Mark Lazarus

[AkiRiihilatiTheGOAT]

Hi all, my great uncle was Mark Lazarus - he played for Palace and was Wolves's record signing for a time at £30,000 although he only made 9 appearances for them as he fell out with the manager. He also played for QPR, Brentford, and Leyton Orient, and I believe was England's first openly Jewish player.

He played nearly 70 times for Palace between 1967-69 so I was wondering if any of you have any good memories of him from his time at Palace.

Cheers! 🙂

 

[mars]

I remember him celebrating scoring a goal by doing a lap of the pitch milking applause.
A great character and a fans favourite

 

[Cucking Funt]

Hi all, my great uncle was Mark Lazarus - he played for Palace and was Wolves's record signing for a time at £30,000 although he only made 9 appearances for them as he fell out with the manager. He also played for QPR, Brentford, and Leyton Orient, and I believe was England's first openly Jewish player.

He played nearly 70 times for Palace between 1967-69 so I was wondering if any of you have any good memories of him from his time at Palace.

Cheers! 🙂

Is being openly Jewish a bit like being openly gay?

 

[AkiRiihilatiTheGOAT]

Is being openly Jewish a bit like being openly gay?

Weird question

I mean yeah, I guess

Identifying openly with a persecuted minority group will of course have things in common with identifying with another persecuted minority group

 

[Stirlingsays]

Is being openly Jewish a bit like being openly gay?

No one nose.

 

[pssguy]

I remember him celebrating scoring a goal by doing a lap of the pitch milking applause.
A great character and a fans favourite

Likewise. It was a shame he moved on without getting to play for us in the 1st Division

 

[JRW2]

I will never forget Mark scoring in the last home game of the 1968-69 season, when we beat Fulham 3-2 (having been 0-2 down), to take us into the top division for the first time in our history. I think he scored the winning goal, and he set off on his traditional celebratory tour of the ground. Then moved to Leyton Orient. An elderly and tubby Johnny Byrne was playing for Fulham that day.

 

[Teddy Eagle]

I will never forget Mark scoring in the last home game of the 1968-69 season, when we beat Fulham 3-2 (having been 0-2 down), to take us into the top division for the first time in our history. I think he scored the winning goal, and he set off on his traditional celebratory tour of the ground. Then moved to Leyton Orient. An elderly and tubby Johnny Byrne was playing for Fulham that day.

That was a great game.
As per Wiki when Steve Davis played Dennis Taylor in the 1985 world final Mark was his minder. He comes from a boxing family and certainly wasn't one to back down from anyone on the pitch.
Hope he's doing well.

 

[Willo]

I recall the chant "Laza,Laza,Laza,Laza,Lazarus" sung with gusto.

 

[dreamwaverider]

Thanks for sharing that.
My memories of your Uncle are being beaten by the sands of time as I was a mere youngster. But he was my hero at the time. He was such a showman. He was also a great footballer. When I was kicking a ball around at home with my brothers, I was always Lazarus!! My dream of playing in the claret and blue for the Palace sadly never materialised.
Have you got any football related stories you can share about him?

 

[Willo]

I remember him celebrating scoring a goal by doing a lap of the pitch milking applause.
A great character and a fans favourite

I recall his goal celebrations in the No 7 shirt with fondness.

 

[It's only a game]

Likewise. It was a shame he moved on without getting to play for us in the 1st Division

His lap of honour goal celebration was his trademark & he was a valuable member of the promotion team that season, scoring 11 goals. He did make 4 appearances in the top flight the following season, including the opening game v Man U & scored in the 3-1 win at home to Stoke, before moving to Orient.

 

[Willo]

His lap of honour goal celebration was his trademark & he was a valuable member of the promotion team that season, scoring 11 goals. He did make 4 appearances in the top flight the following season, including the opening game v Man U & scored in the 3-1 win at home to Stoke, before moving to Orient.

Sadly 7 of the starting 11 have deceased.
With the exception of Steve Kember the others still with us must be in their 80s.

 

[AkiRiihilatiTheGOAT]

Thanks for sharing that.
My memories of your Uncle are being beaten by the sands of time as I was a mere youngster. But he was my hero at the time. He was such a showman. He was also a great footballer. When I was kicking a ball around at home with my brothers, I was always Lazarus!! My dream of playing in the claret and blue for the Palace sadly never materialised.
Have you got any football related stories you can share about him?

