First Forever Green Icons Announced
Forever Green – the new initiative celebrating every player who has represented Plymouth Argyle over the years – will officially launch this Saturday, when the current crop of Pilgrims meet Cardiff City at Home Park.
At this game, we will formally induct the first crop of Forever Green Icons, who were voted for by you from a series of categories, broadly split into various eras of the football club.
A panel of Forever Green committee members, chaired by first-team coach Kevin Nancekivell, selected the shortlists, and the winners, the first set of Forever Green Icons, are as follows:
Jack Leslie
Mike Bickle
Tommy Tynan
David Friio
Gary Sawyer
These men, or their representatives, will be our guests of honour at the Cardiff game, and will be introduced to the crowd at half-time.
All have etched themselves into the history of our great football club, and are deserving of the label ‘Icon’.
We have created a dedicated microsite for Forever Green. Over the coming months Forever Green updates, player profiles and our calendar of events will be added to the site.
Click here to visit our Forever Green microsite.
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The story of Jack Leslie, prior to recent years, was a forgotten, sorry tale of football.
Thanks to the efforts of the Jack Leslie Campaign, light has been shone on Jack’s tale, which is one of a hugely talented young man in the 1920s, who was highly thought of enough to be considered for selection for the England national team, but who was denied an international cap because he happened to be black.
After word spread of this travesty, Leslie has, in recent years, been acknowledged by the Football Association, who awarded Jack’s family with an honorary England cap. Outside of Home Park, there is now a statue to a man who played an integral part of Argyle throughout the 1920s and beyond.
Leslie played exactly 400 games for Argyle, making him the tenth highest appearance-maker ever for Argyle. He scored 137 goals, a number bettered by only three players in the club’s history. He was a versatile attacking player, but most often played as an inside-left, forming a formidable partnership with Sammy Black.
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Mike Bickle’s story, of being a local boy coming through regional football to star for his hometown club, is a classic tale which resonates with so many football fans.
One of our greatest ever goalscorers, Mike played 195 times for the Pilgrims, scoring 74 goals, although he would not feature for Argyle until the age of 21. Bickle caught the eye playing for St Austell in the South Western League, was offered the chance to prove himself at Home Park – and he took it.
Perhaps Mike’s most well-remembered goalscoring achievement was his four-goal haul in a 6-0 victory over Torquay United at Home Park on Boxing Day, 1969, in front of more than 17,000 fans. Along with an emerging Norman Piper, Bickle helped dismantle the Gulls in a game that lives long in the memory for many Argyle supporters.
The four-goal feat was Bickle’s second in an Argyle shirt; he had scored four times in a 7-1 win over Cardiff in October 1966. Mike is one of only two men to have scored four or more in a game for Argyle twice. The other is Maurice Tadman.
Bickle was forced to retire aged 29, and in May 1973, Home Park staged the Mike Bickle Testimonial Match, against First Division side Manchester City. More than 12,000 attended the fixture, an indication of what a beloved figure Bickle was among the Green Army.
Until his death in 2023, Mike was a regular visitor to Home Park, and will always be talked about in the same breath as the litany of great forwards to have graced the Theatre of Greens through the years.
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Speaking of great goalscorers, there have been few, if any, more potent than Tommy Tynan.
Tynan joined Argyle in 1983, having been a success at Newport County, and would go on to become one of the most popular Pilgrims of the era – of any era, in fact.
Tynan scored 20 times in his first season – a good return – but it was in 1984/85 in which Tynan’s star began to shine brightest. He scored 32 goals that season, a tally that no Argyle player has come close to achieving since, and which is only bettered by Jack Cock in 1926/27.
Tynan shocked the Green Army by requesting a move away in the summer of 1985, moving to Rotherham United, but it simply laid the stage for a dramatic return in April 1986. With Argyle pushing for promotion, Tynan scored 10 goals in nine games to push the Greens over the line, and gain promotion to the second tier.
Realising Home Park really was home, Tynan returned on a permanent basis the following season, and continuing to be the Greens’ talisman, leading the goalscoring charts every season until his departure in 1990.
Tommy scored 144 goals in 310 appearances as a Pilgrim – a phenomenal return. It is not just at Argyle that he is revered. When Newport instituted a Hall of Fame in 2009, Tommy was the first player inducted, their website describing Tynan as ‘our most iconic player’.
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When Argyle took the field against Exeter City in December 2000, there was a name on the team sheet precious few had heard of.
D. Friio was news to most Pilgrims in the ground that day. In an era before social media and the like, the signing of Friio, which was a short-term deal, went under the radar. Few could would have predicted the extraordinary impact Friio would have on Plymouth Argyle.
During the rest of that season, in the fourth tier, it became clear that the French midfielder was a class act, and plenty of Argyle fans suspected he would play at a higher level. He did – and it was with the Pilgrims!
Few had more impact on Argyle in the first few years of the 21st century than David. He was integral to the title-winning promotions of 2001/02 and 2003/04, and epitomised the recruitment process of Paul Sturrock, who plucked Friio and Romain Larrieu from relative obscurity in their native France, and turned them into heroes in the English South West.
David played 188 times for Argyle, scoring 44 goals, the most iconic of which was the second as Argyle beat Queens Park Rangers 2-0 to clinch the Division Three title at Home Park in April 2004.
Chapeau, David!
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Gary Sawyer might be one of those unique players that is highly thought of at both Exeter City and Plymouth Argyle.
Coming through the Home Park youth system, it was at St James Park where Sawyer cut his teeth, spending two seasons on loan to City, at the time three divisions below Championship side Argyle.
Sawyer returned to Home Park with 72 games under his belt, and made his Pilgrims debut just after his 21st birthday. Notching a century of games in the next three years, Sawyer played with consistency and class at left-back. Although not renowned for goalscoring prowess, he scored five times in that stint, including a memorable Boxing Day winner at Cardiff City.
Sawyer moved to Bristol Rovers and then Leyton Orient, before returning to Argyle in the summer of 2015, becoming Derek Adams’ first signing as manager.
Over the next six years, Gary made another 185 appearances – notching one further goal – including two seasons where he was an ever present in the league. That spell included two promotion seasons, and saw Sawyer rise to be club captain, and something of an Argyle statesman.
Upon retirement, by which time his appearance total came just two shy of 300 for Argyle, Sawyer remained as part of the fabric of the football club, becoming an Ambassador, a role which means he is a regular face in Club Argyle during match days.
