Roy Sproson (23 September 1930 – 24 January 1997) was an English footballer and football manager for Port Vale. A one-club man, he holds the all-time appearance record for Vale, making 837 starts (and 5 substitute appearances) for Vale between 1950 and 1972. This includes a run of 128 consecutive appearances between April 1954 and March 1957. He is also fourteenth on the all time Football League appearance list.
Sproson is a Port Vale legend, sticking with the club from its highest peaks in the early 1950s until the troughs of the last 1960s near the bottom of the Football League. He served under eight managers before taking the reins himself between 1974 and 1977. A relic of a bygone era when it was common for players to only play for a few clubs throughout their entire careers, his record for the club is unlikely ever to be equalled or bettered. He finished with around 350 more appearances for the club than his closest rival, and teammate of fifteen years, Harry Poole.
Read more about Roy Sproson: Playing Career, Management Career, Post-retirement, Legacy, Statistics, References
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“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched seabeams glitter in the dark near the Tennhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.”
—David Webb Peoples, U.S. screenwriter, and Ridley Scott. Roy Batty, Blade Runner, final words before dying—as an android he had a built-in life span that expired (1982)