The last time Tottenham Hotspur played in Cape Town they were one of the best club sides in Europe.
Spurs arrived in South Africa in June 1963, having just won the old English First Division and the European Cup Winners' Cup.
The previous season the Lillywhites became the first club in the last century to win the league championship and FA Cup "double".
There wasn't a club in England, or the rest of Europe for that matter, who were as successful as Spurs or played as attractive soccer.
In the early 60s the north London club were the Manchester United of English football. Their fame and following was similar to that of Kaizer Chiefs in southern Africa today.
Next Tuesday, July 29, Spurs will again be in Cape Town, to play Chiefs at the Newlands rugby ground in a match to highlight South Africa's's bid to host the 2010 World Cup.
Forty years ago Brazil were world champions and Tottenham's manager Bill Nicholson had assembled a side of international players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
It would be two decades before the influx of "foreigners" - and Spurs led the rest of Britain when they signed Argentine World Cup winners Ossie Ardiles and Ricardo Villa.
But the team of the early 80s couldn't touch Nicholson's Spurs who were a blend of skill and brute force.
Centre half Maurice Norman was the enforcer in defence where not much - on the ground or in the air - got past the big England international who looked awkward but was always effective.
Irishman Danny Blanchflower captained the team from right-half and was the "brains" of the midfield, never ruffled as he sprayed cross-field passes to the feet of teammates.
At left-half Dave Mackay was just the opposite of his captain.
The Scotland international was Nicholson's terrier, breaking almost as many bones as opposition attacks. Mackay had a huge heart and short fuse, comparable today to Dutch "Bulldog" Edgar Davids of Juventus.
Though it was up front where Nicholson's mix of wingers, inside-forwards and a target man put away the goals and pulled in the fans.
Bobby Smith was an old-fashion centre-forward who would often send the ball and goalkeeper into the back of the net... with his head.
That Smith was short on skill with the ball at his feet mattered little as the big centre-forward was surrounded by some of Britain's most talented footballers.
John White and Les Allen were the inside-right and left, both of whose first touch and vision when in possession were second to none.
Scotsman White, thin and pale, looked anything but a professional soccer player but he could ghost past the best defenders in the game.
Six months after Spurs' three-match tour of South Africa White was killed when struck by lightning while playing golf on a course near Tottenham's White Hart Lane ground.
Another Welsh international, Terry Medwin, was Nicholson's first-choice on the right wing, though the Welshman probably still has bad memories of Cape Town where he ended up in Groote Schuur Hospital.
As Spurs swept upfield from the kick-off in their match against an NFL XI at Hartleyvale, Medwin raced towards goal to meet a cross from the left. But with his eye on the ball, the Spurs wing went crashing into a goalpost in front of the old railway stand, breaking a leg.
He never again played soccer.
The NFL XI were crushed 5-2 by a Spurs team that gave South African goalkeeper Trevor Gething a torrid time until they took their foot off the pedal in the second half.
Former South Africa and Transvaal cricketer Tiger Lance, in defence for the NFL XI, also had one of the more busy games of his soccer career.
Months before Spurs arrived in South Africa, they signed Jimmy Greaves, the top English striker who had been prised from Chelsea to Italy by Inter Milan.
On England duty, Greaves and Smith missed the Cape Town leg of Tottenham's trip - much to the relief of Gething, Lance and the rest of the NFL defence.