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Case might be work adding this to the copy:
Masses of thanks to Simon B for this email that goes some way to perhaps giving us an indication of what the Tottenham Whisper is all about. If you’re wondering yourself, check out Episode 4 of The Fighting Cock podcast and 'The Tottenham Miscellany' by Martin Cloake and Adam Powley.
Masses of thanks to Simon B for this email that goes some way to perhaps giving us an indication of what the Tottenham Whisper is all about. If you’re wondering yourself, check out Episode 4 of The Fighting Cock podcast and 'The Tottenham Miscellany' by Martin Cloake and Adam Powley.
Just thought I'd add to this. I did contact the main site with this info earlier before I realised there was a thread for the whisper, and it is probably better suited here
I contacted the club's official historian over this and whilst his reply wasn't entirely revealing, it does add some meat onto the bones of what Simon B messaged earlier.
It seems that, at that time, the Northern clubs (who were the big, professional ones after all) had huge, loud support, most notably Sunderland's famous "Roker Roar".
Apparently though there was a lot of criticism of the Southern clubs' supporters and there are suggestions in newspapers of the period that the support for London clubs at that time was not so enthusiastic either.
I always thought Spurs fans were among the more rowdy, but perhaps this was not always the case.
The "Tottenham Whisper" is, according to Andy Porter, mentioned 5 times in the club handbooks of 1897/98-1901/2. In the 1900/01 handbook there is a specific request that our supporters are more vociferous in our encouragement of the players, mentioning how the Southampton and Reading fans "Let themselves go in a way that seems to give impulse to the players. In the North it is even more marked"
Andy reckons that there might even be a correlation between the "Roker Roar" and the "Tottenham Whisper", perhaps a sarcastic retort but maybe even an actual appraisal from an unimpressed, probably Northern, critic
It does appear that the true meaning behind it has been lost over time, however I'm wondering whether there's a reason for that. If it was a sarcastic badge of honour, much like "Yids", it would've lasted a long, long time but I wonder if this was a criticism once levied at us which the handbook was reminding us of in order to put it right.
As such, our consequent raucous support has disposed of the "Tottenham Whisper" to the extent it has been forgotten.
I contacted the club's official historian over this and whilst his reply wasn't entirely revealing, it does add some meat onto the bones of what Simon B messaged earlier.
It seems that, at that time, the Northern clubs (who were the big, professional ones after all) had huge, loud support, most notably Sunderland's famous "Roker Roar".
Apparently though there was a lot of criticism of the Southern clubs' supporters and there are suggestions in newspapers of the period that the support for London clubs at that time was not so enthusiastic either.
I always thought Spurs fans were among the more rowdy, but perhaps this was not always the case.
The "Tottenham Whisper" is, according to Andy Porter, mentioned 5 times in the club handbooks of 1897/98-1901/2. In the 1900/01 handbook there is a specific request that our supporters are more vociferous in our encouragement of the players, mentioning how the Southampton and Reading fans "Let themselves go in a way that seems to give impulse to the players. In the North it is even more marked"
Andy reckons that there might even be a correlation between the "Roker Roar" and the "Tottenham Whisper", perhaps a sarcastic retort but maybe even an actual appraisal from an unimpressed, probably Northern, critic
It does appear that the true meaning behind it has been lost over time, however I'm wondering whether there's a reason for that. If it was a sarcastic badge of honour, much like "Yids", it would've lasted a long, long time but I wonder if this was a criticism once levied at us which the handbook was reminding us of in order to put it right.
As such, our consequent raucous support has disposed of the "Tottenham Whisper" to the extent it has been forgotten.
according to Andy it does, yeah - Sunderland were at Roker Park since 1897, so the date just about tallies up
like I say tho, nobody really seems to know for sure & it could be either good or bad, but it is almost certainly linked to some sort of criticism, either directly at Spurs or, more likely in my opinion, London clubs in general.
What I do like tho, & is typically "Spurs", is we've taken that criticism and used it positively. If it was an actual, valid criticism, it certainly didn't stand the test of time. In fact, it barely lasted at all!
1 thing worth saying tho is that when I researched the clubs early years in the old, amateur Southern Leagues, our support was often commented on as being amongst the most lively, and certainly the largest, of the southern teams. It was 1 of the main reasons we moved off of the Marshes and into Northumberland Park, because there had been run-ins with "hostile" fans on matchdays &, in the 1901 cup final, we brought a staggering amount of fans along with us considering we weren't even in the top flight. There were about 110,000 fans crammed into Crystal Palace for that 1st game and the vast majority were Spurs
It is also 1 of the main reasons those slimey South London urchins moved onto our patch - they, like most other London teams, were jealous of the support we had and the gate revenues we were generating and they wanted a slice of our pie. W4nkers
like I say tho, nobody really seems to know for sure & it could be either good or bad, but it is almost certainly linked to some sort of criticism, either directly at Spurs or, more likely in my opinion, London clubs in general.
What I do like tho, & is typically "Spurs", is we've taken that criticism and used it positively. If it was an actual, valid criticism, it certainly didn't stand the test of time. In fact, it barely lasted at all!
1 thing worth saying tho is that when I researched the clubs early years in the old, amateur Southern Leagues, our support was often commented on as being amongst the most lively, and certainly the largest, of the southern teams. It was 1 of the main reasons we moved off of the Marshes and into Northumberland Park, because there had been run-ins with "hostile" fans on matchdays &, in the 1901 cup final, we brought a staggering amount of fans along with us considering we weren't even in the top flight. There were about 110,000 fans crammed into Crystal Palace for that 1st game and the vast majority were Spurs
It is also 1 of the main reasons those slimey South London urchins moved onto our patch - they, like most other London teams, were jealous of the support we had and the gate revenues we were generating and they wanted a slice of our pie. W4nkers