Honestly, unfortunately I barely knew him. When I was much younger and just getting into football my Mum told me I was related to a footballer, which of course at the time was amazing because I was completely obsessed with the game, made even better by the fact that he played for Palace! Numerous times I've tried to get in touch with him but unfortunately nothing has ever materislised. His family runs stuff for him now as he's obviously getting much older and unfortunately they've always been quite hostile.

Nevertheless, it's a great source of pride for me that he played in the famous red & blue. I'll talk about him to anyone who'll listen, hahaha. "Palace? My great-uncle played for them..."

 

[AkiRiihilatiTheGOAT]

I will never forget Mark scoring in the last home game of the 1968-69 season, when we beat Fulham 3-2 (having been 0-2 down), to take us into the top division for the first time in our history. I think he scored the winning goal, and he set off on his traditional celebratory tour of the ground. Then moved to Leyton Orient. An elderly and tubby Johnny Byrne was playing for Fulham that day.

Funnily enough, he had a bit of a habit of scoring when we'd been 2-0 down. QPR were 2-0 down in the 1967 League Cup Final and he ended up scoring the winning goal for them 😀

 

[Teddy Eagle]

Honestly, unfortunately I barely knew him. When I was much younger and just getting into football my Mum told me I was related to a footballer, which of course at the time was amazing because I was completely obsessed with the game, made even better by the fact that he played for Palace! Numerous times I've tried to get in touch with him but unfortunately nothing has ever materislised. His family runs stuff for him now as he's obviously getting much older and unfortunately they've always been quite hostile.

Nevertheless, it's a great source of pride for me that he played in the famous red & blue. I'll talk about him to anyone who'll listen, hahaha. "Palace? My great-uncle played for them..."

You should be proud of a family connection to a player who is so fondly remembered.

 

[AkiRiihilatiTheGOAT]

You should be proud of a family connection to a player who is so fondly remembered.

Tbf a family connection to a Palace player is probably the closest I could get to actually playing for Palace, haha.

In Germany they do a cool thing where the big clubs have like Sunday League level teams. Most teams have a second team obviously (Borussia Dortmund II are in the third division), but most clubs also go all the way down the levels. So if you're a Dortmund fan you can play for Dortmund's 9th team in the 10th division or something.

I wish Palace did this, I'd probably be good enough to call myself an actual Palace player if they did!

 

[dreamwaverider]

Honestly, unfortunately I barely knew him. When I was much younger and just getting into football my Mum told me I was related to a footballer, which of course at the time was amazing because I was completely obsessed with the game, made even better by the fact that he played for Palace! Numerous times I've tried to get in touch with him but unfortunately nothing has ever materislised. His family runs stuff for him now as he's obviously getting much older and unfortunately they've always been quite hostile.

Nevertheless, it's a great source of pride for me that he played in the famous red & blue. I'll talk about him to anyone who'll listen, hahaha. "Palace? My great-uncle played for them..."

What a shame. I bet he would love to know how proud you are of him. Just to put you straight, he never wore the red and blue. His era we played in claret and blue. I will be telling all my pals about this. My bro will be amazed!! Cheers.

 

[AkiRiihilatiTheGOAT]

What a shame. I bet he would love to know how proud you are of him. Just to put you straight, he never wore the red and blue. His era we played in claret and blue. I will be telling all my pals about this. My bro will be amazed!! Cheers.

Thanks very much mate, I really appreciate it. And yeah, we were claret and blue back then meaning in an alternate universe we could have a claret & blue derby with Burnley or Aston Villa, haha.

 

[Spiderman]

Honestly, unfortunately I barely knew him. When I was much younger and just getting into football my Mum told me I was related to a footballer, which of course at the time was amazing because I was completely obsessed with the game, made even better by the fact that he played for Palace! Numerous times I've tried to get in touch with him but unfortunately nothing has ever materislised. His family runs stuff for him now as he's obviously getting much older and unfortunately they've always been quite hostile.

Nevertheless, it's a great source of pride for me that he played in the famous red & blue. I'll talk about him to anyone who'll listen, hahaha. "Palace? My great-uncle played for them..."

I was at the Fulham game and remember his “lap of honour” after scoring. However I also remember his greatest footballing moment, at Wembley in 1967, a great cup upset. Look out for the scorer of the winning goal 👍

Apologies just seen you already knew this