Ephraim Dodds (7 September 1915 – 23 February 2007) 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 ...
. He played in the
1936 FA Cup Final, and, at the time of his death was the oldest surviving player to have played in a final at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...
.
Club career
Dodds was born in
Grangemouth. His father died when he was two years old. His family moved to
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
* Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
in 1927 after his mother remarried. Four years later, at the age of 16, he began his career at
First Division Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...
as a
centre forward.
In 1934, after just two years with the Terriers, and via a short spell with
Lincoln City, he took a free transfer to
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 ...
Sheffield United
Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...
. Dodds later became the ''Blades leading scorer for four successive seasons, netting a total of 130 goals in just 203 appearances.
His debut came on 15 September 1934, against
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...
but despite playing and scoring regularly in the following months, the club was unconvinced that he was yet of first-team quality. The club made an enquiry into the return of former player
Jimmy Dunne
James Dunne (3 September 1905 – 14 November 1949) was an Irish footballer who played for, among others, Shamrock Rovers, Sheffield United, Arsenal and Southampton. Dunne was also a dual internationalist and played for both Ireland teams: ...
, who found himself out of favour at
Arsenal after he had been sold, but this came to nothing due to a
cartilage injury. Dodds secured his position by scoring four goals in the next game, a 6–1 victory against
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 ...
on 16 February 1935. His prolific goalscoring helped the club reach the
1936 FA Cup Final, in which he almost scored, hitting the crossbar with a header. It was said by
Ernest Jackson that he would have scored nine times out of ten from such a position and Dodds himself claimed that he had been pushed in the back by
Wilf Copping
Wilfred Copping (17 August 1909 – June 1980) was an English footballer who played for Leeds United, Arsenal and the England national team.
Career Leeds United
Copping was born in Middlecliffe, Barnsley, Yorkshire, but was rejected by his ...
. United ultimately lost the final to Arsenal, 1–0, thanks to a goal by
Ted Drake
Edward Joseph Drake (16 August 1912 – 30 May 1995) was an English football player and manager. As a player, he first played for Southampton but made his name playing for Arsenal in the 1930s, winning two league titles and an FA Cup, as wel ...
.
Big, strong and quick, Dodds worked hard at his game and was duly rewarded. His 100th league goal came in his 154th appearance, against
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...
on 12 September 1938. His last appearance for the Blades came against city rivals
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...
on 4 March 1939.
Dodds moved to First Division
Blackpool in March 1939 for £10,000,
citing family reasons as the source of his transfer request. At the time it was the second highest transfer fee, to the record fee of £14,000 paid to
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 ...
by
Arsenal for
Bryn Jones. Dodds agreed terms of £6 a week plus a £2 bonus for every first-team appearance.
On his move to
Blackpool Dodds later said, ''"It was a lovely sunny day and after the sooty streets of
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
I remember thinking it was like coming to paradise."''
He made his ''Seasiders'' debut on 11 March 1939, in a defeat at
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 ...
, scoring Blackpool's only goal. He went on to score four in a home win over
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 ...
and quickly became a favourite. The
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
intervened, and the
Football League programme was abandoned. Dodds joined the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
, and was stationed in Blackpool as a PT instructor
sergeant.
He continued to play for Blackpool, with most of his goals in the war years coming in regional competitions. In the
North Regional League
The North Regional League was a football competition in Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former b ...
, he scored 65 goals in 1941–2, and then 47 goals in 1942–3. In 1943, Blackpool beat Sheffield Wednesday over two legs to win the
League Cup North, and then defeated
League Cup South champions Arsenal 4–2, mainly thanks to right winger
Stanley Matthews
Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while sti ...
. He scored eight goals against
Stockport County
Stockport County Football Club are a professional football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they were renamed Stockport Co ...
in 1941, and seven goals against
Tranmere Rovers
Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...
in 1942, including a hat-trick in just minutes. For over 60 years it stood as the fastest hat-trick in the
Football League, before
James Hayter bettered it by ten seconds in 2004.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Dodds played guest matches for
Manchester United,
Fulham and
West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
. He also made one guest appearance for Clapton Orient, against Queens Park Rangers on 14 October 1944. Orient lost 0-3 before 3,000 spectators.
