Graham Taylor, OBE (15 September 1944 – 12 January 2017) was an English football player, manager, pundit and chairman of Watford Football Club. He was the manager of the England national football team from 1990 to 1993, and also managed Lincoln City, Watford, Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, Taylor grew up in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, which he regarded as his hometown. The son of a sports journalist who worked on the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph, Taylor found his love of football in the stands of the Old Show Ground watching Scunthorpe United. He became a player, playing at full back for Grimsby Town and Lincoln City.
After retiring as a player through injury in 1972, Taylor became a manager and coach. He won the Fourth Division title with Lincoln in 1976, before moving to Watford in 1977. He took Watford from the Fourth Division to the First in five years. Under Taylor, Watford were First Division runners-up in 1982–83, and FA Cup finalists in 1984. Taylor took over at Aston Villa in 1987, leading the club to promotion in 1988 and 2nd place in the First Division in 1989–90.
In July 1990, he became the manager of the England team. England qualified for the 1992 European Championships, but were knocked out in the group stages. Taylor resigned in November 1993 after England failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States.
Taylor returned to club management in March 1994 with Wolverhampton Wanderers. After one season at Molineux, he returned to Watford and led the club to the Premier League in 1999 after back-to-back promotions. His last managerial role was manager of Aston Villa, to which he returned in 2002. He left at the end of the 2002–03 season. Taylor served as Watford's chairman from 2009 until 2012 where he continued to hold the position of honorary life-president.
In recognition of Watford's most successful era, the East & West stands at the Vicarage Road stadium were named after Sir Elton John & Graham Taylor respectively, with the latter formally being renamed on 29th November 2014. Sadly, Graham died of a heart attack on the morning of 12 January 2017. His funeral was held on 1 February at St Mary's Church, Watford with many football figures in attendance.
In order to claim this cache, you must achieve the following criteria:
1. You must take a photo of yourself with the statue and post it with your log. If you are camera-shy, feel free to use anything that shows the date and your caching name instead of your face. For example, this could be written on your hand or a piece of paper in front of the statue.
2. Via my profile, email or message me the answer to the following question: What is the full quote on the rear of the statue? Please do not post the answer in your log.
Any logs not supported by the required information within a reasonable timescale will be deleted.
Please note that parking restrictions apply at gz, although at quiet times you will find spaces on nearby side roads. On match days the area is obviously very busy and Vicarage Road is closed to traffic for periods before & after the match. There are, however, plenty of public car parks are available around the town centre.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.