When debates rage over who was the greatest ever QPR manager, one name is always towards the top of peoples lists. Alex Stock has to go down in history as one of the greatest ever QPR managers and his time at QPR saw the club rise from a lower league side into one playing in the top division and winning the clubs first and so far only major trophy.

Alec was born in the West Country in 1917 where his father was a miner. His family moved to Dartford in Kent after the General Strike in 1926 where he gained a scholarship to the local grammar school, which was the only route to anything other than a basic education for a working class boy at that time.

As a child he dreamed of playing first class cricket or Rugby but like many children of that era his future was decided by the War. He began playing football seriously in as a teenager for village side Wilmington as a centre-forward before being signed as an amateur by Tottenham Hotspur.

He worked as a banker whilst on the books for Tottenham before being signed by Charlton as a professional in 1936. Alex struggled to get into the first team so moved across London to have his first spell at Queens Park Rangers.

At the time QPR were in the Third Division South and were doing reasonably well on the pitch finishing 4th in 1936 and 9th in 1937. Alex played 30 times for QPR before he broke his ankle in his final game for Rangers. His broken ankle was the last thing on his mind though soon after when like so many his life was changed by World War 2.

Alec joined up with a commission and was promoted several times during the war. It was here where he developed his leadership skills, which were to serve him so well in an outstanding football managerial career. In 1944 he was badly wounded when the tank he was commanding was blown up at the battle for Caen. With several pieces of shrapnel left in his body Alec's war was over and he was sent to Wales to recover in the care of his future wife Marjorie.

The injuries sustained in the war meant any chance to return to playing professional football was unlikely so he tried to get into football management. His first job is perhaps his most famous as he fought off competition to take over as Yeovil Town player/manager.

Alec changed things quickly at Yeovil switching to a 4-4-2 system that had never been used before as Alec quickly showed the kind of forward thinking that so few managers of that era were capable of.

With the chaos that followed after the war getting a settled side or even completing the fixture list was problematic. The season of 1945-46 was only a partial one, and the 1946-47 season was not completed either but after a few disappointing seasons, Alec set about re building his squad in 1948 with dramatic results.

A poor start to the following season almost saw Alec sacked as Yeovil manager before he brought the name of Yeovil Town into the minds of every football fan in the country. Yeovil went on an unforgettable FA Cup run. They got through the qualifying rounds to beat Romford in the First round proper.

Weymouth were beaten in the second round before they faced Bury and the cup dream seemed all set to end. Yeovil pulled off an upset though beating their opponents 3-1 and thousands of Yeovil fans refused to leave the stadium until Alec spoke the fans after the match.

The next round saw them face Sunderland as they bid to be the first non-league side to ever beat a team in the top flight. Alec Stock used what is now refereed to as mind games as he talked up the famous slopping pitch at Yeovil so much so that Sunderland players were paranoid about the game for weeks beforehand.

He refused to let Sunderland train or practice on the pitch in a bid to rack up the tension of their illustrious opponents. Alec found out that the referee for the match was a clergyman so he ordered his players not to swear during the game. This showed the amazing attention to detail that Alec was going into in his managerial career.

Alex actually scored the opening goal against Sunderland but an equalizer took the game to extra time. Yeovil took the lead to set up an amazing shock and they held on, as one of the greatest cup upsets ever was complete.

Yeovil went on to face Manchester United in front of 81,565 fans, which set Yeovil up financially for the next few seasons. Man Utd went on to win the game but the name of Yeovil and Alec Stock was secured in football history.

Alec had a glorious time at Yeovil but in 1949 he moved on to take over at Leyton orient. He worked his magic at Orient taking the London side to the quarter finals of the FA Cup where they lost to Arsenal and they managed the last eight again two years later where they lost to Port Vale in a game they were expected to win. After winning the third division title in 1959 he had a short spell at a coach at Arsenal and Roma before being appointed manager of Queens Park Rangers in the summer of 1959.

Rangers needed someone to turn the club around with the club looking to be in a state of terminal decline. Rangers were lucky to avoid relegation to the fourth division that season so Alec had a huge job on his hands to succeed at QPR. He quickly won the fans and players over with his enthusiasm and his vision for the future of QPR.

