Steve Kember

In 1963, Kember joined Crystal Palace, as an apprentice, and in 1965, on his 17th birthday, he was rewarded with a professional contract. By the end of the decade, he was a regular in the Palace midfield, and became a fans' favourite by scoring the winning goal in the home tie with Fulham, in 1969, that secured promotion to the First Division for the first time in the club's history. That season, Kember was one of only three players who played in every game. In the top flight, Kember continued to impress, gaining England U23 caps, and in the summer of 1971, having helped Palace to survival, he replaced John Sewell as captain, following Sewell's departure to Orient. However, the captaincy was short-lived, and Kember joined Chelsea for a record fee of £170,000 in September. At Chelsea, Kember quickly stamped his authority on a place in the starting line-up, playing most of the West-London club's games, that season. However, Chelsea then fell into decline, and were eventually relegated to the Second Division, at the end of the 1974–75 season. Relegation led to a sell-off of players, and Kember moved back to the top-flight with Leicester City. At first, he was a regular in Leicester's first team line up, but after two seasons, he was little more than a squad player, only appearing in half of Leicester's games in the 1977–78 season. Early in the 1978–79 season, Terry Venables signed him back to Crystal Palace. While Kember had been away, the south London club's fortunes had taken…

Noades quickly became tired of manager Dario Gradi, who had only been appointed in the summer. With the club facing successive relegations once again, Gradi was dismissed in November, and Kember got his first taste of management. He had a relatively successful period, taking the club on an FA Cup run to the Sixth Round, and achieving Second Division survival with a game to spare. However, for reasons unknown, he was replaced with the highly unpopular Alan Mullery. Kember said of the matter that he was "away on holiday at the time" and thus wasn't even notified of his dismissal. He then joined non-league Whyteleafe in November 1986, as manager, helping them to the Third Qualifying Round of the FA Cup in the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. In the former, "The Leafe" were also promoted, to the Isthmian League Division One. In the summer of 1993, Kember resigned (to be replaced by former Palace teammate Paul Hinshelwood) and once again went back to Palace, as a member of the coaching staff. He stayed in that role until April 2001, when, with Palace once again facing relegation to the third tier, manager Alan Smith was sacked by new chairman Simon Jordan, and Kember was made caretaker for the remaining two games of the season. Palace were six points short of survival, and it seemed unlikely that relegation could be avoided. However, Kember made changes to the side, and after a last-gasp win at Stockport County, Palace survived. In honour of this achievement, chairman Jordan said…

In the early 1990s Kember owned a wine bar in his native Croydon called Kember's Wine Bar however the bar closed in 1993 after he was declared bankrupt.

Kember has four sons, Matthew, Robbie, Paul and Steven. Robbie and Paul came through the Youth system at Palace, and went on into non-league football, while Matthew started out at Whyteleafe. Paul had trials with Middlesbrough while Robbie had spells with Woking, Basingstoke, Crawley, Lewes, Tonbridge Angels, Eastbourne Borough, Hampton and Richmond. In May 2009 Robbie moved to Bromley. Matthew and Paul are believed to be retired. Steven ( is Paul, he had to change to Steven as there was already an actor called Paul Kember) played mischievous and cunning schoolboy Bryan Arthur Derek Boyes in the hit Children's BBC TV show Bad Boyes, first aired on BBC1 in the autumns of 1987 and 1988.