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Roy Cox Obituary
"Coxy" - He Made Things Happen!
by Jeremy Ruane
Roy Frank Cox, R.I.P.
Born Wormwood Scrubs, 29 February 1936 -
died Auckland, 17 January 2013
The New Zealand women's footballing fraternity, and the wider footballing community, are today mourning the passing of the man widely regarded as the founding father of women's football in New Zealand.
Surrounded by his immediate family, Roy Cox passed away peacefully on 17 January, 2013, after a five-year battle with cancer, and six weeks shy of his 77th birthday.
Having played for Brentford juniors, and spent three years at his beloved Queens Park Rangers before knee cartilage problems put paid to his professional footballing aspirations, Roy arrived in New Zealand in 1970 with wife Barbara and elder daughter Michele - younger daughter Tara was born soon after.
It wasn't long before he began to apply his love of the beautiful game here, initially with the Eden men's reserves side, who were soon celebrating the first of the many championship and cup successes which teams selected and managed by Roy would come to enjoy over the next thirty-five years.
Ally these talents to his skills in the fields of promotion, marketing and public relations, and what was initially known as "the Cox touch" came to pass, the impact of which was invariably felt by many in the immediate vicinity, not all of whom were overly appreciative of Roy's uncanny ability and willingness to challenge established practices and comfort zones in pursuit of higher standards.
In short, he made things happen. Life was certainly never dull when "Coxy" was around!
Roy began taking an active interest in the women's game in 1973, when Barbara was persuaded to join the Eden club. Within months, he and Jan Innes established the Northern Women's Football Association, later named the Auckland Women's Football Association.
By the end of July that year, the age-old rivalry with Wellington was born, and ever since, clashes between the senior women's representative teams of these cities have had The Roy Cox Shield at stake. Much to Roy's delight, Auckland are the current holders of the trophy.
When the NWFA received an invitation from Hong Kong in 1975 for New Zealand to take part in the Asian Cup, it posed an instant problem, for there was no such thing as a New Zealand Women's Football Association at the time.
It prompted the Northern, Wellington and the newly established Canterbury Women's Football Associations to put aside their rivalries for the greater good, something not easily achieved up to this point in time,
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truth be told.
The upshot of their collaboration was the establishment of the NZWFA, with Roy serving as the new association's first President. And a highly delighted one, too, when news came through from Hong Kong that New Zealand had won the Asian Cup against all the odds, given this was the
country's first excursion on the world women's footballing stage.
The following year saw the establishment of the National Tournament, which ran from 1976 until its last hurrah in 2001 - the National Women's League succeeded it a year later.
It was at these annual week-long gatherings of the country's best players that Roy was very much in his element, primarily in his selector-manager capacity with Auckland.
During Roy's first spell in that role, between 1979 and 1983, the "A Team", as the Auckland senior representative women's squad became known, played a total of 58 games, losing just three and drawing seven. And of the 47 games played during his other tenures, in 1990 and 1991, and between 1997 and 2000, there were just two draws and two defeats … 86.7% is not a bad win rate, eh?
Things proved a tad more challenging on the international stage, after Roy was charged with the task of guiding New Zealand's progress between 1983 and 1987. He oversaw 22 matches, eleven of which were won, including the inaugural Oceania Cup Final, which saw New Zealand score a come-from-behind 3-2 win over the old enemy, Australia, in 1983.
The following year, the national side conceded just one goal during the Women's World Invitational Tournament in Taiwan, but that 1-0 loss to West Germany consigned New Zealand to a fourth-placed finish at a tournament which served as the predecessor to today's FIFA Women's World Cup.
Amends were made three years later, however, New Zealand's eventual share of second place in Taiwan in part due to arguably this country's greatest result on the international women's footballing stage, a 1-0 triumph over a USA side featuring three players who went on to become true legends of the women's game - Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly.
Some of New Zealand's best-ever female footballers graced Roy's teams during his remarkable career. He was never slow to sing the praises of, among others, Donna Baker, Debbie Pullen, Wendy Sharpe, Leslie King, Maureen Jacobson, Monique Van de Elzen, Debbie Leonidas and Alison Grant., who scored the winner versus USA.
His greatest pride and joy, however, was reserved for the meritorious achievements, on and off the field, of his wife Barbara and daughters Michele and Tara, New Zealand internationals all.
Roy readily admitted over his career that coaching was not his strong-suit. Instead, he made sure he
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secured the services of the best ones around - the likes of Barbara Cox, Sandy Davie, Kevin Fallon, Allan Jones and Doug Moore, to name but five - to bring the best out of those he had chosen for the task at hand.
His eye for a talented player, and his ability to harness that talent within a team environment for the collective good, mark Roy down as unquestionably one of this country's best selector-managers, team gender regardless, as his successes with the Eden and Auckland U-16 boys teams in 1989 underline.
One of the highlights of Roy's career was being named as Kit Manager for the 1992 All Whites squad's UK tour, which featured the famous 1-0 win over Glasgow Celtic at Parkhead, and which came ten years after he played a significant role in fund-raising for the All Whites' "Road to Spain" campaign.
Prior to the UK tour, he had been approached by Mt. Wellington AFC to become their Commercial Manager - a massive undertaking, as it turned out. But in tandem with Barbara and Bob Douglas, Roy turned "The Mount" around from a club which was losing money hand over fist into one boasting some of the best facilities available in the game today, another achievement in which he took great pride.
As he has done in seeing the Young Ferns, Junior Ferns and Football Ferns achieving on the world stage - the last-mentioned's progress to the 2012 Olympic Women's Football Tournament quarter-finals greatly pleased the women's game's founding father, coming as it did in the year New Zealand's women's footballing fraternity celebrated forty years since the code was fully established in this country.
It's fair to say the game has been slow to recognise Roy's immense contribution to women's football over the years. A Services to Sport award from Sport Auckland in 2001, and an Auckland Football Federation Long Service Medal in 2009, are his lone accolades in this regard.
They are far outweighed by his successes in championships and knockouts, however, and even more so by perhaps his greatest legacy - those footballers who have aspired to reach the standards Roy Cox set them, who savoured success as a result, and who are now passing those standards on for the benefit of current and future generations.
Yes, "Coxy" made things happen all right! He will be missed by many. Requiescat in Pace.
A celebration of Roy's life took place at the University-Mt. Wellington clubrooms at Bill McKinlay Park, Ireland Road, Panmure, on Tuesday, 22 January.
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