Alex won his first game in charge of QPR beating Swindon 2-0. Stock made a few signings in the summer with the most significant being a striker by the name of Brian Bedford from Bournemouth. Bedford went on to become one of the clubs all time goal scoring legends and he got his first goal in Alec’s third game in charge, a 4-0 win over Chesterfield. Bedford went on to score 170 goals in six years at QPR proving what a shrewd judge of a player Alec Stock could be.

His first full season at QPR saw Rangers start well. We were in the top three for the first half of the season, an amazing turn around from the dire position the team were in before Stock’s arrival. Ranger’s away form though was poor and an 8th place finish at the end of the season brought much hope for the future.

Rangers returned to wearing blue and white hoops the following season as the first choice home kit and Alex Stock moved to help Brian Bedford out by signing Mark Lazarus from Leyton Orient. Rangers got their biggest ever win in Stock’s second season in charge, beating Tranmere 9-2 at Loftus Road. Stock had given Rangers the most prolific strike force in the league but it still wasn’t enough to gain promotion as Rangers finished 3rd after a superb season in which the team scored 100 goals in all competitions.

Stock was creating something special at QPR and the pride among supporters was being restored after some disappointing years. Rangers were favorites to go up in the 1962/63 season and had a storming start scoring 39 goals in the first 13 games.Things were looking great but star winger Mark Lazarus was sold to Wolves and Stock’s QPR fell off the pace a little.

Lazarus returned to QPR within just a few months and the team went on a great run losing just one of the last sixteen games of the season. Again it was not enough though and Stock’s QPR finished 5th scoring a record 111 league goals in the season, a record which still stands today.

Stocks signing of Brian Bedford had paid off as the striker grabbed 39 goals that season including six hat tricks. Stocks QPR were a fantastic team to watch with plenty of goals and exiting football but promotion was the manager’s aim and after three years he still hadn’t achieved it.

After a good start to the 1962/63 season the club moved back to the White City stadium in a bid to help the club move forward. Stock believed the extra money the move would bring would enable him to sign more players. Stock had a vision to turn the White City stadium into a grand stadium accommodating a variety of Sports and leisure activities like the complexes seen at Barcelona and Madrid. It was a vision well ahead of his time but the move didn’t work out.

Attendances had hardly improved and results were not as good as at Loftus Road. Rangers finished just 13th that season and after ten months moved away from White City back to Loftus Road. The move had set Rangers back a few years as attendances began to fall and Rangers suffered a few years of mid table mediocrity after promising so much in the early 1960’s.

Stock had always been known for his infectious enthusiasm but even Stock was beginning to get down about his failure to get QPR promoted and it seemed the club would be stuck in division three for life.

Then in 1964 Jim Gregory arrived on the scene to take over as Chairmen at QPR. Stock quickly regained his enthusiasm claiming that Gregory was “The spirit of the club”. Stock rebuilt the team and began to dream again of promotion. Youngsters were brought in who would serve the club so well in the future. Players like Dave Clement, Tony Hazell, The Morgan Twins, Ian and Roger, Frank Sibley, Gerry Francis and Ian Gillard.

Over the next three years Stock’s QPR produced six England youth internationals which was a remarkable feat for a club in the third division. The 1965/66 season gave Stock the chance to invest in his team. Les Allen joined from Tottenham and Jim Langley from Fulham. Rangers got off to a terrible start though losing 6-1 to Brentford at Griffin Park and some fans began to call for the manager’s head. Jim Gregory stood by his man and results were mixed as Stock looked to bring in some of his new young players and some of his new signings.

The team then went eleven games without defeat including a 1-0 win over Brentford and hopes of promotion were once again raised. Gregory gave Stock more money to bring in another player to replace the goal threat of Brian Bedford. Stock went out and signed Rodney Marsh from Fulham for just £15,000. This signing was the one which would push Stock’s team over the line and finally achieve his dream and much, much more.

Alec saw great potential in Rodney Marsh and built the team around the talented number ten. Marsh made his debut a few weeks after signing and scored twice in a 6-1 win over Millwall. QPR had a new hero and Alex Stock had a player better than any in the third division. Rangers finished third after a stunning end to the season but the following year would be one of the best in the clubs history.

Alec Stock felt that the 1966/67 season would be a bit special and his team went off like a train and walked away with the third division title. Rodney Marsh and Les Allen combined with a great partnership likes the Morgan twins completed a brilliant attack for Rangers.

Stock finally achieved his vision to take QPR up to the second division as his team scored 103 goals and finished twelve points clear of their nearest rivals. Promotion was achieved for Stock and QPR and that was not all. A league cup run defied the critics as just like his Yeovil side years earlier he found the cup magic to get QPR to the semi finals.

