[Lord Snooty]

June 29:

David Steele was born on this date (though the book Huddersfield Town - a Complete Record by Terry Frost, has him down as July 29th) in Carluke, Lanarkshire in 1894.

He played for St Mirren and Bristol Rovers before coming to Leeds Road in 1922. He was signed by Herbert Chapman on the advice of his assistant Jack Chaplin, who had coached both him and Joe Walter at Bristol, both arriving in the West Riding at the same time. The Town directors forked out two and a half grand for the pair of them.

Steele was a wing half and scored his first Town goal just before Christmas 1922 in a 4-0 home win over the Arsenal. He was a regular over the next few seasons, winning three Championship medals as Town became the first ever Thrice Champions, but his goal against the Gunners was the only league goal he ever scored for Town. His only other two came in the FA Cup run of 1928, scoring in a 3rd round 4-2 win over Lincoln City and the first goal in the 4-0, 5th round win at home to Middlesborough. He then won a runners up medal as we lost 3-1 to Blackburn Rovers at Wembley.

He formed a formidable half back line up with Tom Wilson and Billy Watson in his seven year stint at Leeds Road, before his transfer to Preston in 1929. That was at the age of 35 and after one season at Deepdale, he retired.

He turned up again in 1936 as manager of Bradford Park Avenue after coaching abroad, taking control up to the start of the war and he got his boots on again, playing three times for them in the Wartime League. Whilst there, he helped develop the career of Len Shackleton, who would become one of the game's great entertainers.

He was appointed as Huddersfield Town manager in September 1943, following the departure of Ted Mangner, but kept on the day to day running of Park Avenue, doing both jobs simultaneously. And he won the Town a trophy, if trophies were being awarded, winning the Football League (North) First Championship of 1944, which ran from August to December, with a wartime record crowd of 17,253 turning up for the final game just before Christmas at Leeds Road as Town beat Newcastle 4-1. Willie Watson, son of Steele's former team mate Billy, scored one of those goals, as did Eddie Boot, Billy Price and Jimmy Glazzard, all famous Huddersfield Town names. There's more to read about Willie tomorrow.

When the war ended, David was still in charge of Town, but not Park Avenue, and the club was struggling. Despite him signing the famous Peter Doherty from Derby, Town struggled and when they only avoided relegation by one place (though 8 points clear), he resigned and went to work on his family's farm.

He wasn't out of the game for long though, becoming manager of that other Bradford team that plays at the Manningham Tip from 1948 to 1952. He became a pub landlord as well as a scout for the Town.

He died in 1964, aged 69.

Around about the time that Steele was packing in at Bradford City, Town signed Tommy Cavanagh, an inside forward, from Stockport County. He came to the club with new manager Andy Beattie from Edgeley Park in 1952.

Tommy was born on this date in 1928 in Liverpool and played for Preston during the war, being a team mate of Tommy Docherty, who he teamed up with later on at Man Utd. Like Tommy Doc, Tommy Cav was described as a colourful character.

He played 21 games for Town in 1952/53 as Town bounced straight back from relegation, scoring ten goals and sharing the inside forward slots with Willie Davie and Jimmy Watson. He scored his first goal against Southampton away and followed that by scoring a hat trick against Barnsley in a 4-2 victory at Oakwell.

He played throughout the three First Division seasons, but after relegation in 1956, he was transferred to Doncaster Rovers. That was followed by spells at Bristol City and Carlisle Utd, before his first stint in management at Cheltenham Town.

That colourful character got him into trouble at Cheltenham when he was sacked for swearing after complaints from some fans. Blummin' snowflakes!

He then had a stint as boss of Brentford and then a bit of coaching Nottingham Forest, before teaming up with the Doc at Hull City. Docherty landed the plum job of managing Man Utd in 1972 and he took Cavanagh with him as assistant.

They stayed up in that first season, but then got relegated by Denis Law. 

Our Tommy was still there though when they won promotion straight back and was also there when United won the FA Cup in 1977. After Old Trafford, he had a go at managing in Norway with Rosenbburg and then back to Lancashire with Burnley before retiring in 1986.

Sadly though, in 2002 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and died in March 2007, aged 78.