Forever Green

Forever Green Class of 2025 | Vote Now

Green Army – we are approaching the time where we will welcome the Forever Green Icons Class of 2025.  

Last year, you voted for our first group of inductees, bestowing the status of Icon on Jack Leslie, Mike Bickle, Tommy Tynan, David Friio and Gary Sawyer.  

Subsequently, we have added Argyle Women’s record appearance-maker Katie Middleton, legendary manager Paul Sturrock, and the boss of the 1984 FA Cup semi-final team, John Hore, who made 441 appearances for the Greens.  

This year, we have made some slight alterations to the induction process, as we prepare for the next five players to become Icons.  

A Forever Green panel, chaired by first-team coach Kevin Nancekivell, has decided to automatically include three men: Bob Jack, Kevin Hodges and Sammy Black.  

Bob Jack is essentially the founding father of Plymouth Argyle. He was the club’s first professional, and played 105 times for us, but that is only part of his story. Jack would go on to manage Argyle for a combined 29 years, over 1,000 games, acting as club secretary in the process. After finishing second in Division Three South for six consecutive years, he took Argyle up as champions in 1930, and helped consolidate the club in the second tier. He IS Plymouth Argyle, and will take his rightful place as an Icon.  

No-one has played more times for Argyle than Kevin Hodges, and maybe no-one ever will. Aged 18, Hodges made his professional debut for Argyle and played 620 times over the next 14 years. He was part of the 1984 FA Cup run, part of the 1985/86 promotion team, won the club’s Player of the Year award, scored 87 goals, managed the first team, and took charge of the Academy in a long, unsurpassed association with the football club.  

Sammy Black sits joint-second in the all-time list of appearances, with 491, but leads the goalscoring charts, with 182 goals, 34 clear of Wilf Carter, who is next on the list. Signed from Scottish side Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, left-winger Black became a Pilgrim in 1924, and over the next 14 years became a mainstay, linking with Jack Leslie on more than 300 occasions, to great effect.  

The panel has agreed that our Icons class should assuredly include these three undoubted legends. Congratulations to all, and their families.  

The 2025 class will be completed by the addition of two further former players, and these will be decided by the Green Army. The panel have selected two shortlists, divided by era, from which the winners of a fans’ poll will become Icons.  

List A  

  • Jack Chisholm – 188 appearances, two goals. 1949-54.  
    Nicknamed ‘Jumbo’, Chisholm was a fearsome centre-back, who epitomised what it is to be a true leader and captain. An ever-present in the promotion team of 1951/52.  
  • Wilf Carter – 274 appearances, 148 goals. 1957-64.  
    A forward with an incredible goalscoring ratio, only Sammy Black has scored more times for Argyle than Carter. He is one of only two people to score five times in one game for Argyle, and was leading goalscorer for six straight seasons, including 25 goals in the title-winning season of 1958/59 
  • Steve Davey – 250 appearances, 55 goals. 1966-74.  
    A stalwart for Argyle over nearly a decade, Davey’s quality, as well as his versatility, was a huge asset. He played in numerous positions over the years and is surely one of the finest ever local lads to grace the first team.  
  • Ray Bowden – 153 appearances, 83 goals. 1927-33 
    Cornishman Bowden scored at such a rate for Argyle that the mighty Arsenal, managed by the great Herbert Chapman, paid a record £5,000 for him. A title-winner in the legendary 1929/30 side, Bowden has a rare distinction of having scored a Derby Devon hat-trick against Exeter.  
  • Maurice Tadman – 253 appearances, 112 goals. 1947-55.  
    Fifth in the all-time scoring chart, Tadman’s consistency saw him lead Argyle’s line for over seven seasons, finishing leading scorer in five of them, including scoring 27 goals in the championship-winning campaign of 1951/52.  
  • Jack Cock – 92 appearances, 74 goals.  
    No-one to have scored a significant number of goals for Argyle has a ratio close to Jack Cock’s. He had already played three times for England when arriving at Home Park, and only twice in nearly 100 games as a Pilgrim did he go more than two games without scoring.   

List B  

  • Michael Evans – 432 appearances, 81 goals. 1990-97, 2001-06.  
    The only player to be promoted with Argyle in three separate seasons, Plymothian Evans emerged into the team as a pacey striker, and would go on to adapt to being a classic centre-forward. He is eighth on the all-time appearances list.  
  • Paul Mariner – 155 appearances, 61 goals. 1973-76.  
    Arguably the most talented forward to ever play for Argyle, Mariner formed an amazing partnership with Billy Rafferty, most memorably in the ‘dream season’ promotion of 1974/75, and was twice Argyle Player of the Year. He later won the FA Cup and UEFA Cup with Ipswich, and scored 14 goals in 35 games for England, including at a World Cup.  
  • Romain Larrieu – 318 appearances, 2000-2012. 
    Famously training in his garden, without a club, goalkeeper Larrieu came to Argyle as a free agent, and began a career-defining association with Argyle that lasted over a decade. Part of two promotion seasons, including the 2001/02 campaign, in which he kept a club record 27 clean sheets.  
  • Ronnie Mauge – 158 appearances, 18 goals. 1995-99. 
    The scorer of perhaps the most iconic goal in Argyle history, Mauge rose to head home at Wembley in 1996, taking the Pilgrims up via the play-offs in a 1-0 win over Darlington. A hard-working midfielder, Ronnie endeared himself to the Home Park faithful and is now a club ambassador.  
  • Paul Wotton – 491 appearances, 66 goals. 1995-2008, 2012-14.  
    Born in Plymouth, graduating through the club’s ranks, joint-second in the appearances chart, club captain, Player of the Year, double-promotion winner as a player, promotion winner as a first-team coach. A unique, unparalleled Argyle career.  
  • Carl Fletcher – 107 appearances, 9 goals. 2009-11.  
    Midfielder Fletcher joined Argyle during a time of great strife at Home Park. Nothing he could do on the field could arrest the Pilgrims’ slide, but the fact that he was voted Player of the Year for two consecutive seasons says so much about his wholehearted approach. Was later manager, under trying circumstances, kept the club up and conducted himself with tremendous dignity in the role.  

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