both moves seemed like no-brainers on the surface: Revie was England's best established manager, Clough the country's best up-and-coming manager.

Both moves turned out to be disasters. England did not qualify for Euro 76, and before qualifying for the 1978 World Cup could be completed, Revie quit to take a coaching job in the United Arab Emirates, abandoning his country for money, shattering whatever reputation he had. England ended up not qualifying for the 1978 World Cup, either.

Clough tried to manage Leeds his way, thinking that, as defending Champions in 1974, working together, he could guide them to the 1975 European Cup, beating not just Revie's greatest achievement, and theirs, but also his own. But the players not only missed Revie, but chafed against Clough's way and his previous comments about them being cheats. He lasted only 44 days before being fired.

Nobody came out of it looking good. Somehow, new manager Jimmy Armfield got them to rebound from their poor start, finish 9th, and reach the Final of the European Cup, where they controversially lost to German champions Bayern Munich.

Clough was 39, but seemed finished. And yet, he was soon hired by Derby's East Midlands arch-rivals, Nottingham Forest. He got them promoted in 1977, and won the League with them in 1978, beating defending Champions Liverpool FC by 7 points. Included in this was a streak of 42 straight League games undefeated, a record that stood for 26 years.

Then he did something neither he nor Revie had yet done: Won the European Cup. As defending champions in that as well, Liverpool automatically qualified, but Forest beat them in the 1st Round. Forest then beat Greek champions AEK Athens, Swiss champions Grasshopper Zürich in the Quarterfinal, and German champions 1. FC Köln (Cologne) in the Semifinal.

The Final was held on May 30, 1979, at the Olympiastadion in Munich, Germany. Forest played Swedish champions Malmö FF. Clough had Peter Shilton in goal; right back Viv Anderson, the 1st black player to start for the England national team; dangerous forwards Trevor Francis and Tony Woodcock; and 2 Scottish midfielders who had starred for him at Derby, John McGovern and John Robertson.

Malmö decided to lay back in defense, and hold Forest off -- in more recent English football terminology, they "parked the bus." It worked until stoppage time of the 1st half, when Robertson came down the right side, sent in a cross, and Francis headed it in. Malmö never recovered, and never had a good chance to score, and Forest won, 1-0. (To this day, no team from any Scandinavian country has ever won the European Cup.)

Clough had made his point: He was now, among European managers, in the top one. They won the European Cup again in 1980, beating German team Hamburger SV in Madrid, Spain. Forest are the only team in Europe to win the tournament more times than they've won their national league.

Clough became known as "the greatest manager England never had." Why did the national team, despite all its struggles since the 1966 World Cup win, never hire him? He knew damn well why: "I'm sure the England selectors thought, if they took me on and gave me the job, I'd want to run the show. They were shrewd, because that's exactly what I would have done." In other words, the guys running the FA wouldn't have been running the show, and they wouldn't have been able to handle that.

Leeds United still dedicated a statue of Revie outside their Elland Road stadium after his death in 1989. But Clough, who lived until 2004, has 3 statues: In central Middlesbrough, and outside Derby's new stadium, Pride Park, and Forest's City Ground.

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May 30, 1979 was a Wednesday. American-style football was out of season. Hockey season had ended 9 days earlier, when the Montreal Canadiens beat the New York Rangers for the Stanley Cup. The NBA Finals were between Games 4 and 5, and the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Washington Bullets in Game 5 to take the title.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Sacrifice flies by Juan Beniquez and Bucky Dent, and a double by Mickey Rivers, in the top of the 11th inning made Ron Davis a winning pitcher in relief of Tommy John. Lou Piniella hit a home run, Thurman Munson went 2-for-5, and Reggie Jackson did not play.

* The New York Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Bill Lee pitched a 6-hit shutout. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-4. Pete Rose went 1-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie Stargell went 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk and 2 RBIs.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-2 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-4 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 3-for-4. Eddie Murray went 1-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Richie Zisk singled Al Oliver home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4.

* The Houston Astros beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-3 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 10-2 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Dave Winfield went 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and 5 RBIs.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 6-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the California Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-2 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Rod Carew went 0-for-3. Nolan Ryan outpitched Rick Honeycutt.