James Millar (4 May 1876 – January 1932) was a Scottish professional

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 as a half back.

Career

Millar spent his early career with

Elgin City Elgin City Football Club (also known as City or The Black and Whites) is a professional senior football club based in Elgin, Moray. Elgin was founded in 1893 and originally played their football in the Highland Football League. The club was g ...

, Rangers, Port Glasgow Athletic and

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

.Frost, p. 124 At Rangers he played as an "attacking

wing half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

" and won the Scottish Football League title in his one full season, 1898–99, playing in the final five of the 18 fixtures – all of which Rangers won. For Middlesbrough, he made 20 appearances in the Football League; he also made 3

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

appearances. He joined

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. ...

in June 1903, becoming one of the club's first professional players. He was a "popular figure" and was elected by his teammates to serve as vice-captain to both Johnny McMillan and

Fred Halliday Simon Frederick Peter Halliday (22 February 1946 – 26 April 2010) was an Irish writer and academic specialising in International Relations and the Middle East, with particular reference to the Cold War, Iran, and the Arabian peninsula. Biog ...

. He played in City's first ever Football League match on 1 September 1903, against Grimsby Town, playing as centre-half in that game. He spent most of his time with City playing as a half back. He retired due to injury in 1907, having made 118 league and 11 FA Cup appearances. In 1909, Bradford City gave him a benefit match (shared with George Robinson). That same year he returned to football, playing with

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

until 1912. Millar later worked as a sheep farmer in Australia, before dying in

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

in January 1932, aged 55. Millar was also a "fine landscape painter".

Career statistics

Sources

References

1876 births 1932 deaths Scottish men's footballers Sportspeople from Elgin, Moray Footballers from Moray Elgin City F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Port Glasgow Athletic F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Aberdeen F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Men's association football wing halves Scottish emigrants to Australia Scottish emigrants to the United States Australian sheep industry Scottish landscape painters {{Scotland-footy-midfielder-1870s-stub