Brazil 1919

1880s Cabinet Card

Buffalo Association (New York) was founded in 1886.

Catalunya v France, 1912

This image is from a card issued by Chocolates Amatller of Barcelona. It shows action from the Catalunya v France match played at camp del carrer Indústria on 01.12.12 (the rear of the card dates the match as being played on 01.01.13). Catalunya won 1-0. 
The player referred to in the caption is Gabriel Bau (Futbol Club Espanya).

Königlichen Gymnasium zu Dresden

A postcard marking the tenth anniversary of the foundation of a football club at Dresden's Königlichen Gymnasium (Royal Grammar School).


acknowledgements to dfc1873

Joe Sykes

            Joe Sykes made his debut for his hometown club The Wednesday at the tail end of the 1919-20 season. He played at any one of the 3 half back positions.
His first team opportunities were limited (31 appearances and 1 goal) and in the summer of 1924 he joined Swansea Town.
Sykes went on to make 336 appearances for the Swans (Famous Footer Club!), scoring 8 goals. He retired in 1935, having played 6 games at inside left in his final season.

Football Described by Giants of the Game (1904)

There's a link to a PDF of this 1904 booklet on Andy Mitchell's fantastic Scottish Sport History blog.


http://www.scottishsporthistory.com/uploads/3/3/6/0/3360867/football_by_giants.pdf

Råsunda, 1937

Right at the end of the pre 'D' era England undertook a 3 match tour, playing Norway, Sweden and Finland. England, wearing numbered jerseys for the first time, racked up 18 unanswered goals. Purists and nostalgists note that England lined up by squad number rather than 1-11!

The postcard above shows the Sweden team. The Sweden - England  match marked the inauguration of the Råsunda stadium at Solna, although AIK had beaten Malmö FF 4-0 there on April 18th

. 

England won 4-0 with goals from Freddie Steele (3) and Joe Johnson.

GK	Gustav Sjöberg	A.I.K. Solna
RB	Nils Axelsson	Hälsingborgs I.F
LB	Walter Sköld	A.I.K. Solna
RH	Fritz Berg	I.F.K. Göteborg
CH	Sven Andersson   ©	A.I.K. Solna
LH	Ernst Andersson	I.F.K. Göteborg
OR	Gustaf Josefsson	A.I.K. Solna
IR	Erik Persson	A.I.K. Solna
CF	Sven Jonasson	I.F. Elfsborg
IL	Karl-Erik Grahn	I.F. Elfsborg
OL	Axel Nilsson	A.I.K. Solna

Rudolf Ramseyer

Rudolf 'Ruedi' Ramseyer won 59 caps for Switzerland between 1920 and 1931. He captained the national side 30 times, scored 5 goals in internationals and appeared at the 1924 Olympic Games.
Ramseyer transferred from Young Boys to FC Berne in 1925. He began his career as a winger but then became a successful fullback.
The stunning card was part of a series issued by the Amor Chocolate company of Berne.

Italy 1928

Amsterdam, June 9th 1928- Italy beat Egypt in the Olympic Bronze medal match. The final score is 11-3. Schiavo, Banchero and Magnozzi score 3 each, Baloncieri gets 2.
And the Italians celebrate by ... I always thought that this photograph depicted a fascist salute, which had entered common usage in Italy in 1925.  The contemporary Dutch and French descriptions refer to an Olympic greeting .

Umberto Caligaris

Umberto Caligaris was a full back  who played for Casale (1919-28), Juventus (1928-35) and Brescia (1935-37). He won 59 caps for Italy between 1922 and 1934. This remained the record number of caps for Italy until 1971. 
Caligaris won a bronze medal at the 1928 Olympics and was part of the Italy squad that won the Coupe Internationale européenne that concluded in 1930. He was picked for Italy's 1934 World Cup Squad but didn't play in any of the matches. 
He featured in  Juventus's run of five consecutive Serie A wins (Il Quinquennio d'oro).
Notice that his name is misspelled on the card.

