... and England

'Old Boys' Clubs, quaintly named defunct clubs, clubs that we associate with the lower reaches of the Football League, non league teams, military teams...
One of the joys of reading about 19th century football is to see the wide range of clubs that have provided England with representatives in international football. 
The first England XI shows a nice cross section:

 Herts Rangers, Notts County, Harrow Chequers, Oxford University, 1st Surrey Rifles, Cambridge University, Wednesday, Crystal Palace and  Barnes.

During the 19th century Oxford (16) and Cambridge University (18) provided players. Wanderers, 5 times FA Cup winners, had 15 players capped by England. The famous Corinthians also had 7 England internationals pre 1900. 

Here are some of the more unusual club affiliations of England internationals from 1872 to 1899:

Club	Players	Caps	Dates
1st Surrey Rifles	William Maynard	2	1872-76
Maynard played in the 1st international. Founded in 1869, 1st Surrey Rifles were based in Camberwell and competed in the FA Cup 1872-78.
Accrington	George Haworth	5	1887-90
	Joseph Lofthouse	2	1889-90
	Jimmy Whitehead	1	1893
Accrington were founding members of the Football League.
Barnes	Charles Morice	1	1872
Better known for Rugby, Barnes (Surrey) were pioneers of Association and the club of E.C Morley.
Birmingham Excelsior	George Tait	1	1881
Excelsior participated in the FA Cup for 5 seasons (1883–84 to 1887–88)
Blackburn Olympic	James Ward	1	1885
The first northern team to win the FA Cup, Olympic were in decline as neighbours Rovers prospered. They folded in 1889.
Casuals	Arthur Topham	1	1894
	Robert Topham	1	1894
	Richard Raine Barker	1	1895
London Amateurs, 1878-1939. Merged with Corinthians.
Clapham Rovers	Richard Geaves	1	1874
	Robert Ogilvie	1	1875
	Walter Scott Buchanan	1	1876
	Edgar Field	2	1876-81
	Norman Bailey	19	1878-87
	Reg Birkett	1	1879
	James Prinsep	1	1879
	Francis Sparks	2	1880
A successful London club.
Crewe Alexandra	John Hargreaves Pearson	1	1892
Crewe were members of the Football Alliance when Pearson was capped. They joined the league the following season.
Crystal Palace (#1)	Charles Chenery	3	1872-74
	Alexander Morten	1	1873
	Arthur Savage	1	1876
	Charles Smith	1	1876
The original Crystal Palace were a separate entity from the modern club.
Darwen	Thomas Brindle	2	1880
	Thomas Marshall	2	1880-81
	Thurston Rostron	2	1881
	Joseph Marsden	1	1891
Darwen were the premier side in Lancashire before the advent of Preston North End and Blackburn Rovers.
Great Lever	Alfred Jones	1	1883
A Bolton based club. Jones was also 'capped' from Walsall Swifts.
Harrow Chequers	Reginald de Courtney Welch	1	1872
A club for alumni of Harrow school. Hence- Morton Peto Betts’ Cup Final pseudonym of A. Harrow-Chequer.
Hendon	Charles Plumpton Wilson	2	1884
A suburban London amateur team, not connected with the present Hendon FC. Wilson was also a Rugby Union internationalist.
Herts Rangers	Robert Barker	1	1872
	Francis Sparks	1	1879
A Watford based club, a surrogate Cambridge University team. Joined the FA in 1866 and disolved in 1882.
Liverpool Ramblers	Gerald Dewhurst	1	1895
A Merseyside Amateur club. Dewhurst had the rare distinction of having a locomotive named in his honour, but for his business achievements rather than his renown as a footballer.
New Brighton Tower	Jack Robinson	3	1898
