In the chaos that followed Bobby Robson's sacking in November 1968, Johnny Haynes took over the reins temporarily, but he had no desire to fill the role on a permanent basis.
On 'The Maestro's' recommendation, his friend and former Fulham defender, Bill Dodgin Junior, took the job the next month, the second time a father and son had managed the Club.
After leaving Fulham for a second time in 1964, Dodgin had won plaudits for his coaching skills, first at Millwall but especially at Queens Park Rangers, where his partnership with Alec Stock lifted Rangers from the Third to the First Division.
There was little he could do to save Fulham from a second relegation in 12 months, and so the Whites kicked off Dodgin's first full season in the Third Division for the first time in almost 40 years.
Open attacking football was the only way Dodgin knew how to play and since the nucleus of the side had First Division experience, the policy worked at a lower level.
Within two years, promotion was won and, but for a home defeat on the final day, the Third Division title would have come Fulham's way.
This same attacking policy did not work back in Division Two in 1971/2 and relegation was on the agenda until the final matches and the controversial loan signing of Alan Mullery. Despite beating the drop, Dodgin was shown the door by Chairman Tommy Trinder.
In his subsequent career, at Brentford and Northampton Town, Dodgin enjoyed success in the lower divisions by sticking to his attacking principles. For a few months in 1994, by then in his sixties, he was back at the Cottage as Youth Development Officer but this role ended with the Club's relegation that summer.