The 1961 FA Cup Final was the 80th final of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

. It took place on 6 May 1961 at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

and was contested between

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

and

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

. Tottenham won the match 2–0, with Bobby Smith and

Terry Dyson Terry Dyson (born 29 November 1934) is a retired footballer who played as a winger. Career Dyson was spotted playing football for the British Army during National Service After being demobbed in 1955 he joined Tottenham Hotspur from non-leagu ...

scoring the goals. Having already won the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

, Spurs became the first club to achieve the

Double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

since Aston Villa in

1897 Events January–March * January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City. * January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a puni ...

Road to Wembley

Tottenham Hotspur

''Home teams listed first. Round 3 Tottenham Hotspur 3–2

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

Round 4 Tottenham Hotspur 5–1

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

Round 5 Aston Villa 0–2 Tottenham Hotspur Round 6 Sunderland 1–1 Tottenham Hotspur :''Replay Tottenham Hotspur 5–0 Sunderland'' Semi-final Tottenham Hotspur 3–0

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

(at

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway station ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

)

Leicester City

''Home teams listed first. Round 3 Leicester City 3–1

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

Round 4 Leicester City 5–1

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

Round 5

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

1–1 Leicester City :''Replay Leicester City 2–1 Birmingham City'' Round 6 Leicester City 0–0 Barnsley :''Replay Barnsley 1–2 Leicester City (

a.e.t. Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...

)'' Semi-final Leicester City 0–0

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

(at Elland Road,

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

) :''Replay Leicester City 0–0 Sheffield United (

) (at

City Ground The City Ground is a football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest Football Club since 1898 and has a capacity of 30,445. The stadium was a venue when En ...

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

)'' :''2nd Replay Leicester City 2–0 Sheffield United (

) (at St Andrew's,

)''

Match summary

Leicester frustrated Tottenham Hotspur in the early exchanges but when full-back

Len Chalmers Leonard Austin Chalmers (4 September 1936 – 10 February 2014) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Leicester City and Notts County. Chalmers played for Corby Town before signing for Leicester City in 1956. Nicknam ...

damaged his right

leg A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element ca ...

twenty minutes into the match,''Wide World of Sports'' Highlights: 1960s – ESPN.com.
Retrieved 29 November 2011. Tottenham looked to capitalise. They were unfortunate to see Cliff Jones' goal disallowed for offside in the 38th minute and the first half ended goalless. The second half kicked off in the same vein as the first had ended until the deadlock was broken in the 66th minute. England striker Bobby Smith latched on to a pass from

, turned neatly and smashed the ball past

Gordon Banks Gordon Banks (30 December 1937 – 12 February 2019) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional caree ...

. The goal naturally lifted Spurs and nine minutes later victory was sealed, when Smith returned the compliment and crossed to Dyson to head home the second to complete the Double.

Coverage

The match was broadcast live by the BBC with live coverage to twelve other European countries. In the United Kingdom the match commentator was

Kenneth Wolstenholme Kenneth Wolstenholme, DFC & Bar (17 July 1920 – 25 March 2002) was an English football commentator for BBC television in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best remembered for his commentary during the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final; in the closing minu ...

, former player

Walley Barnes Walley Barnes (16 January 1920 – 4 September 1975) was a Welsh footballer and broadcaster. Whilst playing as a defender he featured for Southampton and Arsenal and captained the Welsh national side. Early career He was born in Brecon to Engli ...

was also pitchside with a radio cameraman to capture the atmosphere before the game and also interview the players during the buildup. He was called upon only once during the match itself to comment on the injury to Chalmers. Many other countries broadcast either a full delayed match cast or edited highlights. The telecast was shown in its entirety in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) on '' Wide World of Sports'' two

week A week is a unit of time equal to seven days. It is the standard time period used for short cycles of days in most parts of the world. The days are often used to indicate common work days and rest days, as well as days of worship. Weeks are of ...

s later on 20 May. The contest was the first overseas event to appear on the sports

anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a dif ...

. The Chalmers storyline was played up to the point that "Poor old Chalmers" became a familiar phrase among fans of the

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

. Almost all the television, radio and newspaper commentators predicted a comfortable Tottenham victory but in post game reports all agreed that Spurs had looked out of sorts during the opening fifteen minutes and it was only when Chalmers was injured that they began to dominate the game, again leading to cries for the introduction of substitutes in future. For their part Leicester were considered a little unlucky, though few reporters were willing to go as far as to say that the result would have been any different had the injury to Chalmers not occurred. Chalmers himself left the field with ten minutes of the game remaining, at which point Tottenham were comfortably in front and any likely chance of a Leicester victory had evaporated. He was unable to return to collect his loser's medal. The match was broadcast in black and white as a cup final special edition of the Saturday afternoon sports programme Grandstand however cinema viewers experienced a first when the traditional pre movie newsreels of both Pathé and Movietone broadcast their match reports in colour.

Match details

References

External links

Game statistics
at soccerbase.com {{Leicester City F.C. matches

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

FA Cup Finals FA Cup Final 1961 FA Cup Final 1961

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official atten ...