Tommy Smart (20 September 1896 – 10 June 1968) 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 ...

who played as a full back for Aston Villa. He made five appearances for

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 international level, and also played for the Football League XI. Smart was born in Blackheath, which was then in Staffordshire. He had four brothers and four sisters. He played schools football in the

Rowley Regis Rowley Regis ( ) is a town and former municipal borough in Sandwell in the county of the West Midlands, England. It encompasses the three Sandwell council wards of Blackheath, Cradley Heath and Old Hill, and Rowley. At the 2011 census, the com ...

area before joining Blackheath Town, and when his career was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War, he played Army football. After the war, he played for

Halesowen Town Halesowen Town Football Club is a football club based in Halesowen, West Midlands, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Grove Recreation Ground. History The club was believed to have been established around 1873, but rec ...

before signing for Football League First Division club Aston Villa in January 1920 for a £300.00 fee. He soon established himself in Villa's first team, and made his debut for the England team against

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 ...

in 1921. The third of his five appearances, also against Scotland, was in the first match that England played 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 ...

, on 12 April 1924. Smart scored 8 goals from 408 Football League matches for Villa, and played another 46 matches in the

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 ...

, including appearances on the winning side in the

1920 FA Cup Final The 1920 FA Cup Final, the first since the end of the First World War, was contested by Aston Villa and Huddersfield at Stamford Bridge. Aston Villa won 1–0, with the goal coming in extra time from Billy Kirton, to clinch the trophy for a recor ...

and on the losing side in

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...

. Only six players have played more times for the club. In 1934 he moved on to Brierley Hill Alliance, and retired from football in 1936. He died in 1968.

References

General * * Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Smart, Tommy 1896 births 1968 deaths Men's association football fullbacks English men's footballers England men's international footballers Halesowen Town F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Brierley Hill Alliance F.C. players English Football League players English Football League representative players Footballers from Staffordshire