Jack Thomas

Jack Thomas was born in County Durham.
He played for Brighton and Hove Albion in the Southern League before joining Newcastle United for the 1911-12 season.
He made one first team appearance, playing at inside right in a 1-1 draw away to Manchester City.
Thomas then returned to Spennymoor United, the Northern League club where his career began.
Pretty unremarkable.
During the 1914-18 War however Jack Thomas was involved in a series of remarkable exploits.
Captured by the Germans he was involved in attempt to tunnel out of the prison camp. He eventually escaped and made use of a compass smuggled in a cake to return to Britain. He was then sent back to Europe to work as a spy.

Credit

Smiths

Tom Smith was an inside right who joined Manchester United from Leicester City in January 1924. He played 90 first team games for United before leaving for Northampton Town in 1927.

Winger (W.H) Billy Smith began his senior career with Huddersfield Town in 1913. He played 575 games for the Terriers , winning 3 League Championships and an FA Cup. He joined Rochdale in 1934. Smith won 3 England caps (1922-28).

(J.R) Jack Smith, a centre forward, joined Bolton Wanderers from Glasgow Rangers in 1921. In 174 games for Wanderers he scored 187 goals. Moving to Bury in 1928 he continued to score regularly (169 games, 112 goals). He won the  FA Cup with Bolton in 1923 and 1926, having won the Scottish Cup with Kilmarnock in 1920.

Inside left Joe Smith scored 277 goals for Bolton Wanderers, for whom he played 492 games (1908-27). He then enjoyed 3 seasons with Stockport County, scoring 63 goals in 73 games. He won 5 England caps (1913–1920) and managed Blackpool from 1935–1958.

(A.W) Bertie Smith made 12 appearances for Huddersfield Town (1922-26). He played at centre half.

Souvenir

A curious memento. And for tissue paper to survive 100 years...
Described as follows in an auction catalogue:
1910 F.A. Cup third round commemorative tissue Imprinted 'Souvenir of the English Cup third round Played at St James Park Newcastle Saturday Feb. 19th 1910', with team pictures and annotation of players names underneath. Floral flag design to outer edges. Printed by Mrs S.Burgess of Bishopsgate, London.

If we look at the teams that played that day we will see that there was plenty of quality on show.  Blackburn Rovers were 3rd in Division 1 and Newcastle United 6th. 

Newcastle United		Blackburn Rovers
Jimmy Lawrence	G	Jimmy Ashcroft
Billy McCracken	RB	Bob Crompton
Tony Whitson	LB	Arthur Cowell
Colin Veitch	RH	Albert Walmsley
Wilf Low	CH	George Chapman
Peter McWilliam	LH	Billy Bradshaw
Jock Rutherford	OR	Billy Garbutt
Jimmy Howie	IR	Eddie Latheron
Albert Shepherd	CF	Ellis Crompton
Sandy Higgins	IL	Wattie Aitkenhead
George Wilson	OL	Walter Anthony

The 54,000 crowd brought in receipts in excess of £2000 (described in the contemporary press as 'an enormous sum').
Higgins opened the scoring in the first minute ( a quick short drive). Rutherford added a second in the 25th minute but Rovers immediately pulled one back through Anthony. Howie completed the scoring in the second half.

Manchester United's First FA Cup Win -1909

GK		Harry Moger
RB		George Stacey
LB		Vince Hayes
RH		Dick Duckworth
CH		Charlie Roberts (c)
LH		Alex Bell
OR		Billy Meredith
IR		Harold Halse
CF		Jimmy Turnbull
IL		Sandy Turnbull
OL		George Wall

United played in a white strip with a red chevron.

The toss, the captains were the two great centre halves, Charlie Roberts and Billy Wedlock. Referee Mr Jim Mason.

A great view of Crystal Palace as the game gets underway. Note the 2-3-5 formations.

 Sandy Turnbull scores for United. Turnbull was later implicated in the 1915 Betting Scandal and was  banned for life from football. Turnbull was killed in action in Arras (1917). His life ban was posthumously rescinded by the Football Association in 1919 (!).

