Thomas Kelly Morrison (21 January 1904 – 1973) 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 as a

right 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 ...

for St Mirren, Liverpool and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, and for the

Scotland national team The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. It competes in the thr ...

Club career

Morrison was born in Coylton,

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

. He played for Troon Athletic and St Mirren. During his time in Paisley he was almost ever-present and won the Scottish Cup in

1926 Events January * January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. * January 8 **Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz. ** Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of V ...

.St Mirren's Victory , Celtic Lose Scottish Cup at Hampden
The Glasgow Herald, 12 April 1926 He was signed by Liverpool manager Matt McQueen in February 1928 for £4000 and made his debut on 11 February 1928 at

Fratton Park Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history. The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect A ...

in a

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match against Portsmouth, which ended with Portsmouth beating the ''Reds'' 1–0. His first goal came almost two years later on 13 December 1930 when he scored a first-minute goal at Highbury in a 1–1 draw with

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. He was quoted in a 1929 newspaper article explaining in some detail his philosophy on the role of half-backs in football, and in a 1931 article he praised the

captaincy A captaincy ( es, capitanía , pt, capitania , hr, kapetanija) is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. It was instituted as a method of organization, directly associated with the home-rule ...

qualities of Anfield teammate James Jackson – by this time Morrison was Jackson's deputy in the role. As at St Mirren, he was an near-constant presence in the Liverpool team between his arrival and summer 1934.Tom Morrison
LFChistory.net However, the good discipline Morrison had displayed then waned dramatically; the club suspended him for unspecified reasons in August 1934 and his return to the team was then curtailed by appendicitis which required an immediate operation in November of that year, with

Ted Savage TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

taking over the position. Morrison then disappeared altogether in February 1935, failing to report for a reserve team match which led the club to issue repeated suspensions in his absence.Morrison update
Villagers: 750 Years Of Life In An English Village He eventually returned, but did not play another first team match for Liverpool. He moved to

in November 1935, and the ''Black Cats'' went on to capture the English league title in

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

with Morrison contributing 21 appearances. At the end of the season he vanished once again, leaving his wife and child behind in

with no source of income. It transpired that he had been working as a fruit picker in Cambridgeshire and playing for Gamlingay United in the local amateur league under the pseudonym of 'Jack Anderson'. He was arrested in December 1936 and appeared in court in Sunderland accused of leaving his wife and child chargeable to the public assistance committee, with the judge agreeing to dismiss the case when the relief funds paid to Mrs Morrison were refunded along with costs. Morrison went on to sign for Ayr United in summer 1937, but before playing a match for them he was charged with

housebreaking Housebreaking (American English) or house-training (British English) is the process of training a domesticated animal that lives with its human owners in a house or other residence to excrete (urinate and defecate) outdoors, or in a designated i ...

, having broken into an unoccupied Ayrshire cottage following a bout of drinking with friends, living there for some time and eventually selling off the contents. His registration was cancelled by Ayr United and he moved to Ireland to play for Drumcondra, where his career was ended in March 1939 by a badly broken leg for which he received a compensation payment at court some months later.Tom Morrison compensated for football injury
Falkirk Herald, 5 August 1939, via Play Up Liverpool He worked as a coach in Ireland, and continued this back in England after World War II also working at the Greene King brewery in Biggleswade.

International career

Morrison gained one cap for Scotland whilst he was with St Mirren; he played in a British Championship fixture against England at

Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

on 2 April 1927, watched by a crowd of 111,214. Scotland lost the match 2–1. He was also a member of a

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the Sport governing body, governing body of association football, football in Scot ...

squad which toured North America in the summer of that year, but the dozen matches he took part in did not include any official internationals.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Tom 1904 births 1973 deaths Footballers from South Ayrshire St Mirren F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Ayr United F.C. players Troon F.C. players Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers Scottish Football League players English Football League players Date of death missing Place of death missing Men's association football wing halves Scottish Junior Football Association players British people convicted of burglary 20th-century Scottish criminals Sportspeople convicted of crimes Drumcondra F.C. players League of Ireland players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Ireland Expatriate men's association footballers in the Republic of Ireland Scottish expatriate men's footballers