For a third division team to get that far seemed ridiculous. Rangers had already beaten top division opposition in Leicester on the way to the semi and faced Birmingham over two legs in the semi. Rangers went a goal down at half time but Stocks half time team talk did the trick and Rangers stormed the second half winning 4-1 at St Andrews. The second leg was a formality as Rangers ran out 7-2 winners on aggregate and QPR were heading to a first ever Wembley final.

This year would be the first ever league cup final staged at Wembley and QPR faced first division opposition in West Brom. To put it in today’s terms it would be like a league one team getting to the league cup final and playing Newcastle. You wouldn’t expect the lower division side to have a chance.

98,000 fans packed into Wembley that day to see Alec Stock become the first QPR manager to lead his team out at a major final at Wembley. It couldn’t have gone worse though in the first half as the favorites swept into a two-goal lead and the dream of QPR doing a league and cup double appeared over. The team were devastated but Stock took them into the dressing room and gave the most important team talk of the season.

Speaking years later he said “You get off the bench and it takes you about two minutes to walk to the dressing room. When you get there some of the team are getting washed, some are having a cup of tea, another may be getting treatment from the physio, two were fiddling with their studs. A couple were in the toilet. You’re trying to get it together and you haven’t got long. I don’t mind telling you I tore a few strips off one of two of them that day. It came right in the end. We had good players and a lot of spirit in those days”.

Whatever Alec said worked as Rangers came out like men possessed. Roger Morgan got Ranger’s back in it before Rodney Marsh scored one of the best goals ever seen in a major final in England as he dribbled past three players and fired in from 30 yards out. Mark Lazarus got a late inner to give Alec Stock his first trophy as QPR manager just weeks before he would pick up the Third Division title. It was a great moment in the history of QPR and it was all down to the vision and hard work Alec Stock had put in during his magical spell at QPR.

Things got even better for Rangers a year later. Facing a first season in division two for a generation, QPR did the impossible and got promoted again. Stock’s managerial genius continued as he got his team playing with great confidence and with a style that has always been linked with the good name of QPR ever since.

Alec Stock’s team went to Aston Villa on the last game of the season needing a win to go up. Things didn’t start well again as we went in a goal down at half time and Alec Stock had one last chance to weave his magic. His calmed the teams nerves at half time and they went out and equalized through Mick Leach. Then a late own goal sent QPR into the first division for the first time in the clubs history.

Alec Stock had taken QPR from a poor third division team into League cup winners and got us promoted to Division one within eight years. His achievement was unbelievable and put him down in history as one of the clubs best ever managers.

That was to be his last game in charge though as Jim Gregory felt Alec’s ill health worked against him and it was decided that Stock should move on. QPR were a much poorer club after his departure. During Stock’s time at QPR the team produced three club records, which still stand today for most appearances (Tony Ingham), Most goals in a season (Rodney Marsh 44) and most goals in one match (Alan Wilkes 5 against Oxford in 1967).

Alec had suffered all his life from asthma attacks, but Alec said that he had never had one day off: "I was treated as though I had pinched the petty cash." Alec had the last laugh as his replacement Tommy Docherty lasted just 28 days.

Alec had many fallings out with QPR directors during his time at QPR, his wife Marjorie memorably said "You climbed the mountain and found rubbish at the top."

At one game, 2-0 down at half time, Alec was abused by a club official as he walked back down the tunnel for the half-time team talk. He thought - I don't sodding need this, and walked out of the ground and went to the cinema.

When he got back after the end of the game he discovered the team had turned it around to win 3-2........ and the same official now singing his praises.”

Stock went on to have spells at several other clubs enjoying success. He took Luton up to the second division and then took Fulham to the FA Cup Final in 1975. He returned to QPR as caretaker manager in 1978 for a few weeks before Steve Burtenshaw took over.

After he retired he kept close contact with Yeovil before his death in 2001. In one of life’s ironies Alec died just days before QPR were relegated back to the division he had worked so hard to get us out of. After Stock had taken the team from nothing to a first division club it was perhaps symbolic that his death saw us return to where we started.

Alec Stock will go down as one of the greatest ever QPR managers. He created some of the best football ever seen at QPR and gave the club and its fans some wonderful memories to look back on as well as our only piece of major silverware.

R.I.P Alec Stock