James Robert Murray (11 October 1935 – 27 September 2008) 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 le ...

, who spent the majority of his league career with

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

Career

Murray was signed up by Wolves as a youngster and turned professional in November 1953. He spent a few seasons in the reserves before he finally made his league debut on 12 November 1955 in a 2–0 win over

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

. He quickly established himself within the team that season, scoring 11 goals, and remained a prolific scorer for the club over the following seasons. In 1957/58, he was the leading goalscorer as the club captured the league title, which they retained the next season. Murray also won an

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 ...

winners medal in 1960, as he played in the 3–0

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

win over

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

. His time at Molineux also saw him appearing in European games, and scoring against the likes of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. He finally left for

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

for £27,000 in November 1963 after scoring a total of 166 goals in 299 senior games, ending as leading goalscorer in three seasons. At

Maine Road Maine Road was a football stadium in Moss Side, Manchester, England, that was home to Manchester City F.C. from 1923 to 2003. It hosted FA Cup semi-finals, the Charity Shield, a League Cup final and England matches. Maine Road's highest atte ...

, the striker was part of the side that won promotion back to the top flight in 1965/66, before ending his league career at Third Division

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

. He finished his playing days with two seasons at non-league Telford United, where he reached two successive

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

finals (one victoriously). After ending his playing career, Murray ran a greengrocers in Tamworth and later worked for a contract car company. He died in

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

, where he had resided, on 27 September 2008 from prostate cancer, aged 72.

References

External links

Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Jimmy 1935 births 2008 deaths Sportspeople from Dover, Kent Footballers from Kent English footballers England under-23 international footballers English Football League players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Deaths from prostate cancer Deaths from cancer in England Association football forwards English Football League representative players Telford United F.C. players FA Cup Final players