Eric Evans Statue Unveiling
Eric Evans Statue Unveiling
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Executive Leader of the Council, Councillor Roy Oldham
“It’s a great thing again to be here to unveil this statue to one of our sons of Tameside, born in humble circumstances in Droylsden, he went on, he went on to do so much work, just not for rugby but for charity as well. He received the thanks from the whole of the country, by the Queen, for his MBE. A guy who, unlike what we’ve got today in the football world wasn’t a mercenary, where people now apparently sell themselves from team to team and work their way through their sport. Not Eric, a man who went through a war and became a teacher at Openshaw Technical College and was a great keep fit guy. Led his country through the times as Denton will well know and he was captain 13 times, all these sorts of things that make real men and this sculpture which has been done by our friends who have done quite a lot of them now across Tameside and I assure you and will continue to do them, it's not finished by any means yet. We’re going to make Tameside a place where people come to see our history in bronze with all the details with which we record our history. Not just a sportsman like in this case but our historical figures because we have as much history as any part of this country. We didn’t start in the 19th century with the industrial revolution, we started at the beginning like everybody else and we will portray it in that way. Today we’re going to demonstrate to you that we appreciate great men, in sport as well as history. Eric Evans is one of those and I’m so proud to be here at Aldwinians to do this unveiling today. I’m sure all of you will appreciate what is behind me under this very heavy red covering I’m told, which will take all these guys with these shirts on to get it off, we’ll see. So without any more to do, thank you for coming, I hope what you see you will appreciate, I’m sure you will. Thank you.”
Applause