The man credited with modernizing the art of goalkeeping was part of NBT's bought to order squad.
Notts Rangers	Charlie Shelton	1	1888
Founded 1868, regulars in the FA Cup, founder members of the Midland League and expelled in the same season (1889-90).
Old Brightonians	George Cottrell	3	1892-93
	Leslie Gay	3	1893-94
Old Carthusians	Edward Perry	3	1879-82
	William Cobbold	7	1885-87
	A.M Walters	9	1885-90
	P. M Walters	13	1885-90
	Andrew Amos	2	1885-86
	Charles Wreford-Brown	4	1889-98
	Walter Gilliat	1	1893
	Hugh Stanbrough	1	1895
Old Etonians	Rupet Anderson	1	1879
	Lindsay Bury	1	1879
	Herbert Whitfield	1	1879
	Edward Christian	1	1879
	John Hawtrey	2	1881
	Harry Goodhart	3	1883
	Arthur Dunn	2	1892
	Robert Gosling	5	1892-95
Old Foresters	Percy Fairclough	1	1878
	Frederick Pelly	3	1893-94
Forest School is an independent school on the edge of Epping Forest, in Walthamstow in northeast London. That was cut and pasted from Wikipedia.
Old Harrovians	Morton Betts	1	1877
	Arnold Hills	1	1879
Old Westminsters	William Moon	7	1888-91
	Rupert Sandilands	5	1892-96
	William Winckworth	2	1892-93
	Alban Harrison	2	1893
	John Veitch	1	1894
Owlerton Sheffield	William Carr	1	1875
Another early Sheffield club.
Pilgrims	Harry Swepstone	6	1880-83
Swepstone, a goalkeeper, was a founder member of Corinthian and actually named that august club. Pilgrims were an amateur club run along similar lines.
Royal Engineers	Alfred Goodwyn	1	1873
	Pelham George von Donop	2	1873-75
	Herbert Rawson	1	1875
	Cecil Wingfield-Stratford	1	1877
	Horace Barnet	1	1882
	Bruce Russell	1	1883
Saltley College	Edward Johnson	1	1880
An educational establishment in Birmingham.
Sheffield	John Owen	1	1874
	John Hudson	1	1883
The original Sheffield FC.
Sheffield Albion	William Edwin Clegg	1	1879
	Billy Mosforth	4	1879-80
Sheffield Heeley	John Hunter	7	1878-82
A major force in early Sheffield football. Hunter was player - coach of Blackburn Olympic when they won the FA Cup.
Shropshire Wanderers	John Edwards	1	1874
A gentleman's club  based in Shrewsbury that featured in the development of the Welsh game. Edwards was later capped by Wales. Wanderers hold the distinction of being the only team to be knocked out of the FA Cup on the toss of a coin. (v Sheffield 1873-74)
Small Heath	Charles Charsley	1	1893
Evolved into Birmingham City.
Stafford Road	Richard Baugh	1	1886
Based in a railway works in Wolverhampton and founded by Charles Crump (later a major administrator of the game). They reached 2 of the first 3 Birmingham Senior Cup finals. They were ultimately overshadowed by the advent of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Swifts	Edward Haygarth	1	1875
	Ernest Henry Bambridge	1	1876
	Charlie Bambridge	18	1879-87
	Arthur Bambridge	3	1881-84
	William Rose	3	1884
	Francis Pawson	1	1885
	George Brann	3	1886-91
	Frank Saunders	1	1888
An amateur club from Slough, near London.
Thursday Wanderers	Thomas H Sorby	1	1879
A Sheffield club who didn't want to play on the same evening as one of the city's other clubs!
Upton Park	Conrad Warner	1	1878
	Segar Bastard	1	1880
	Clement Mitchell	5	1880-85
A London based amateur club, the stalking horses for the attack on Preston North End's professionalism.
Walsall Swifts	Alfred Jones	2	1882
Wednesbury Strollers	Alfred Harvey	1	1881
Staffordshire club founded in 1875.

