Sports Figure. Alfred Ernest Ramsey was the manager of the 1966 England football team, the only one (at the time of writing) to win the World Cup. He was born in Dagenham in Essex and meant to follow a career as a grocer, until the Second World War broke out and he joined the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. He played for his regiment against Southampton Football Club and, although the Army team lost 10-0, the manager of Southampton was so impressed by Ramsey's performance that he asked him to join his club, on amateur terms. In 1944, he turned professional. In December 1948, Alf Ramsey made his debut for England, playing against Switzerland at Highbury. He was to make thirty more appearances for his country. In the Summer of 1949, he was transferred to Tottenham Hotspur, who were then in the Second Division but who finished the next season as Champions of that League and, in 1951, won the First Division Championship in their first year in the top league. Also in 1951, Alf Ramsey married Victoria Welch. After his retirement from playing, he went on to manage Ipswich Town, then in the Third Division. He oversaw their promotion to the Second Division, their winning the Championship of that Division in 1961 and, the following year, the First Division Championship. Not only did this repeat Ramsey's achievement with Spurs eleven years earlier of winning the medals of the two highest divisions in successive years, it remains the only occasion in which a team has won the Championship in their first-ever season in the highest league. In 1963, Alf Ramsey succeeded Walter Winterbottom as manager of the England football team, in readiness for the World Cup Finals which were to be held in three years time. In the final, the first and only time it has been held in England, Ramsey's team were leading West Germany 2-1 with only a couple of minutes to go, when the Germans equalised. His words of encouragement during the interval before extra time were : "You've won it once. Now you must win it again." Which, due to a hat-trick from Geoff Hurst, they did, with a score of 4-2. The following year, Ramsey was knighted, and remained as England's manager until 1974.