Sunderland AFC – Miscellany
Gary Rowell; penalty king BOTTLING IT On 28 December 1920 31 year old Owen Coggins appeared before Sunderland Magistrates accused of hitting a fellow Sunderland supporter with a bottle in the Roker End during The Boxing Day encounter with Bolton Wanderers. In his defence Coggins indicated that previously he had…
Sunderland AFC – Animal Crackers!
Sunderland captain Charlie Thomson with the clubs Black Cat and newly born kittens at Roker Park circa 1912 On 20 December 1884 Sunderland recorded their biggest ever victory when they defeated Castletown 23 v 0. Commenting on the game in 1931 a Sunderland founder John Grayston indicated that Hylton’s Colonel…
The Sheriff Of London Charity Shield; Corinthians 0 v 3 Sunderland AFC, White Hart Lane, Tottenham – 28 February 1903
In 1898 a Shield was offered by Sir Thomas Dewar to be competed for by the best professional and amateur football sides of the year and the proceeds were to be devoted to charity. In time it became known as the Charity Shield and then underwent various name changes before…
The Myth Surrounding October 1879
Having established that what became Sunderland AFC was founded on, most probably, 25 September 1880 it is only fair to take a look at how October 1879 came to be accepted as the founding date. The first brief histories of the club appeared in the two Wearside dailies, the Echo…
Happy Birthday Sunderland AFC – 136 Years Old!
On Monday 27 September 1880 there was a critical announcement, as far as the formation of SAFC is concerned, detailed in the Sunderland Daily Echo that points to a formation date of 25 September 1880. It read as follows: SUNDERLAND AND DISTRICT TEACHERS FOOTBALL CLUB “The teachers of Sunderland and…
Johnny Campbell
Johnny Campbell With His Family In Scotland - Unknown Date One of the most commonly used pictures to accompany articles about the Team of all the Talents is that of Johnny Campbell, thumbs hooked into his shorts, looking as if he meant business. And for eight years in Sunderland he…
Sunderland AFC and the Great Britain Olympic Team
Sunderland AFC and the Great Britain Olympic Team Ronald Brebner; Sunderland AFC's Goalkeeper and Olympic Gold Medal Winner Many football fans will look upon the Great Britain Olympic football team as something of a novelty. The last time we entered a team in qualifying was in the of the 1972…
Arthur “Tricky” Hawes
Arthur Robert 'Tricky' Hawes was born on the 2nd of October 1895 in Swanton Morley. An inside left/forward, he remains to this day one of the more accomplished professional footballers to hail from Norfolk, though circumstances dictated that Norwich City were unable to benefit beyond one competitive season. He left…
Charlie Hurley – The Greatest Centre Half
Charlie Hurley Hurley, extreme right, scores at Carrow Road in 1961 to dump Norwich out of the FA Cup "King" Charlie was voted player of the century by Sunderland football fans, on November 25 1979 at the Mayfair Ballroom, to co-incide with the centenary celebrations. He was born in…
The Story Of Johnny Crossan
Johnny Crossan - December 1963 In the late 1950s the Coleraine Chronicle reported almost exclusively on the affairs of its largely rural readership, who turned to it each week to keep them informed of the latest ploughing competitions, and to discover if any cows had been run over in the…