In seven years at
Bloomfield Road
Bloomfield Road is a single-tier football stadium in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901. It is the third stadium in the club's existence, the previous two being Raikes Hall Gardens and the At ...
, Dodds scored well over 200 goals, including 66 in
1941-2 alone.
He signed for Irish side
Shamrock Rovers in August 1946 and scored twice on his debut at
Milltown on 8 Septembe
In total he played five games, two in the
Dublin City Cup and three in the
League of Ireland Shield
The League of Ireland Shield ( ga, Sciath Sraithe na hÉireann) is a defunct Irish football tournament which was introduced when the League of Ireland started in 1921 and ran uninterrupted until 1972. It was played before the league season began ...
scoring four goals before being sold to
Everton in November 1946 for £7,75
Everton were in desperate need of a centre forward after
Dixie Dean retired and
Tommy Lawton
Thomas Lawton (6 October 1919 – 6 November 1996) was an English football player and manager. A strong centre-forward with excellent all-round attacking skills, he was able to head the ball with tremendous power and accuracy.
Born in F ...
moved to
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
. Dodds scored 36 goals in 55 league appearances for the Toffees in 1946–8. He was sold to his former club Lincoln City in October 1948 for £6,000, where he ended his playing career.
International career
Dodds made all eight of his international appearances for
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
during the wartime period, and thus they are unofficial. On 18 April 1942, he netted a
hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...
in a 5–4 win over
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
at
Hampden Park in front of a crowd of 91,000.
England Wartime/Victory Internationals – RSSSF.com
/ref> Bill Shankly hit Scotland's winning goal. Dodds scored 8 goals in his 6 games versus England.["Hughie Gallacher" qosfc.com]
/ref>
Post-retirement
After retiring as a player, he tried to recruit players to go to Bogotá, to play in a new league outside FIFA control. He was banned by the Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...
in July 1950 for bringing the game into disrepute, but was later cleared. He decided against taking up positions in football management, and concentrated on business interests in Blackpool, where he said of the town in 1989, ''"I have lived here ever since is move from Sheffield in 1939and love the place."
On 22 February 1989 Dodds was given a certificate for his two-and-a-half-minute hat-trick against Tranmere Rovers in 1942, which had for many years been listed in the Guinness Book of Records. ''"I have been listed in the'' Guinness Book of Records ''for years but I never thought about a certificate until I read about a woman receiving one for being the oldest golfer to hit a hole in one. A friend wrote to the GBR asking if I could have a certificate and they sent one to me."''
Dodds' wife died in 2005, and he died two years later, on 24 February 2007 at Blackpool's Victoria Hospital. At the time of his death he was the oldest living FA Cup finalist, aged 91.
Blackpool F.C. Hall of Fame
Dodds was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Bloomfield Road, when it was officially opened by former Blackpool player Jimmy Armfield
James Christopher Armfield, (21 September 1935 – 22 January 2018) was an English professional football player and manager who latterly worked as a football pundit for BBC Radio Five Live. He played the whole of his Football League career at B ...
in April 2006. Organised by the Blackpool Supporters Association, Blackpool fans around the world voted on their all-time heroes. Five players from each decade are inducted; Dodds is in the 'pre-1950s'.
Career statistics
Sheffield United
See also
* List of men's footballers with 500 or more goals
In top-level football competitions, 23 players have scored 500 or more goals over the course of their career in both club and international football, according to research by the , first published in 2007. Taking into account competitions of a ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Jock Dodds in the Blackpool Supporters Association Hall of Fame
Obituary
''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'', 7 March 2007
Obituary
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 9 May 2007
Obituary
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 13 May 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dodds, Jock
1915 births
2007 deaths
Scottish footballers
Association football forwards
Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players
Sheffield United F.C. players
Blackpool F.C. players
Everton F.C. players
Lincoln City F.C. players
Shamrock Rovers F.C. players
League of Ireland players
People from Grangemouth
West Ham United F.C. wartime guest players
Scotland wartime international footballers
Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
Footballers from Falkirk (council area)
Clapton Orient F.C. wartime guest players
Manchester United F.C. wartime guest players
Fulham F.C. wartime guest players
Anglo-Scots
Royal Air Force airmen
FA Cup Final players