Barry Foster: Former Leeds United reporter for The Yorkshire Post dead at 86

Barry Foster, who has died at 86, was a former Yorkshire Post journalist who covered Leeds United from 1965 until almost the start of the Millenium, at a time when the club was one of the leading lights not only in England but across Europe.
The Yorkshire Post
By The Yorkshire Post

Leaders

Published 18th Jan 2025, 05:00 BST

During the heyday of manager Don Revie Leeds won the Football League Division One in 1968-69 and 1973-74, the FA Cup in 1972, the League Cup in 1968 and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1968 and 1971.

Foster’s longevity meant that he was working for the Yorkshire Post when United won the Second Division championship in 1989-90 and the last Division One championship in 1991-92 - the season before the Premier League started.

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Apart from travelling extensively with Leeds United, he also covered Huddersfield Town and was present at the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989.

23rd January 1970 F.A. Cup 4th Round v Sutton United (a). Leeds United players on the eve of the tie, playing carpet bowls at the team hotel. Keenly contesting the game include Allan Clarke in action and from left - right: Barrie Foster (Yorkshire Post), Johnny Giles, Norman Hunter, Jack Charlton, Terry Cooper and Les Cocker. (Result 6 - 0, Clarke 4, Lorimer 2).23rd January 1970 F.A. Cup 4th Round v Sutton United (a). Leeds United players on the eve of the tie, playing carpet bowls at the team hotel. Keenly contesting the game include Allan Clarke in action and from left - right: Barrie Foster (Yorkshire Post), Johnny Giles, Norman Hunter, Jack Charlton, Terry Cooper and Les Cocker. (Result 6 - 0, Clarke 4, Lorimer 2).
23rd January 1970 F.A. Cup 4th Round v Sutton United (a). Leeds United players on the eve of the tie, playing carpet bowls at the team hotel. Keenly contesting the game include Allan Clarke in action and from left - right: Barrie Foster (Yorkshire Post), Johnny Giles, Norman Hunter, Jack Charlton, Terry Cooper and Les Cocker. (Result 6 - 0, Clarke 4, Lorimer 2).

Foster, whose father Percy was a painter at an engineering works and his mother Dorothy a carer, was educated at Rodley First School and Broad Lane Secondary Modern, Leeds. He left school at 15, starting work as a copy boy for the now defunct Leeds Evening News and got the chance to train as a journalist during his national service with the Royal Signals in Newton Abbot.

He returned to Leeds in 1962 as a news reporter, covering the last hanging in the city and also writing on the arts, interviewing The Beatles, Bill Haley and Cliff Richard.

Shortly afterwards he moved into the Evening News sports department, covering Leeds United for the first time at Rotherham United on January 12, 1962.

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In 1964, after leaving the paper, he worked for a short time in Middlesbrough and Blackpool, before joining the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post, eventually replacing chief soccer writer Alfred Duroy at the former. He retired at around 55.

A keen runner, Foster completed 10 London Marathons and the New York Marathon.

He married Margaret in 1960 and they were together for 60 years until her death. They had two daughters, four grandchildren, a nephew and a great grandchild.

Related topics:EnglandEurope

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