South Yorkshire’s sporting history is filled with influential names like Gordon Banks, Seb Coe, Prince Naseem and Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill.
But for all the Goughs, the Roots and the Brights, there are others whose names have withered into obscurity.
Some you might not have heard of. Others you might have forgotten.
But thanks to the team at Sheffield Home of Football, here’s a look at five people from our region who changed the face of sport.
Harry Wright – Father of professional baseball
Did you know that America’s Major League Baseball can be attributed to a man born in Sheffield?
Harry Wright is a baseball hall of famer who started the professional game in America over 150 years ago.
In 1869 he assembled, managed and played for the country’s first salaried team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings. Over the next 20-odd years he went on to have a then-record of 1,225 victories and six pennants.
But his career started in baseball’s English brother: cricket.
Born in Sheffield in 1835, Harry was the eldest son of professional cricketer, Samuel Wright. The family emigrated to the States a few years later as Samuel had taken a job as a bowler, coach and groundskeeper of the St George’s Dragonslayers cricket club in New York.
Harry dropped out of school aged 14 to work in the jewellery trade, mainly at Tiffany and Co., before he and younger brother George joined their dad as apprentices.
The brothers both played baseball for leading amateur clubs and Harry became the first openly paid player for the original New York Knickerbockers.
In 1865, Harry left New York for Cincinnati to join the Union Cricket Club as a club pro. But baseball boomed the following year and he set up a team, recruiting America’s best players, including brother George.
The Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional team, with all ten players receiving a salary for the eight-month season. They were indomitable, but their reign was short lived as the rest of the country caught up, resulting in them disbanding in 1870.
The Wright brothers moved to Boston and created a new Red Stockings team. Harry managed for 15 more seasons in Boston, Providence and Philadelphia.
Known as the originator of teamwork, he became the first manager to reach 1,000 wins. He introduced many aspects of the fabric of baseball, including hand signals, uniforms, and the hit and run strategy. He also came up with the idea of reserve teams to develop major league talent, going south in the spring for training, and positioning fielders according to hitters’ tendencies.
But he also had health troubles. He went blind in 1890 due to catarrh of the eyeballs, regaining his eyesight almost a year later. He died of a lung ailment aged 60 in 1895.
Harry was finally inducted into the baseball hall of fame half a century later in 1953.
Herbert Chapman – Godfather of Arsenal
Rotherham’s Herbert Chapman was one of the most influential and successful managers in the early 20th Century.
He reinvented Arsenal from a relegation languishing team to the greatest side football had ever seen.
The son of a miner, born in Kiveton Park in 1878, Herbert was one of 11 kids. Two of his brothers became professional footballers: younger brother Harry won the FA Cup with Sheffield Wednesday in 1907.
Herbert wasn’t as skilled a player as Harry, and he was a typical journeyman, playing for various clubs at amateur level. He started with Kiveton Park Colliery then moved to Lancashire before joining Grimsby Town. He eventually turned professional in 1901 with Northampton Town and had spells at Sheffield United, Notts County and Spurs.
However, management is where his impact on the pitch would thrive. In 1907, he was asked to manage his old club, Northampton, and led them to the Southern League title. A brief spell at the now defunct Leeds City preceded him joining Huddersfield Town in 1921.
This led to his first major honour – the FA Cup – followed by two successive league titles. He was then drawn to the bright lights of London, having been wooed by the owners of Arsenal with a salary twice the amount offered by the Terriers.
At Arsenal, Herbert had a five-year plan to make them the Newcastle of the South. His goal came true in 1930 with their first FA Cup win against his old club, Huddersfield.
Over the next few years, Arsenal dominated the league, winning an unprecedented four league titles.
Herbert was one of the first managers in the modern sense of the word. He took full charge of the team: he picked the side, demanded fitness from his players, had weekly tactics meetings, was the first to use physios and masseurs, and encouraged players to socialise by playing golf.
