James Arthur Bradford (3 July 1902 – 13 April 1944) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played his entire professional career (from 1922 to 1936) as a half back with

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. He was one of the "Saints"' most loyal players ever.

Playing career

Bradford was born in

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

and played his youth football with

Bloxwich Bloxwich is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England. It is located between the towns of Walsall, Cannock, Willenhall and Brownhills. Early history Bloxwich has its origins at least as early as t ...

All Saints, before joining the Talbot Stead Tube works team (from which Ted Hough was signed in October 1921) where he was spotted by scouts from Southampton and offered a trial. After a successful trial he signed a professional contract in September 1922 but didn't make his first team debut until 18 April 1924 in a

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

match at

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

, replacing Bill Turner at

centre half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

. He spent the first half of the following season in the reserves until mid-February when he was called into the team at left half (with George Harkus moving forward), and retained his place for the rest of the season. For the 1925–26 season he played approximately half of the league games and scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 victory over Fulham on 10 April 1925. He missed most of the following season, unable to break into the established half-back line of

Bert Shelley Frederick Albert "Bert" Shelley (11 August 1899 – 29 December 1971) was an English footballer, who played as a half back for Southampton, for whom he made nearly 450 appearances, before becoming a coach at Southampton. His total of 448 appeara ...

, George Harkus and Stan Woodhouse. From 1927–28 onwards he was more regularly selected by manager

Arthur Chadwick Arthur Chadwick (July 1875 – 21 March 1936) was a professional footballer whose playing career as a centre-half included spells at Portsmouth and Southampton, before going on to be manager at Exeter City, Reading and Southampton. He also mad ...

, often filling in at full back in place of

Michael Keeping Alexander Edwin Michael Keeping (22 August 1902 – 28 March 1984) was an English footballer and manager. He coached Real Madrid CF from January 1948 to October 1950. His father was the Olympic medal winning cyclist Frederick Keeping. Playing ca ...

or Ted Hough. According to Holley & Chalk, he was "''ideally built for a centre-back role (his) versatility was put to good use and in emergencies he would even play in goal''". Midway through the 1929–30 season he was moved to right-back taking over from Hough for the rest of the season, retaining his place at right back for the following season, in which he missed only three matches. Following the departure of manager Chadwick in April 1931, his replacement

George Kay George Kay (21 September 1891 – 18 April 1954) was an English football player and manager of Luton Town, Southampton and Liverpool. The highlight of his playing career was when he captained West Ham United in the first FA Cup final to be play ...

signed Frank Campbell from Scotland who was generally preferred to Bradford, who played in only about half the matches in 1931–32. By the following season, with Johnny McIlwaine taking a year out to play in the

Welsh League The Welsh League was the first club rugby league competition in Wales.Lush (1998), pg. 19 Its inaugural season was in 1908/09 when four additional teams were formed to join Ebbw Vale RLFC and Merthyr Tydfil RLFC, which allowed a league tournamen ...

, Bradford was team captain, missing only four matches as Saints again finished in

mid-table obscurity. He continued to appear regularly over the next few seasons, and could be selected for any of the two full back and three centre back positions. After 14 seasons at The Dell, Bradford eventually retired at the end of the 1935–36 season. During this period he played under four managers and made a total of 319 appearances (with 7 goals); all his league matches were in the Second Division in a period during which the Saints struggled financially and were generally forced to sell their better players to survive. Bradford's loyalty and longevity earned him two benefit matches. After leaving the Saints, he became the licensee at the Plume of Feathers public house in St Mary's Street. He also played one season with Cowes Sports helping them to win the

Hampshire Senior Cup The Hampshire Senior Cup is a cup competition open to football teams affiliated with the Hampshire Football Association. The competition was founded in 1887 and has been contested every year since, with the exception of 1914 to 1919 when it was p ...

. He died in

on 13 April 1944 aged only 41 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradford, Arthur 1902 births 1944 deaths Footballers from Walsall English men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Southampton F.C. players Cowes Sports F.C. players