Mick Harford granted the freedom of Luton

WALT writer and Sundon Park Councillor, Steve Moore, talks us through the decision to make Mick Harford a Freeman of the Borough of Luton

"What is Honorary Freedom of the Borough for in a modern world?"

Let’s be honest, I don’t think any of us have seen John Still marching cattle all over Popes Meadow while spending some time in Wardown Park, since he was awarded it. Nor do any of us really expect him to.

Therefore, it is evidently to note those for whom their work and service has been to the betterment of the town, internally or externally.

It is a frankly, a Luton MBE if you will.

As a result, I can think of no-one more befitting than Mick Harford.

Whatever others think about football. And I admit that I say that as a sport obsessed anorak. It is our cultural behemoth. As a result, if you ask a cross section of the British people from St. Ives to his native Sunderland, to play a word association game of people they associate with Luton, Mick Harford would probably end up on that list more than any other.

For that alone, you could possibly consider Big Mick deserving of the award.

We know that he has given more time, in more roles, for our football club than anyone else. Overtaking one of his managers from his time as a player, John Moore.  (Someone who, I must say, based on these principles has his own case for the award)

It is almost a shame that we are honouring Mick at a time when the club is at the highest point it has been since he was a player. Because it makes it seem like we are honouring him for the success we are currently seeing as opposed to the hard work that he has put in over the period of the last 40 years, answering the call on so many occasions, when the club desperately needed him.

Whether that was returning to try and help keep the youngsters of our last top-flight side in the top-flight in 1991-92; Answering 2020’s call in 2008 when the club needed someone to come in as manager when it was a job hardly anyone would have wanted; Or stepping up to put a steady hand on the tiller when Nathan Jones left for Stoke.

When I was growing up, my late father would regale me with stories of Harford, alongside all the greats of that eighties top-tier side. You would also see on tv, all these ex-players calling him ‘the hardest player I have ever played against’. This coming from an era of Mick Kennedy, Jimmy Case and Terry Hurlock, genuinely ‘hard men’.

Then think of me as a 21-year-old, fresh out of university, who was starting out at Diverse FM. One of my first jobs was to do a pre-match interview with Mike Harford the day before a game, with us all adjusting to being in non-league.

Difference was, I was having to do it in a separate interview, after he had done it with BBC 3 Counties Radio and the rest of the local press. I knew I was going to have to ask him the same questions he had already answered, when he surely had much better things that he should be doing which would have more of a lasting impact in trying to get us back into the football league.

To say I was shaking would be an understatement. If I was in his position, I would be thoroughly annoyed at being put in it.

Safe to say, he was much nicer about it to me than I suspect that I would have been.

Not nice enough that I didn’t speak to my contacts at 3 Counties Radio to resolve the problem, so he only had to answer the questions once, but the complete opposite to the on-field persona.

Even recently, given how public he has been with his own battle with Prostate Cancer. Helping raise the profile of the disease. I can’t imagine how many Lutonian’s and Luton fans who may have caught their own prostate cancers early enough to give themselves a better prognosis.

Here’s to you Mick Harford…Freeman of the Borough of Luton.