France v Switzerland 1930

The card shows the France team that lined up against Switzerland at Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir
(Colombes). 
The match ended in a 3-3 draw. Switzerland were 2-0 in 13 minutes (both goals by Lehmann).Chueva (17 min) and Anatol (34) leveled the score. In the 58th minute  Libérati put France ahead and Romberg  completed the scoring with a 68th minute equalizer. 

France:                                                        Switzerland:

Antonin Lozès	F.C. Sochaux	GK	Charles  Pasche	Grasshopper
Manuel Anatol	R.C. France	RB	Max Weiler	Grasshopper
André Chardar	F.C. Sète	LB	Rudolf Ramseyer	F.C. Bern
Louis Cazal	F.C. Sète	HB	Paul De Lavallaz	Grasshopper
Alexandre Villaplane	R.C. France	HB	Adolfo Spiller	F.C. Zürich
Henri Pavillard	Stade Français	HB	Charles Regamey	Grasshopper
Ernest Libérati	Amiens A.C.	F	Adolf Stelzer	F.C. Zürich
André Cheuva	Olympique Lillois	F	Willy Baumeister	F.C. Zürich
Paul Nicolas	Amiens A.C.	F	Jacques Romberg	F.C. Zürich
André Maschinot	F.C. Sochaux	F	August Lehmann	F.C. Zürich
Pierre Korb	F.C. Mulhouse 93	F	Rene Grimm	F.C. Biel

Villaplane,  Libérati and  Maschinot were in the squad that represented France in the 1930 World Cup.

Alexandre Villaplane was Algeria born. He captained France in Uruguay. As his career waned he became more involved in criminal activities. In 1944 he was executed for  war crimes having collaborated with the Nazis. 

                                                              Switzerland

1914 FA Cup Final

The FA Cup Final, the first to be attended by a reigning monarch in the person of  King George V. It was the first Cup Final appearance of both clubs, and the last to be played at Crystal Palace. 

The souvenir card shows Tommy Boyle the Burnley captain, and Harry Lowe of Liverpool.

Lowe was injured in the League match at Middlesborough the week before the final. Ephraim Longworth led the Reds for the game with Burnley.

Dawson missed the final through injury.

 Referee Herbert Bamlett (a future manager of Manchester United) signals as Bert Freeman (bisected here by the crossbar) scores the only goal of the final in the 57th minute. 

The King presents the Cup to Boyle- Lord Kinnaird extreme right. 

Platko

Platko was born in Budapest.  The peripatetic nature of his career led to him being known by 3 variants of his name: Ferenc Plattkó, Franz Platko Kopiletz or Francisco Platko. He began his professional career in 1917 with Vasas SC. He briefly joined WAC Vienna in 1920, then had spells with Hajduk Kula (Yugoslavia) and MTK (Budapest). He played 6 internationals for Hungary between 1917 and 1923.In 1922 Platko featured for MTK for in 2 0-0 draws against Barcelona. The Catalans were so impressed with his goalkeeping that they signed him.

Following the legendary Zamora, Platko was Barcelona's first choice goalkeeper from 1923 to 1930.

During this time he acried the following honours:

Spanish Champions-1928-29
 Copa del Rey winners- 1924-25, 1925–26, 1927–28
Campionat de Catalunya-1923-24, 1924–25, 1925–26, 1926–27, 1927–28, 1929–30

Platko's performance in the 1928 Copa del Rey final (a 3-1 victory over Real Sociedad) earned him the rare distinction for a goalkeeper of being  immortalized in verse. Diving at the feet of a srtriker, Platko had sustained a head injury that required sutures. He finished the game swathed in bandages and ended the day in hospital. Poet Rafael Alberti was at the match. Impressed by the courage of Platko, the golden haired Hungarian bear, spilling his Hungarian blood for Barcelona in a performance that could never be forgotten (I'm paraphrasing), Alberti wrote Oda A Platko. The poem appeared in the newspaper La Voz de Cantabria (27.05.28).

Here it is in the original:

http://www.laredcantabra.com/platko.html

There are of course, two sides to every story, and the Sociedad fan Rafael Celaya wrote Contraoda del poeta de la Real Sociedad, which attributed Barcelona's triumph to crooked refereeing.

 Platko  later coached Barca, and continued his career in South America.