Born: 20 September 1922

Born in: Garston, Liverpool

Died: 25 December 2004

Other clubs: None

Signed from: Local

Joined Liverpool: Amateur 1937 Professional October 1939

Debut: 30 Jan 1946

Final appearance: 19 Dec 1953

Debut goal: 06 Dec 1947

Last goal: 06 Dec 1947

Contract until: 30.06.1954

Wartime: Apps / Goals: 56 / 0

League: Apps / Goals / Assists: 158 / 1 / 4

All Competitions: Apps / Goals / Assists: 168 / 1 / 4

Player Profile

Garston lad Spicer went to Heath Road school in Allerton where he excelled in football and cricket. He was the captain of the Liverpool Schoolboy side which won the English shield in 1936/37 and as he said himself: "I had youthful longings to make football my living, though I hardly dared hope ever to appear in Liverpool’s first team." He signed a professional contract with Liverpool in 1939 but World War II delayed his proper debut for the first team. He joined the Royal Marines and the lieutenant had many interesting experiences, of which the most memorable was an encounter with a German footballer, as he wrote in a letter to his mother in 1944. He told her how a German medical corps sergeant-major surrendered to him, shouting: 'Don’t shoot. I am a soccer international!' “He spoke perfect English and said that he was a professional footballer back in the Fatherland and had played against several English touring clubs,” wrote Spicer. "He mentioned many well-known English players including Callaghan of Aston Villa, against whom he said he had played in 1937, and with whom he corresponded for a time. We had quite an interesting chat while he was being patched up, and you would have thought we were the best of friends.”

Spicer's dream finally came true on the opening day of the first post-war season, 1946/47, although he had played in an FA Cup tie against Bolton Wanderers the previous January, when regional leagues were still in operation. Spicer was still only 23 and made ten appearances as Liverpool won the League Championship, as either left or right-half, but needed four more games to receive a winner's medal. In the following couple of seasons he mainly got a chance if either Phil Taylor or Bob Paisley were out injured. Spicer made his long-awaited breakthrough in the 1949/50 season when left-back Ray Lambert was switched to the right enabling him to take Bill Shepherd's place on the left. Spicer was a firm fixture in the team that contested the club's first Wembley cup final in 1950 and finished ninth in 1951.

Spicer's career took a tragic turn when he suffered a dreadful leg fracture in a pre-season game against Malmö in Stockholm on 16 May 1951 which caused him to miss the complete 1951/52 season. The tough-tackling Spicer, who was equally comfortable on the right side, fought back bravely from his injury and made 28 appearances in the following season. The 31-year-old was finally having a trouble-free run in the side in 1953/54 when he arrived at Old Trafford on 19 December 1953. Liverpool's new 'keeper, Dave Underwood, was making his debut. "We didn’t know anything about him [Underwood] and after about 20 minutes I can remember Roger Byrne, who was outside-left that day, going down the wing," Spicer said. "I went with Tommy Taylor. Roger hit this ball, hard and low across the penalty box and I went for the ball expecting our goalkeeper to come out and drop on it. That’s what our other goalkeepers would have done and that’s what I thought Underwood would do. Instead he just took a woof at it with his boot, missed the ball and hit me.” Bob Paisley, who was playing that day, recalled: “That mighty blow shattered Ted’s left leg. It disintegrated just the way a piece of dead wood does if you tread on it. In all he had 19 fractures and he was in and out of hospital for the next 12 months having it set and reset and it took more than 12 months to get over it and to start to walk again.” Suffice to say Spicer never played professional football again and was indeed lucky to walk properly. 

Spicer was granted a testimonial match on 19 September 1955 where a combined Liverpool/Everton team played a Lancashire XI which attracted 41,266 spectators where Spicer pocketed £4,500. Testimony indeed to the high esteem in which he was held by colleagues and supporters alike. Later Spicer became a football correspondent in Wales for the Liverpool Daily Post and ran a pub near Ruthin, in North Wales.

"One of the outstanding memory of my football life was the sight from the Queen Mary as we sailed into New York harbour for the American tour in 1946. That was something never to be forgotten," Spicer said in 1950.