DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Our Wee Country
HTML https://ourweecountry2020.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: NI Football History and Heritage
*****************************************************
#Post#: 2937--------------------------------------------------
Our first English Champion?
By: jcd Date: December 24, 2020, 5:19 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Who was the first (Northern) Irishman to win the English title?
It is one of those questions that may be up for some debate.
I offer the following suggestions...
Davy "Chippy" Hannah [Sunderland 1892 and 1893]
HTML https://www.lfchistory.net/Players/Player/Profile/650
HTML http://statcats.co.uk/Player.aspx?PlayerID=398
Uncapped and listed in most sources as being born in Raffrey
(which my BB football days remind me is in the arse end of
nowhere, somewhere near Downpatrick). It appears he never played
the game over here at any level, starting his career in Scotland
with Renton (one of the biggest sides in the early days of
football
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renton_F.C.)
before
moving to the officially professional sides Sunderland and then
Liverpool.
Now, no surprise he wasn't capped by Ireland as "Anglo"-based
players weren't selected/available for selection by the IFA
until 1899, so he might be ignored on that basis. Another fly in
the ointment is that some sources list him as being born in
Raffrey in Scotland, a place which I can't find on Google maps.
Was he really Scottish?
Jack Reynolds [Aston Villa 1894, 1896 and 1897]
HTML https://nifootball.blogspot.com/2006/10/jack-reynolds.html
This one is a bit clearer in terms of facts. Born in Blackburn
to a soldiering family, he spent most of his childhood in
Ireland before returning to Lancashire where he started his
playing career. He signed up for the army himself and got posted
to Belfast where he then played for Distillery and (presumably
with a bit of a "local" accent, or perhaps he was just elegible
due to residency rules as they were applied back then?) was
selected for Ireland. He later moved back to England, enjoying
success with West Brom and Villa as well as (when his actual
birthplace was discovered) selection for England.
Definitely the first Irish international Football League
champion, just not actually Irish!
Willie "W.K." Gibson [Sunderland 1902]
HTML https://nifootball.blogspot.com/2006/12/wk-gibson.html
Another one where his birthplace throws all sorts of shade. His
parents were from Belfast, he grew up in Belfast, but he seems
to have been born in Glasgow! Made his name and was capped by
Ireland while with Cliftonville, he spent a few months in the
north-east of England in 1902, during which he played a single
game for Sunderland as they claimed the league title. He is
listed in an early-1900s yearbook as Ireland's first English
title winner.
Did he really "earn" a medal, did he pocket one on the sly, was
the yearbook wrong, or was this just some some dis-information
propogated by a bit of a self-publicist?
Bill McCracken [Newcastle 1905, 1907, 1909]
HTML https://nifootball.blogspot.com/2007/07/bill-mccracken.html
McCracken is the only one on the list who was a definite Irish
international, Irish born, English title winner! Won a title
with Distillery before moving to Newcastle where he won Leagues
and FA Cups and was that good at the off-side trap that they
re-wrote the laws of the game. Also, fell out with the IFA for
over a decade before coming back to win his last caps at 40!
As a footnote, the three titles claimed by Reynolds and
McCracken has only been matched by one other Ulster-man, Jonny
Evans [Man U 2009, 2011, 2013].
#Post#: 3039--------------------------------------------------
Re: Our first English Champion?
By: jcd Date: January 4, 2021, 3:46 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://ryehillfootball.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/W-Bob-Kyle.jpg
The only ever Irish (North or South) manager to lead a team to
the English title was Bob Kyle in 1913.
He had learned his trade with Distillery winning 3 titles, 2
Irish Cups, a City Cup, 3 Co Antrim Shields and a Charities Cup
between 1897 and 1905.
He was then head hunted by Sunderland where he was boss through
to 1928, making him theur longest serving manager.
HTML http://ryehillfootball.co.uk/sunderland-afc/bob-kyle-safcs-longest-serving-manager/
*****************************************************