Eric White had a major influence on my career as a professional journalist, because he gave me my first break as a writer.
During the mid-80s, I had a couple of articles published by him in a matchday programme column called Speaking Personally, where fans sent in pieces about football – but not necessarily about Brentford.
My brother and I had gone on a football holiday to Scotland, where we saw about seven or eight games in a fortnight, and I wrote about that.
After that, I asked Eric if I could become a regular writer for the programme and he was happy to welcome me on board.
At the time, the only other writer was the amazing Graham Haynes, whose knowledge of the club at the time was second to none.
My first column was called Third Division Scene, which was a round-up of news and transfers from the other clubs in the division, all sourced from Ceefax, where I later went on to work.
The print deadline for a Saturday game in those days was a Tuesday morning. In those pre-internet and email days, because I wanted to have the pieces as up-to-date as possible, I would finish off typing up my article on a Monday night and would then drive to Eric’s house before putting it through his letterbox.
Football was very different then and there was a great deal of trust.
I moved on to doing player interviews and Eric would simply give me each squad member’s home phone number and leave me to call them.
I went on to write different columns, at one point I was doing three in every edition, and always got them dropped off at Eric’s place on time.
We also worked together for a couple of years, along with Graham and Rob Jex, on the club’s centenary history book – 100 Years of Brentford – which was published in 1989.
Eric loved the Bees with a passion and was proud to be the club’s press officer and programme editor. He always appreciated what you did for him and was happy to offer advice about your writing or make suggestions for articles.
He also arranged for a member of the programme writing team to present the programme player of the year award to the winner on the pitch before the last home game.
I feel privileged to have worked with him over such a long period of time.
Ian Westbrook
Ian is photographed with Andy Sinton, 1987/1988
Presenting the fans, Player Of The Year award