Ken Taylor is coming home.
And the three facets of the amazing Huddersfield man’s life – football, cricket and art – will be reflected.
The Tolson Museum in Dalton is housing Drawn to Sport, an exhibition by the 78-year-old, who played football for Town and cricket for Yorkshire and England as well as studying at London’s renowned Slade School of Fine Art.
It’s not just a life less ordinary, but a family less ordinary.
For Taylor’s elder brother Jeff, who died aged 80 in 2010, combined a career in professional football (he played for Town, Fulham and Brentford) with opera singing, training at the Royal Academy of Music and performing alongside Pavarrotti at Glyndebourne.
Once described as being “like gentlemen amateurs from the Edwardian age”, the pair came from a humble background, their father working in the textile trade, repairing looms.
The decline of Huddersfield’s historic industry is reflected in Taylor’s exhibition, with a number of his pieces based on photographs he took of mills being demolished during the sixties.
There are also drawings of some of those he played sport alongside.
Former teammates include international footballers Ray Wilson and Denis Law and cricketing greats Fred Trueman, Geoff Boycott and Brian Close, the inspirational captain of the magnificent Yorkshire side which included Taylor and won seven championships between 1959 and 1968 and the Gillette Cup in 1965.
Taylor has always praised Wally Heap, the headmaster at Stile Common School, for nurturing his sporting talent.
He first joined Town as an amateur in 1950, developing into a no-nonsense centre-back, then wing-half, who played 269 times – the first in a 3-1 top-flight win over Liverpool in front of 46,074 at Anfield in March 1954 – and scoring 14 goals before a £2,000 transfer to Bradford Park Avenue in February 1965.
There would have been more games had it not been for his cricketing commitments.
A Huddersfield League player with Primrose Hill, his Yorkshire bow had come aged 17 in 1953, and the right-hand opening batsman and medium pacer went on to gain his cap at 21 and play more than 300 matches for the club, who gave him a benefit in 1968.
He was in the England side at 23, opening the batting against India in the first Test at Trent Bridge in June 1959 with Arthur Milton in a match won by an innings and 59 runs.
They were times when many county cricketers could be found on the football field in winter, and both Milton (Arsenal, Bristol City and Gloucestershire) and former Town player Willie Watson (Sunderland, Yorkshire and Leicestershire) were double internationals.
MJK Smith played rugby union and cricket for England while Ted Dexter was only prevented by his cricketing commitments from playing golf for Great Britain in the Walker Cup.
Taylor, who received an England Under 23 football call-up but failed to make the side, made three Test appearances in all.
There was another outings against India in 1959, the second Test at Lord’s which the home team won by eight wickets on their way to a 5-0 series success.
Then, in 1964, a superb 160 for Yorkshire against Australia at Sheffield brought him a recall for the third Ashes Test at Headingley, which the tourists won by seven wickets (the other four Tests were drawn).
Taylor, who had spent the previous football season playing cricket in New Zealand, broke a finger, and his chance of further internationals passed.
According to renowned cricket writer Jim Swanton, he had the potential to be a good Test player, but “his cricket suffered from his career as a footballer giving him a shortened season and possibly somewhat diluting his ambition.”
Throw in his studies Taylor’s life was somewhat busy.
Having attended Huddersfield School of Art, he won his place at the Slade in 1956, training for his football alongside brother Jeff at Brentford and linking up with Town for matches.
It was a practice which perplexed Town’s football-obsessed manager Bill Shankly, with Taylor later recalling: “He didn’t like it when I was off studying or playing cricket, which he called a lassie’s game.”
When playing football (his last match for Bradford PA was during the 1966-67 season) and cricket inevitably ended, the art continued, with Taylor settling with wife Avril in Norfolk, for whom he played at Minor Counties level in the early seventies.
He combined teaching with his own work, 35 examples of which are on show at the Tolson through to September 14.
Taylor, who will attend the official opening of the exhibition on June 12 (although the public can view now), also has a piece currently on display at Huddersfield Art Gallery.
Tolson Museum opening times: Tuesday to Friday 11.00am to 5.00pm, weekends noon to 5.00pm. Closed Mondays.
Ken Taylor came through the Town ranks with future England World Cup winner Ray Wilson, but recalls it was touch and go as to whether his mate got a professional deal at Leeds Road back in September 1952.
“Ray was an inside forward when he started out on amateur forms, and while he was a talented young player, it was by no means certain Town were going to offer him a contract,” explained Taylor.
“But he got a big break when Andy Beattie, who was the manager at the time, organised a training ground match and there were a few players out injured.
“One of them was Laurie Kelly, the regular left-back, and Bill McGarry suggested giving Ray a go in defence.
“He never looked back and went on to become an England regular in that position and of course, play a big part in our greatest footballing moment in 1966.”
While Taylor ended his own career as a wing-half, he started out as a centre-back, and occasionally played up front.
His greatest game as a centre-forward came in the Second Division fixture against West Ham at Leeds Road in February 1957.
Town won 6-2 and Taylor grabbed four of his 14 goals for the club, with McGarry and Les Massie the others on the mark.
Taylor is one of four Town players to have also played cricket for both Yorkshire and England.
Willie Watson, the son of Billy Watson, one of the half-backs in Town’s legendary triple title winning team of the twenties, came through the Leeds Road ranks.
The winger was transferred to Sunderland in 1946 after 11 Town appearances and became an international in both his sports.
Midfielder Chris Balderstone was born in Huddersfield and scored 25 goals in 131 Town games before his 1965 switch to Carlisle. He also played for Doncaster
He made two Test appearances after leaving Yorkshire for Leicestershire and later became a leading umpire.
Arnie Sidebottom played 66 times in defence for Town in between signing from Manchester United in 1976.
His biggest match as a cricketer was in the Trent Bridge Ashes Test of 1985, his only England outing.
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