The Presentation to Tony Ingham on his 50 Years-Service to the R’s

QPR legend, Tony Ingham sadly passed away on this day, aged 85, eleven years ago.

Rangers signed Tony from Leeds United on 9th June 1950, for a fee that was said to be approaching £5,000.

Not only does he hold QPR’s appearance record, but he went on to become the Club’s commercial manager. He was alsothe Rangers secretary for a while and later joined the Board in 1981.

The following story comes from the reserve home programme v Fulham on 11th December 1954: ‘All the way from Starbeck, Yorkshire, last Saturday, came Supporters’ Club member No.538, Master Leonard Elgie, aged 14.

And being a Yorkshire lad, Leonard’s hero, not surprisingly, is Rangers’ captain Tony Ingham, who hails from the same area as our young member, and whom Leonard took a delight in watching when Tony was with Leeds United.

With manager Jack Taylor’s permission, and to the delight of young Len, we took him along to the home dressing room, where the players were getting ready to do battle with Torquay.

A little awe-struck, Leonard was introduced to our captain, who in turn introduced him to the rest of the team. In presenting Brian Nicholas, Tony quipped: “This is our goalkeeper for the afternoon Leonard, and any resemblance you see between him and a real goalie will be entirely imaginary!”

But young Len was quite impressed with our “substitute” goalie and as QPR finished with a good win the youngster’s happiness was complete, and it’s a sure bet that Leonard will remember his visit to Loftus Road for a long time to come.”

Then, over forty years later, when I was involved with the LSA, Len joined up and he told me that despite being ‘Yorkshire’ through and through, he had become a Rangers fan because of his connection with Tony and he then referred me to what was written about him in the programme.

So, when the subject of honouring Tony on his wonderful 50 years-service to the R’s came up at an LSA meeting, I put forward Len’s name as the ideal person to make the presentation.

Shortly after it was arranged with the Club that Len would make the presentation to Tony on the pitch prior to a home game.

I haven’t seen Len for quite some time, but I’m pleased to say that he’s a member of the Indy R’s Facebook group.

Steve Russell