Alexander Skinner Jackson (12 May 1905 – 15 November 1946) 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, rugb ...

who played for clubs including

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succ ...

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), a ...

, Huddersfield Town, Chelsea and

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative ...

; he won the English

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

title with Huddersfield in 1925–26. Jackson received 17 international

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

over a five-year period, and was a member of the 1928 team that became known as the ' Wembley Wizards' after defeating

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 ...

5–1 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, scoring three of those goals.

Football career

Club

Jackson was born and raised in Renton. A highly talented outside right, known as ''the Gay Cavalier'', he was particularly adept at dribbling and free kicks. He initially played for Renton Victoria but was transferred to

in 1922 for the pre-inflation price of a football. In 1923, he left Scotland to play in the American Soccer League with

alongside his elder brother Wattie, before both returned to Scotland to play for

. After an impressive debut season for the ''Dons'' he joined English side Huddersfield Town, then the reigning League Champions, for a record £5000. Jackson helped Huddersfield retain their league title in 1925–26 and the runners-up spot in the following two years. He also led them to two

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official atten ...

s: he scored in the 1928 final against

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. Th ...

, but it was not enough to prevent a 3–1 loss. In

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will b ...

he was again on the losing side, this time against

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 mostl ...

. Jackson signed for

David Calderhead David Calderhead (19 June 1864 – 9 January 1938) was a Scottish football player and manager. Calderhead played for Queen of the South Wanderers, Notts County and Lincoln City. He won the FA Cup with Notts County in 1894 and was capped once f ...

's big-spending Chelsea in September 1930 for £8,500, joining international teammates Hughie Gallacher, Tommy Law and

Alec Cheyne Alexander George Cheyne (28 April 1907 – 5 July 1983) was a Scottish footballer who played as an inside forward. He is reputed to have been responsible for the Hampden Roar following his goal in the 'Cheyne International' of 1929. Playing c ...

already at the club. His time at Chelsea was hampered by injuries, though he linked up well with the prolific Gallacher and himself scored 31 goals from 78 games for the club. Jackson's first-class career was then ended prematurely during the 1932–33 season. Having already fallen foul of the Chelsea hierarchy for activities relating to the public house he operated, he and several other star players at the club were approached by French side

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of ...

with a lucrative contract offer, which Jackson threatened to accept unless Chelsea broke their

maximum wage A maximum wage, also often called a wage ceiling, is a legal limit on how much income an individual can earn. It is a prescribed limitation which can be used to effect change in an economic structure, but its effects are unrelated to those of minim ...

structure and increased his salary. The club refused to budge and, in the days before the

Bosman ruling ''Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman'' (1995) C-415/93 (known as the Bosman ruling) is a 1995 European Court of Justice decision concerning freedom of movement for workers, freedom of associatio ...

, Jackson could do little. He was forced to finish his career playing for a series of non-league clubs such as Ashton National (from

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

) and

Margate Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook. The town has been a significan ...

. He later joined French side

International

It was Jackson's career with the Scottish national team for which he is now perhaps best remembered. He won his first cap at the age of 19 and scored the winning goal against

to clinch the 1925–26 British Home Championship. He was one of the Wembley Wizards, the name given to the Scotland side which beat England 5–1 at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

in March 1928; Jackson scored 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 w ...

during the match.England 1-5 Scotland: The day the Wembley Wizards were born
Richard Winton, BBC Sport, 5 June 2020 He stated that his most "glorious" match for Scotland was eleven months later, when he scored two of his side's goals in a 7–3 victory over a capable

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

team in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

. His international career was later hindered by a ban on ''Anglos'' (Scots who played for English clubs) as a result of a dispute between the SFA and FA, and he finished with 17 caps and eight goals, only finishing on the losing side once.The Forgotten Story of … Alex Jackson, star of Scotland’s Wembley Wizards
The Guardian, 16 November 2014
London Hearts Supporters Club

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.''

Other interests

Jackson was the landlord of a public house in London's

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

while playing with Chelsea, and also had a weekly newspaper column. After retiring from international football he owned greyhounds at Wandsworth Stadium. He was enthusiastic about the stadium after it was built in 1933 and his first greyhound was called Jovial Honey. He also urged the management to consider the possibility of using the stadium as a football field inside the greyhound track. He was killed in a traffic collision whilst serving with the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

in Egypt in 1946.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Alex 1905 births 1946 deaths Aberdeen F.C. players American Soccer League (1921–1933) players Association football outside forwards Bethlehem Steel F.C. (1907–1930) players British Army personnel of World War II Chelsea F.C. players Dumbarton F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Footballers from West Dunbartonshire Road incident deaths in Egypt Scottish expatriate footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in France Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Scottish footballers Scotland international footballers English Football League players People in greyhound racing People educated at Dumbarton Academy Expatriate soccer players in the United States FA Cup Final players People from Renton, West Dunbartonshire 20th-century Scottish people

Football career

Club

International

Career statistics

International

Other interests

See also

References

External links