Asa Hartford - From Poverty to Hall of Famer
Brilliant Baggie: Asa Hartford (pictured) is a legendary figure at West Bromwich Albion.
Asa Hartford grew up in Clydebank during the ’50s and early ’60s which came 10 and 20 years after the Clydebank blitz happened. At this time, Clydebank was on a rebuild and most people were working in Singer’s factory or on the shipyards.
It was no more than a dream for Hartford to reach the heights of becoming a professional footballer, let alone playing at two World Cup finals.
He said: “It was just as well I made it professional because my school grades were really poor - all I cared about was football.”
Asa started his youth career at Drumchapel Amateurs that already had a well-established name for itself by the time he joined; with many players that had already gone professional, he knew the standards he had to play to succeed. In the team he played at he can only remember two others that played professionally Paul Wilson of Celtic and Hughie Reed who he ended up going down south to join West Bromwich Albion.
He said: “There were a few teams that were looking at me and I thought I’ll just take the first one that offers me a trial.”
It would be Wolves that made the first contact with the chief scout, contacting the family and arranging a visit up to Clydebank to meet Asa and his family, but in the end, the scout had to call off. However, it didn’t take too long for him to get his big break when West Brom decided they wanted him and coincidently his best pal Hughie Reed at the same time.
At the age of 15, he wasn’t at all bothered leaving his family and friends as he knew he had to take this chance with two hands but he was very grateful for everything they had done to help him make it.
He said: “I was put in digs with Hughie. It was a big house but we weren’t allowed in the front room and it was strict so we packed our bags and got a train up to Glasgow just to be turned around by our dads and sent back down”
In his second professional game for West Brom, he came up against a Manchester United side that had the likes of; Denis Law, Bobby Charlton and George Best which amazed him coming up against some of the biggest names in world football. Despite this West Brom one that game 6-3 and Asa grabbed the first goal of his career.
He said: “Denis Law was a hero of mine growing up so to share the pitch with him was a dream come true – to add a goal as well made it a game I couldn’t forget.”
Keen Admirer: Hartford’s performances caught the eye of legendary Leeds boss Don Revie (pictured).
On the back of his performances for West Brom, he gained the notice of a certain Don Revie who was in charge of Leeds United, at the time one of Europe’s elite clubs. A deal was agreed and Asa was set to join the Whites and was told by the manager he’d be starting the game against Leicester.
The Saturday before the game everything changed for him as the medical staff found he had a hole in his heart. Which meant Leeds were no longer interested in keeping him at the club due to the implications that it could cause to his career.
He returned to West Brom to carry on playing in this time he only missed one game which is a great testament to his professionalism.
Asa said: “When I returned the players were making jokes about me being stuck here for the rest of my career.”
It was only a few months after that he earned his first call-up to Scotland and in April ‘72 he played against England at Hampden which was played in front of 119,000 fans.
He said: “It was an amazing atmosphere I remember Norman Hunter chopping Billy Bremner in two and they were team-mates!”
He played in two World Cup tournaments Argentina ’78 and Spain ’82.
“We felt great going into the ’72 Finals but the organisation wasn’t great and the hotel wasn’t nice – for training, we were on spare land behind the hotel.
“At the end of the ’82 World Cup Big Jock came up to me and thanked me, it was then I knew that my international career was over and my last game was my 50th against Brazil.”
Swansong: Hartford’s last international appearance would come for Scotland against Brazil in 1982.
He has since been inducted into the Scottish Hall of Fame which he was proud of because of how fierce the competition was for places during his career.
He Said: “My proudest moment was the 1977 win over England at Wembley - they were always special games that every player looked forward to and you could see afterwards what it meant to the fans.”