Rag to Riches Story of Welsh superstar Mel Nurse
HE grew up in the same street as football legend John Charles and was so poor he had overcoats for bedclothes and a gas lamp for heating.
But Mel Nurse would not only become centre half for Wales and his native Swansea, but he also went on to build up a property empire and drive around in a Rolls Royce with personalised number plates.
And the boy, who once had to learn his craft with a tennis ball because a football was too expensive, would also save his beloved home club from financial extinction not once but twice, earning himself the nickname Mr Swansea – a title the 71-year-old has just chosen for his first autobiography.
Nurse grew up in Alice Street, Cwmdu, Swansea, where an incredible seven residents would go on to play for Wales including near neighbours John Charles (Leeds and Juventus) and John’s younger brother Mel (Swansea, Arsenal).
He was born on October 11, 1937, just two years before the outbreak of war. It was a conflict that would almost claim the young Mel’s life during Germany’s mini-blitz on Swansea.
“I looked across the road where there were two houses totally blown out,” he recalled.
“I was so young and naive to what was going on around us that my first thought was: ‘Cor, we’ve got somewhere to play’. Fancy thinking that! What about the poor people who were in the house? They must have been killed.”
It was a time of great family hardship. Nurse said when his father returned from the war he spent his £80 gratuity money “gambling on the horses”.
He added: “There was no central heating, no electric, just a gas lamp.
“We had overcoats for bedclothes as we couldn’t afford blankets. I can remember waking up many mornings with my leg down the sleeve of the coat.”
But as a 6ft teenager he was snapped up by the then Swansea Town and won honours for Wales U-23s.
Shortly after the Munich air disaster, Manchester United offered a fee of £35,000 for him, but Swansea turned the offer down.
Two years later, Middlesbrough came along, and their offer of £25,000, a club record fee, was accepted and Nurse was soon on £25 a week as captain, at a time when a pint of beer cost around 8p.
He played a dozen times for Wales, only being kept from more caps by the quality of his old neighbour John Charles and the likes of Mike England.
