AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Everyone loves a good underdog story, especially in sports. The FX network has capitalized on that with a TV documentary series.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "WELCOME TO WREXHAM")
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Welcome to Wrexham.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU")
ELVIS PRESLEY: (Singing) Only fools rush in...
RASCOE: "Welcome To Wrexham" is about two Hollywood stars who buy a struggling professional soccer team in Wales and turn it around. But before Wrexham, there was Watford, a soccer team that was once at the bottom of England's rankings. That is, until a certain rock star bought the team.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROCKET MAN")
ELTON JOHN: (Singing) Rocket man, burning out his fuse out here alone...
RASCOE: A new book tells the story of that star and the team he rocketed to success. From Watford, NPR's Lauren Frayer reports.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Coal supplies to power stations are critically low. Industry and home face severe power cuts.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Britain was ailing in the 1970s. Industry was in decline. Miners were on strike. There were power cuts across the country. And Watford, just northwest of London, was no exception. It had been a hub of the printing and brewing industries.
OLIVIA MAIN: The '70s - you sort of start to see a lot of these industries decline. Some of them are leaving Watford, some of them are closing down. So it's sort of - I don't want to say bleak, but a little bit c bleak.
FRAYER: Olivia Main works at the town museum and showed me around.
MAIN: Our key exhibits are going to be the printing and then brewing just over there.
FRAYER: What is this big ribbon thing?
MAIN: This is the result that they had for the cup final...
FRAYER: Part of the museum is also dedicated to the Watford Football Club, founded in 1881. By the 1970s, though, they too were in decline - in last place out of 92 teams. That didn't matter though, to a die-hard fan who grew up nearby named Reggie Dwight.
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REGGIE DWIGHT: Well, it was a very shabby stadium. There was one little wooden stand over there and one stand over here, and we used to stand on the asphalt...
FRAYER: As a kid, Dwight was more musical than sporty. But he loved going to Watford games with his dad, even though they got soaked. There was no roof over the stands. It was one big mud puddle. Players had holes in their uniforms.
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DWIGHT: But coming here, being my local club, I fell in love with it straight away. Even though there was nothing glamorous about it, it was glamorous to me.
FRAYER: Dwight is now better known as Elton John. He was talking there to local TV about his decision in 1976, when he was 29, already a huge star, to buy his beloved boyhood team for about a quarter million dollars, which barely covered Watford's debts.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: One of the more recent arrivals, the Watford chairman Elton John - are you nervous?
FRAYER: On his first day as chairman of Watford, he showed up in massive pink sunglasses and platform shoes.
LUTHER BLISSETT: I don't think any of us - it was chalk and cheese between what players were to what Elton John was.
FRAYER: Luther Blissett was one of the team's strikers. Nowadays, it's the footballers who have Ferraris, but that wasn't true in the 1970s. Watford's wages were so low that some of the players had other jobs. They were dazzled by Elton John, who would travel to games on a private jet.
BLISSETT: We all looked up at him. We never called him Elton John. It was always Mr. Chairman.
FRAYER: And Mr. Chairman hired a straight -aced no-nonsense coach named Graham Taylor.
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GRAHAM TAYLOR: Football is a simple game. It's not a sophisticated game. It's a game for the man on the terraces. It's a game to excite the people.
FRAYER: That's Taylor in the early 1980s. He ran his players hard and obsessed over their stats, which was a new thing in sports back then. Together, he and his rock star boss turned Watford around at rocket speed.
GEOFF WICKEN: I've done the little chart, which (laughter)...
FRAYER: Geoff Wicken is a Watford fan who grew up in that era. And when we meet near the stadium, he hands me a sheet of paper with a line graph on it.
WICKEN: That shows 100 years that Watford has been in the football league. Well, you can see for yourself.
FRAYER: So it's a jagged line, up and down, up and down. And then in 1976...
WICKEN: Elton takes over.
FRAYER: A huge steep curve from 1976, straight up.
From last place out of 92 teams to first place at one point. It was an unheard-of ascent. Soccer commentators were beside themselves. Here's one of them, Johnny Phillips on live TV, watching Watford come from behind and score
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JOHNNY PHILLIPS: Oh, I don't believe this. There's a chance. Oh, they've scored. I do not believe what I've just seen. He scored a penalty...
FRAYER: People thought it was Elton John's millions, but he actually didn't spend much. Graham Taylor was an amazing tactician. It was also about what they did off the field - hiring a marketing director, renovating the dilapidated stadium, and welcoming diverse fans, says Wicken.
WICKEN: You would see quite elderly ladies wandering around supermarkets wearing Watford scarves. Elton would turn up on Easter and give Easter eggs to the fans. It was quite a time.
FRAYER: Attendance at games skyrocketed, which in turn inspired the players. Striker Luther Blissett went on to become the first Black player to score a hat trick for England. And he credits his time at Watford.
BLISSETT: This an amazing journey that we all went on off the field, as well as on the field together.
FRAYER: This is a fantastic view.
CHRIS HALL: This is the newest stand, and it's also a lounge above, so...
FRAYER: Nowadays, Watford Stadium has a rain cover. Team liaison Chris Hall shows me around. There are quotes painted on the walls.
What does it say here?
HALL: So it's a lyric from "Your Song."
FRAYER: You can tell everybody - oh.
HALL: Yes.
FRAYER: Oh. The second I read it, I knew what it was. OK.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) This one's for you. You can tell everybody that this is your song...
FRAYER: Quotes from songs Elton John has played at live concerts in this very stadium. They've become anthems of Watford FC. While the club has since passed to new owners and is now in the second of four soccer divisions, the 77-year-old rock star remains its honorary chairman. He still attends games with his two boys. And when Graham Taylor died in 2017, Elton John sent this message.
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ELTON JOHN: Because of him, I have the name of Watford Football Club etched in my soul.
FRAYER: Elton John's words read aloud at Taylor's funeral by the late BBC sports anchor John Motson.
JOHN MOTSON: (Reading) In football and in life, I love you, my friend.
FRAYER: Hearing that tribute is what prompted author John Preston to call up Elton John and ask to co-write a book with him about his friendship with Graham Taylor.
JOHN PRESTON: Elton was probably the most flamboyant man on the planet. Graham Taylor was unquestionably one of the straightest men on the planet, but they jelled in this extraordinary way. You know, they basically both saved one another.
FRAYER: Elton John started doing better after struggling with sobriety. Taylor went on to manage England's national team. Together, they also saved Watford too, Preston says.
PRESTON: It's a small town which has had the heart ripped out of it by unemployment, and for the first time ever, people were proud to come from Watford.
FRAYER: This is a whole binder here with all the plans for new...
MAIN: Yes, so this is...
FRAYER: Back at the town museum, amid the dusty old printing presses and brewing barrels of Watford's past, curator Olivia Main shows me plans for a new wing to make room for what the town is now famous for - soccer.
MAIN: It's a much bigger space. So we'll have a mannequin there for Elton John, one for Graham Taylor as well, which...
FRAYER: Unlike other football clubs, Watford FC considers its soccer successes to be part of the town's legacy, too.
Lauren Frayer, NPR News in Watford, England.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) If I was a sculptor - but then again, no.
RASCOE: John Preston's book is "Watford Forever: How Graham Taylor And Elton John Saved A Football Club, A Town And Each Other."
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do. My gift is my song, and this one's for you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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