Got it

Billy Meredith endorsing Oxo, a beef stock drink. 

The Cup win was City's first major honour. Newly promoted from Division 2,  they were in with a chance of the Double, topping the league on April 16th but losing their final League game to Everton 2 days after the Cup triumph.
 Tom Maley wrote the 'Oxo letter' 2 weeks before the Final. This might reflect the fact that City were odds on favourites to lift the Cup.  
It is interesting as well to see Maley described as 'secretary and manager'- the role was developing during this period- moving away from pure administration into the realms of team selection and tactical preperation. (Billy Sudell had pioneered this at Preston back in the 1880s).

El divino manco

Generally speaking, Hector Castro kept his right arm out of view. In group photographs he has one arm crossed over the other or tucked into his jacket pocket. There is one group photograph of  Nacional  in which Castro is steadying the ball with the stump of his right wrist.
I was intrigued, as a boy, to read that the winning goal (as it was described) in the first World Cup Final, had been scored by a 'one armed man'.
Castro lost his right hand in an accident with a bandsaw when he was 13 years of age.
His breakthrough year came in 1923, He moved from El Centro Atlético Lito , joining Nacional and also made his international debut.
He played for Uruguay 25 times, scoring 18 goals.

Castro was a gold medal winner at the 1928 Olympics.

He was a World Cup winner in 1930.

He played in the victorious South American Championship teams of 1926 and 1935. 

Thames Ironworks F.C.

Mr. Taylor, who is working in the shipbuilding department, has undertaken to get up a football club for next winter and I learn that quoits and bowls will also be added to the attractions. - Thames Iron Works Gazette 1895

 Thames Ironworks F.C. was founded in the summer of 1895 by Dave Taylor and Arnold Hills.

Hills was a remarkable man. A pioneering advocate of vegetarianism and a philanthropist. Among his interests was the Vegetarian Cycling and Athletic Club. An Old Harrovian, he played one international for England, against Scotland in 1879.
In 1895 he was managing director of The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited. He was a great believer in the edifying qualities of organized sport, and also supported the notion of football clubs representing the local community and of the members of that community being stakeholders inn the football club. 
Taylor was a foreman at the Ironworks.
Hills' background was reflected in the original kit of dark blue (Oxford University). The later (1899-1900) claret and blue was taken from the livery of The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company.
Ironworks were confident enough to enter the FA Cup in their very first season- losing 5-0 to Chatham in the preliminary qualifying round. A low point came with a 6-0 loss to Millwall.
the stats from Ironworks' first season were:

P	W	D	L	F	A
47	30	5	12	136	68

Thames Ironworks joined the Southern league for the  1899–1900 season. Mr Hills' influence was very much in evidence as he made £1,000 available to spend on new talent. 
Ironworks resigned from the Southern League and were dissolved in June 1900, reforming as West Ham United .

Valencia

A lovely, dynamic poster from the pre Civil War era. A balletic Valencia player heads the ball under pressure. 

A friendly in April 1929 against a selection from The Royal Navy. The Navy were great ambassadors for football, and there are records of them playing numerous matches in Spain in the 1920s.

Valencia used this poster throughout the 1920s and 30s. The games advertised were played at the Mestalla. Inaugurated in 1923 the grand stadium was developed during the 20s, the capacity growing from 17,000 to 25,000. During the Civil War the ground fell into disrepair when it was used as a prison camp. 

This match ended in a 1-1 draw. Real Madrid were officially Madrid Football Club at the time, as Spain was a republic. Madrid went on to win the title.  

Valencia's goal was scored by Sanchez Pia.

A 0-0 draw was the outcome of this match. Barcelona finished 3rd in the league, and Valencia 7th (from 10),

Capillas was Valencia' leading scorer in the 1931-32 season (9 goals in 10 matches).

Former Derby County player Randolph Galloway was the manager. 

Erster Wiener Arbeiter-Fußball-Club 1898 -SK Rapid Wien

Erster Wiener Arbeiter-Fußball-Club 1898- their colours were red and blue. 

In 1898  Erster Wiener Arbeiter-Fußball-Club (First Viennese Workers' Football Club) was founded. They drew their first ever fixture, against Meidlinger FC Vorwärts, 1-1.
Things went downhill from there. 
A game against Wiener AC was lost 20-0. They finished bottom in the Kaiser Franz Joseph Jubilee Tournament. In their first season 19 games saw them register only one victory (4-1 over Vindobona Wien) and  their goal difference that season was 13 for and 107 against. After only 8 months in existence the club held a crisis meeting on January 8th, 1899. A new name was adopted: Sport Club Rapid. A change in name didn't, however, herald a change in fortunes. Rapid were still struggling.
In 1900 the newspaper Neue Wiener Tagblatt sponsored a Viennese league , seen as the forerunner of the National League. This competition, the Tagblatt-Pokal, ran from  1900 to 1904. Rapid were in the second tier. 
In 1905 the club colours were changed to green and white.
By the time the Austrian football championship was inaugurated in 1911–12 (the interceding years had seen many attempts to formalize a league) Rapid had improved. They topped the 12 team Vienna section. They won the championship the following season and have gone on to become the most successful club in the history of  Austrian football. 

Die Grün-Weißen 1912

Two sides to every story...

1923. 

Vasco da Gama were champions of Serie B of the Rio de Janeiro Championship in 1922. The following season they won the top league at the first attempt.On March 1st 1924, a split occurred in the Rio league.

