James Adams (17 August 1864 – 21 April 1943) was a Scottish

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 le ...

who played for Heart of Midlothian, Everton and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. He started his senior career with Hearts, and won the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1891 Events January–March * January 1 ** Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany. ** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence. **Germany takes formal possession of its new Africa ...

(their first major trophy and the first time the competition had been won by a team from the Scottish capital). He played in England for Everton for two seasons from 1894 to 1896, before playing one more season for Hearts in 1896–97 and finishing with a short spell at St Bernard's. Adams won three caps for

, spread across four years. In an era when representative matches between cities and regions were frequent, he was selected for Edinburgh / East of Scotland on more than a dozen occasions. Adams once deliberately

handled the ball Handled the ball was formerly one of the methods of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket, but was integrated into the Law on obstructing the field when the Laws of Cricket were rewritten in 2017. It dictated that either batsman can be g ...

to prevent a

goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ai ...

from being scored (against

East Stirlingshire East Stirlingshire Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish association football club based in the town of Falkirk. The club was founded in 1881 and competes in the , in the fifth tier of the Scottish football league system. The club's origins ca ...

during Hearts' 1891 cup run), and the outcry resulting from this incident led to the introduction of the

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

.Sat 20 Dec 1890 14:30 East Stirlingshire 1 Hearts 3
London Hearts Supporters Club. Retrieved 14 March 2022 After retiring as a player, Adams became a football

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. He later emigrated to the United States where he worked as a

mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...

, and died in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

in 1943.

References

External links

*
International stats
at londonhearts.com

at londonhearts.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, James 1864 births 1943 deaths Footballers from Edinburgh Association football defenders Scottish footballers Scotland international footballers Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Everton F.C. players St Bernard's F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Scottish football referees Scottish Football League representative players Scottish emigrants to the United States