He also introduced the WM formation (3-2-2-3), advocated for the use of white balls and numbered shirts, and added white sleeves to Arsenal’s red home kit.
However, his run of good form was cut short. He died of pneumonia in 1934, aged 55, having returned from watching Sheffield United at Bramall Lane with a cold. He is one of only two Arsenal managers with memorials at the club’s Highbury and Emirates stadiums, the other being Arsene Wenger.
Billy Mosforth – England’s first working-class international footballer
Sheffield’s Billy Mosforth had many firsts to his name.
He was the first to play for both Sheffield United and The Wednesday, the first to score for both clubs and the first to score at each club’s respective grounds, Bramall Lane and Olive Grove.
But his most important ‘first’ was being the first working-class player to get an England call up. He had nine caps for England between 1877 and 1882, a record at the time.
Born in Sheffield in 1858, Billy made his football debut for Sheffield Albion aged 14. He stayed with the team for six years.
As an amateur, Billy wasn’t tied to one club and from 1875 he played concurrently for Hallam FC for nine years, the Sheffield FA representative team, and The Wednesday for ten years.
It was during that time Billy made his international debut. The engraver joined a team of well-to-do, privately educated lads to become the first working class player for the national team.
Back home in Sheffield, he switched allegiance from blue to red when Sheffield United was formed in 1889, staying with the Blades for one season until he retired from football in 1890. He became a pub landlord and died in 1929 aged 71.
Jack Hunter – First working-class captain of England
Another working-class hero in Victorian football was Sheffield’s Jack Hunter.
In a country built on hierarchical systems and adhering to a rigid class system, the silversmith from Sheffield would become the first working class man to captain England – remarkably while playing for Heeley FC.
Born in the city in 1851, Jack had many jobs alongside his footballing career, from a butcher to a gardener and a dairy farmhand.
He joined Heeley FC aged 19 in 1870 and got his first England call-up in 1878. He made seven appearance for the national team over the next four years and was selected as captain in a match against Wales in February 1881. He played alongside the aforementioned Billy Mosforth.
After his international career came to an end, Jack was hounded out of Sheffield and moved to Lancashire in 1882.
He’d been accused by the county FA of bringing football into disrepute by receiving payment for playing. He had been part of the Zulus team, a travelling football club set up to raise fund for families of soldiers killed in the Zulu war.
But Sheffield’s loss was Lancashire’s gain. Jack became player-coach at Blackburn Olympic, a team of weavers and tradesmen who went on to win the FA Cup the following year against the Old Etonians.
Jack then joined Blackburn Rovers in 1887 before becoming a trainer and groundsman. He died of TB in 1903 aged 52.
Mark Crook – First football academy scout
One name from the Dearne Valley who has gone under the radar in recent years is Mark Crook.
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ history might have looked very different without him.
Born in Morely in 1903, Mark went on to become a winger at Wolves in the 1930s. He scored 16 goals in 81 appearances for the club.
After retiring before WWI, he moved to Rotherham and bought a chip shop in Wath but kept his hand in grassroots football. He spotted two local lads who he took to Molineux for a trial.
In 1938 he formed Wath Wanderers, a feeder club to Wolves and the first football academy of its kind. Over the next 30 seasons, he scouted over 100 youngsters who went on to become top names in football.
Players like the Robledo brothers, England World Cup winner Ron Flowers, and Wolves’ hall of famers Roy Swinbourne and Alan Sunderland were all coached by Mark at his Brampton-based club.
He died in 1977 aged 73 and his legacy has gone unnoticed over the last 50 years.
However, local football historian Chris Brook is championing a project to publicise the story of Mark Crook. On 30th May at 2pm, a blue plaque is to be unveiled on the Cortonwood Miners Welfare building, where Wath Wanderers were based. Then later this year, a new book called Feeding the Wolves is set to be released.
For more stories about Sheffield’s sporting heritage, visit www.sheffieldhomeoffootball.org