 A new governing body, the Associação Metropolitana de Esportes Athleticos (AMEA) was founded. 
The Confederação Brasileira de Desportos (CBD - Brazilian Sports Confederation) backed this new organization, and withdrew their backing for the  Liga Metropolitana de Desportos Terrestres.
The AMEA was endorsed by  Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo and America , in fact Vasco da Gama were the only leading club that remained on the old league. They won this league with a 100% record.
There was a reconciliation in 1925. Vasco joined the AMEA. The LMDT remained as a league for minor clubs.


History-version one:
The version of events surrounding this rift which is enshrined in the history of Vasco is that the AMEA
imposed discriminatory rules that excluded blacks and lower class citizens.  Vasco da Gama were the only club to really be affected by these new rules, as they were the peoples' club and did not regulate their membership in the way that some of the other Rio clubs did - poor people and black people saw Vasco  as being their club.  There had been previous legislation that had affected Vasco- regulations had been introduced that meant that players had to be able to sign in- again, perceived as being discriminatory against the illiterate poor . 
In response to this situation Vasco resigned from the league and their president, Dr. José Augusto Prestes, wrote the letter famously known as the resposta histórica . In 1925 AMEA relented and Vasco returned to the fold. They finished 3rd, behind  Flamengo and  Fluminense. 

History-version two:
Brazilian football was amateur.
Professionalism was not openly adopted by most clubs until 1933, when the clubs split into two leagues, one professional, and the other amateur. The Brazilian Confederation did not endorse the professional leagues until 1937, when it finally recognized professionalism and the rival leagues were then reconciled.
However, in the early 1920s Vasco were openly practicing professionalism. The other clubs were incensed by the fact that Vasco flagrantly paid their players, offered large signing on fees and bonuses.

The rival clubs launched an investigation into Vasco's players, and identified 12 who were 'of dubious profession'. Based on this AMEA asked Vasco to exclude 12 of its players from the league. These players were black.
 Denied the backbone of their squad Vasco were forced to stand down. 

So, were Vasco chastised for professionalism? or shunned by racists? Or were the elitist elements that had modeled Rio's clubs as exclusive organizations for the well to do simply resentful of Vasco's success?
Modern histories tend to view the stand they took, articulated in the resposta histórica , as being central to the development of football in Brazil as a game of equal opportunity, and indeed to the notion of civil rights in Brazil.  

Poldi Kielholz

Footballers who wore spectacles. It's been a pet subject of mine for many years. Nearsighted footballers in the pre war years didn't have the option of contact lenses or corrective surgery. If you've ever played with glasses on (and remember these were heavy glass lenses) you'll appreciate what a challenge it is.

It didn't seem to hamper Leopold 'Poldi' Kielholz. He played at the highest level in Switzerland and France for 18 years and appeared at 2 World Cups. In the pre Challenge National era  Kielholz played for BSC Old Boys Basel (1927-28), Black Stars Basel (1928-30) and FC Basel (1930-32). He joined Servette in 1932.

In 1933 the Challenge National kicked off, and Kielholz was top scorer with 40 goals. This haul has never been bettered. In all he played 188 league games, scoring 101 goals.

In 1935 Kielholz became player coach at FC Bern, a role he also undertook at Stade Reims . In 1937 he returned to Switzerland where he played for St. Gallen and later Young Fellows Zurich.

 Kielholz represented Switzerland 17 times, scoring 12 goals.

Brazil lose 6-0 to Uruguay

Viña del Mar, Chile, 18.09.20. The third game of the 1920 Campeonato Sudamericano / Campeonato Sul-Americano. Defending champions Brazil, having beaten Chile 1-0 in the opener, come up against Uruguay, who have drawn their first game (against Argentina) 1-1.
What happened next may have been beyond our comprehension until quite recently.
Uruguay, fielding a strong team made up entirely of players from Peñarol and Nacional, hammered 6 goals past Kuntz . It was Brazil's greatest defeat , unmatched for 94 years.

 Uruguay

Brazil

Disputes between the governing bodies of São Paulo and Rio De Janeiro football led to the Seleção  being drawn exclusively from Rio and Santos players.
Romano put Uruguay ahead in the 23rd minute. Antonio Urdinarán scored from the spot on 26 minutes and  Pérez added a third after 29.
The second period saw Cámpolo add a fourth before Romano and  Pérez completed the scoring. Brazil kept the Uruguayans out for the last 25 minutes of the game.

The unfortunate keeper was Julio Kuntz Filho . He played 10 internationals in total (9 championship matches and 1 friendly) keeping 5 clean sheets. 5 of the games were won, 1 drawn and 4 lost. Kuntz was a member of the championship winning Brazil team of 1922.

