A Giant of the Past – Walter ‘Cocky’ Bennett (picture and poem)

28 December 1907

Mexborough and Swinton Times December 28

Walter Bennett

(Mexboro Town, Sheffield United. Bristol City,
Denaby United, English International, 1901-2.)

A GIANT OF THE PAST.

As I sit here at ease,
And close my eyes reflectively,
My thoughts roam as they please,
I gaze on things perspectively.
I take a backward view,
My mind’s eye fleeting fast,
Lights upon one I knew,
A Giant of the Past.

Men of books and men of birth,
May be intellectual;
But for honest, sterling worth,
He’s much more effectual.
But in Quite a different mould,
Had his lot been cast,
Of finest football mettle rolled,
This Giant of the Past.

Starting out as youth will do,
With blythsome step and cheerily,
Quickly won his way right through,
Nor thought of going wearily.
From humble Mexboro’ to the heights
Of fame he rose at last,
A hero of a hundred fights„
A Giant of the Past.

We called him “Cocky,” not because
He bore himself conceitedly,
Nor yet because of football laws
He’d argue often heatedly;
But all the same, it was this name
Made foemen stand aghast,
T`was skill and name that made his fame,
This Giant of the Past.

Here you see what he was then,
His shirt speaks out expressively;
Tells for whom it fought, and when,
And bears itself aggressively.
Yes, man and shirt have ‘ere this day,
Highest of honours amassed,
The man inside that shirt I say
Is a Giant of the Past.

A while at Bramall Lane
A darling of the multitude,
Whose cheers and cheers again
Did reach him at an altitude.
The English flyer, shooting straight,
And never embarrassed:
A Southern star, one truly great,
A Giant of the Past.

And now he’s with us once again.
A shooting star descending,
Not building castles out in. Spain.
But shooting goals unending.
Good fellows come and go,
But few of Cocky’s caste;
More force to his elbow,
This Giant of the Past.