Brazil			Uruguay
Kuntz	Flamengo	G	Juan Legnazzi	Peñarol
Telefone	Flamengo	RB	Antonio Urdinarán	Nacional
Martins	São Cristóvão	LB	Alfredo Foglino	Nacional
Japonês	Flamengo	HB	Pascual Ruotta	Peñarol
Sisson	Flamengo	HB	Alfredo Zibechi	Nacional
Fortes	Fluminense	HB	Andrés Ravera	Peñarol
De Maria	Andarahy	F	Pascual Somma	Nacional
Zezé	Fluminense	F	José Pérez	Peñarol
Castelhano	Santos	F	José Piendibene	Peñarol
Junqueira	Flamengo	F	Ángel Romano	Nacional
Alvarizza	Brasil-RS	F	Antonio Cámpolo	Peñarol

Koninklijke HFC

Koninklijke HFC is the oldest club in the Netherlands. Founded as Royal Haarlemsche Football Club (notice in the good old tradition of 19th century pioneer clubs they went for Football Club , not voetbalclub) they were originally a Rugby team put together in 1879 by a 14 year old ( Pim Mulier- who later went on to introduce bandy to the Netherlands and was President of the International Skating Union).
 In 1883  the club switched to Association football. For a couple of seasons they  contented themselves with games played between scratch teams of members, the The first official football match in the Netherlands was played in 1886 between HFC and Amsterdam Sport.
Koninklijke HFC currently play in the Hoofdklasse. I doubt that the players of today sport such an impressive array of headwear. 

Gone but not forgotten- Leeds City

Leeds City have the dubious distinction of being the only team to be booted out of the League whilst the season was in progress.
Formed in 1904 they were elected to the League in 1905- the League favoured applications from clubs based in non soccer areas (Yorkshire, aside from Sheffield, being very much a Northern Union region).

	League	FA Cup
1905-06	Div.2 6th	Q3
1906-07	Div.2 10th	R1
1907-08	Div.2 12th	R1
1908-09	Div.2 12th	R2
1909-10	Div.2 17th	R1
1910-11	Div.2 11th	R1
1911-12	Div.2 19th	R2
1912-13	Div.2 6th	R1
1913-14	Div.2 4th	R2
1914-15	Div.2 15th	R2
1919-20	Div.2 expelled

In  1912–13 Herbert Chapman became club secretary. His involvement with the club during the war years nearly deprived English Football of one of it's authentic geniuses.  

When club Directors refused to cooperate in an FA / Football League investigation into irregular payments Leeds City were expelled from the League and 5 club officials, including Chapman, were banned from football for life. The irregularities arose from the club's failure to follow the Football League's directive, set out in 1915, that players could only receive expenses for playing in the stop gap wartime competitions, In effect all players were amateurs for the duration- no one was supposed to make a living from the game. 

Here is one version of the events, gleaned from contemporary press reports:

Mr Connor, former chairman of the board of directors told the press (The Yorkshire Evening Post) that his syndicate (effectively the banned parties) had taken over the club in 1914, when, he said, the club was on the verge of collapse.

Mr Connor said that the club was then (October 1919) actually in credit.

Mr Connor states that when Herbert Chapman left the club to do his war work he recommended that his assistant (referred to by Mr Connor as Mr Chapman’s ‘personal employee’) Mr Cripps, should take on the financial management of the club. Mr Connor claims to have been opposed to this. After one season the club’s books were in such a chaotic condition that Mr Connor threatened to resign.

Mr Cripps was replaced by an accountant and went back to the team selection role. However, the directors did not want Cripps to travel to away matches with the team, preferring instead to send one of their own number. This led to the players threatening to go on strike.

Relationships got very strained and the directors decided to fire Cripps, at which point he made accusations of financial impropriety against the club.

Cripps took legal action, claiming £400 but ending up with £50. He had to return any correspondence regarding the club to their solicitor and sign an undertaking not to make public any of the club’s affairs.

Charlie Copeland

Defender Charlie Copeland was the next key figure. He rejected the clubs pay offer of £3 10 s a week, and wrote to the directors saying that if they didn't pay him £6 a week he would blow the whistle regarding illegal payments. When his request was ignored and he was placed on the free transfer list, Copeland went to the FA.

The FA investigating committee requested access to the club’s documents, and the directors, knowing them to containing evidence of irregular payments to players, declined to cooperate.

Source: Interview with Mr Connor, Yorkshire Evening Post, 14.10.19